Govt assures Covid vaccine for all states

The Union Health Ministry has set up a central monitoring team to supervise the distribution of vaccines to all states and Union Territories. According to the available inputs, apart from Delhi, states like Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Odisha, Punjab, West Bengal, Karnataka, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Tripura, have already got a consignment of the vaccines.

New Delhi: With merely two days left for a nationwide mammoth Covid-19 vaccination drive, the Union Health Ministry has been ensuring that all states get a proper share of two Covid-19 vaccines, COVISHIELD and COVAXIN.

Sources in the Health Ministry told ETV Bharat on Wednesday that a central monitoring team is supervising the distribution of vaccines.

According to the available inputs, apart from Delhi, states like Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Odisha, Punjab, West Bengal, Karnataka, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Tripura, have already got a consignment of the vaccines.

The first consignment of COVISHIELD (nearly 2,64,000 doses) reached Delhi on Tuesday. Tripura got the first consignment of 60,000 doses of vaccines on Wednesday.

Officials said that 54.72 lakh Covid-19 vaccine doses have been distributed at the designated national and state-level vaccine stores.

"More 1.1 crore doses from the Serum Institute of India (SII) and 55 lakh from Bharat Biotech will be received by Thursday," officials said.

Bharat Biotech on Wednesday delivered the first consignment of its Covid-19 vaccine COVAXIN from Hyderabad to Delhi by an Air India flight.

In the first phase, the government will vaccinate 3 crore health care workers and frontline workers before vaccinating the remaining 27 crore.

Officials said that Tamil Nadu and Gujarat have already received 7,08,000 and 2,76,000 doses of Oxford vaccine.

"Both COVISHIELD and COVAXIN are getting distributed simultaneously," officials said.

Cities like Chennai, Guwahati, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Vijaywada, Patna, Lucknow, Kolkata, Bengaluru have already received Covid-19 vaccines on Tuesday.

Officials said that Bhubaneswar had received 4,80,000 doses, Kolkata 9,96,000, Guwahati 2,76,000, Bangalore 6,48,000 and Patna had 5,52, 000 doses as of now.

The entire vaccination rollout process in India got a momentum immediately after Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) approved emergency use authorisation (EUA) for both COVISHIELD and COVAXIN.

It may be mentioned here that there will be two doses of Covid-19 vaccines which need to be taken at an interval of 28 days. For the first 3 crore beneficiaries, the government will be giving vaccines free of cost.

Significantly, a Parliamentary Committee on health affairs on Tuesday has suggested the health ministry to provide Covid-19 vaccines free of costs to the general public so that it covers vulnerable sections.