Central government orders 60 million more doses of corona vaccine to Bharat Biotech and Serum Institute

- Vaccination will start from January 16

New Delhi Dt. 12 January 2021 Tuesday

The central government had ordered Bharat Biotech and Serum Institute for another 60 million doses of corona vaccine. Vaccination is scheduled to start in the country from January 16.

In the first phase, health workers and frontline workers will be vaccinated. The work will cost Rs 1300 crore. The central government had asked the Serum Institute to prepare a dose of Rs 210 per dose, including 1.1 crore doses of Oxford Covid-19 Covishield GST. All these doses will be bought by the government and will cost Rs 1100 crore.

As per the Centre's order, the price of each dose of Kovishield was kept at Rs 200. Ten rupees will have to be paid as GST. In a video conference with chief ministers on Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi described the vaccination as the world's largest health program. He said the first order of 1.1 dose would be worth Rs 231 crore. In the first phase, health workers and frontline workers will be vaccinated. The cost will be borne by the government. The Prime Minister had suggested that in the first instance, neither MPs nor politicians should be vaccinated.

The Prime Minister said that despite the immunization program being carried out in fifty countries in the last few years, only 2.5 crore people have been vaccinated so far. Our target is to vaccinate 300 million people in the next few months. This is a huge program and the largest program in the world.

The corona outbreak, which started in February-March last year, has so far affected millions of people in the country and left thousands dead. However, compared to a country like the United States, the spread of casualties was lower in India. This was followed by drastic measures like lockdown.