In a latest development in the ongoing vaccination drive, the Centre will supply nearly 60 lakh Covid-19 vaccine doses to states over the next three days for inoculating those aged over 45 years. The third phase of vaccination drive commenced on May 1 which also includes inoculation of people aged between 18 to 44.
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said that the states and union territories will receive 59.7 lakh doses for free within three days. The central government has so far provided 16.54 crore doses to states. Of this, the total consumption including wastages is 15,79,21,537 doses . As per the data, more than 75 lakh vaccine doses (75,71,873) are still available with the states/UTs to be administered.
Maharashtra is the closest to running out with just over 23,000 doses in its stock. The central government has 10.5 lakh doses for Maharashtra in its supply pipeline. The state till date has used 1,63,38,923 vaccines for the inoculation purpose which also inclued the count of wasted doses.
Besides Maharashtra, Gujarat, Punjab, Telangana and Karnataka are among those that have less than 1 lakh doses left.
Meanwhile, the Centre has placed orders for 160 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine for May, June and July, and had released funds to Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech on Friday.
The Centre placed orders for 110 mln doses of Covishield and 50 mln doses of Covaxin for the next three months. The government had last month approved advance payments of 35 billion rupees to Serum Institute and 15 billion rupees to Bharat Biotech to help them augment their manufacturing capacity.
On the other hand, India's COVID-19 case load showed a marginal dip even as the number of recoveries remained above the three lakh mark. On Monday morning, India reported 3.68 lakh fresh cases and 3,417 deaths in the last 24 hours.
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