Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala): The Kerala government has decided to buy one crore COVID-19 vaccines from manufacturers, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said on Friday.
"We have decided to buy 70 lakh Covishield vaccines from the Serum Institute of India and 30 lakh Covaxin vials from Bharat Biotech," he said.
Covishield will cost the government Rs 294 crore including GST and Covaxin will cost another Rs 189 crore.
The chief minister said the state would buy the vaccines subject to the adjudication of cases pending in courts pertaining to them.
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Vaccines will be administered free of cost to all between 18 and 45 years of age, he said, adding people will be inoculated based on the availability of the vaccine. "Preference will be given to those taking the second dose," he said.
"The Centre should reverse its decision to allow companies to provide vaccines to state governments and the Centre at different prices," the chief minister said. He also said he will ask the Centre to make available the vaccines to states at the same price as the Centre.
