Of 24 Cr vaccine doses supplied, 1.93cr doses not used yet by States, UTs: Centre

New Delhi: The Central government on Friday said that it has so far provided more than 24 crore vaccine doses to states and UTs, both through the free of cost and through direct state procurement categories.

According to the health ministry's data, 1.93 crore Covid vaccine doses are still available with the states and UTs to be administered.

The Centre has so far provided 24,21,29,250 doses. Of this, the total consumption, including wastages is 22,27,33,963 doses as per data available at 8 am on Friday.

As part of its nationwide vaccination drive, the government has been supporting both the states and Union Territories by providing them Covid vaccines free of cost.

Besides, it has also been facilitating direct procurement of vaccines by the states and UTs.

To speed up the COVID-19 vaccination process in India, the Centre is steadily ramping up domestic vaccine production.

As part of this initiative, three public enterprises are being supported by the Department of Biotechnology under Atmanirbhar Bharat 3.0 Mission Covid Suraksha. Three PSUs Indian Immunologicals (IIL), BIBCOL and state-owned Haffkine Bio-Pharmaceutical Corporation have won the technology to produce the vaccine.

Implementation of the liberalised and accelerated phase-3 strategy of Covid vaccination has started from May 1 this year.

Under the strategy, every month 50 per cent of the total Central Drugs Laboratory (CDL) cleared vaccine doses of any manufacturer would be procured by the government.

It would continue to make these doses available to the state governments totally free of cost as was being done earlier.

The Union Government has stressed that vaccine availability is going to increase in the near future. It is estimated that over 200 crore doses of vaccines will be arranged by the end of December this year.