Union Health Ministry: Bharat Biotech To Provide Centre With 16.5 Lakh Covid-19 Vaccines Free Of Cost

The Centre is in the process of procuring 55 lakh doses of Bharat Biotech’s Covid-19 vaccine, the Union Health Ministry said on Tuesday.

Of the 55 lakh doses, 16.5 lakh doses will be provided free of cost, while the rest will be sold at Rs 295 (sans taxes) per vial to the Centre, officials said.

The announcement comes a day after the central government had signed a purchase order to buy 1.10 crore doses of the coronavirus vaccine from the Serum Institute of India (SII).

All vaccine doses that have been requested so far will be gotten by January 14, two days in front of the cross country inoculation drive, wellbeing service authorities said. 

"More than 54 lakh Covishield dosages (Covid-19



immunizations being created by Serum Institute) were gotten till 4 pm Tuesday at assigned public, state-level inoculation places," authorities said.

The health ministry also urged everyone to continue following social-distancing norms. “India's overall Covid-19 positivity rate stands at 5.7 percent. The positivity rate during the last one week was recorded at 2 per cent. Even though the daily case tally is declining in India, we can't show laxity,” officials said adding that about 43.96 percent of all Covid-19 patients in the country are in healthcare facilities while 56.04 percent are in home isolation.

The health ministry further said that the coronavirus vaccines’ effectiveness can only be gauged after 14 days of being administered the dose.