Nearly 120 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine would be available in June for the national vaccination programme, half of which would be supplied by the centre to states free of cost, the health ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
During June, the government would procure 60,960,000 doses for the inoculation of the priority group such as frontline healthcare workers and persons above 45 years of age.
In addition to this 58,610,000 doses would be available with vaccine makers for direct procurement by states and private hospitals.
The Health ministry said it would share the delivery schedule and allocation of doses to states in advance. The Centre has asked the states to direct the concerned officials to ensure rational and judicious use of allocated doses and minimise wastage.
“The basic objective behind informing the States in advance of the quantum of free vaccine doses to be made available from the Government of India for 15 or 30 days and the total vaccine doses which are available for direct procurement by states is to ensure better planning and delivery of vaccine,” the health ministry said.
In May the centre provided over 40 million vaccine doses to states. Another 39 million doses were procured directly either by states or private hospitals. According to the health ministry data 79,405,200 doses were available for Covid vaccination during May.
A total of around 210 million doses have so far been administered as part of the Covid vaccination drive in the country.
Since May 1, the highest number of doses given on a single day was on Saturday with more than 3 million people getting their jab.
With more than 22 million doses administered so far, Maharashtra has taken a lead in the vaccination drive. Uttar Pradesh is next in line with over 18 million doses followed by Gujarat and Karnataka having given almost 17 million doses so far.
More than 185 millions of Covishield have been given to people and around 29 million doses of Covaxin. India now also has the Russian Sputnik V available for the people and over 7,400 of its doses have been administered to beneficiaries so far.
SII to supply 100 mn doses in June
Serum Institute of India (SII) has informed the government that it will be able to manufacture and supply 90-100 million doses of Covishield in June as compared to its production capacity of 65 million doses in May, Prakash Kumar Singh, director of government and regulatory affairs at SII, said in a recent letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah. SII said its employees had been working round the clock to produce the vaccine.
208,424,211 - Total Vaccination Doses
165,376,699 - Dose 1
43,047,512 - Dose 2
Over 185 million - Covishield
Almost 29 million - Covaxin
More than 7,400 - Sputnik V
Source: CoWIN dashboard
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