Centre orders 440mn more vaccine doses

NEW DELHI: The Centre on Tuesday placed fresh orders for 440 million additional doses of Covid-19 vaccines – 250 million doses of Covishield and 190 million of Covaxin – a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the Union government was taking back the responsibility for procuring vaccines and distributing them for free to states.

These 440 million doses, to be procured from August onwards, are in addition to an advance order of 300 million doses placed with Hyderabad-based Biological E’s vaccine and will be delivered by December, the Union health ministry said. To be sure, the Biological E vaccine has just entered Phase 3 trials.

“Following PM’S announcement on change in vaccine policy, we have placed purchase orders for 25 crore (250 million) doses of Covishield with the Serum Institute of India, and for 19 crore (190 million) vaccine doses with Bharat Biotech... So, we have placed an advance order

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250mn 300mn for 44 crore (440 million) doses from August onwards, for which we will be releasing 30% payment in advance,” Dr VK Paul, member (health), Niti Aayog, said at the Union health ministry’s Covid-19 briefing on Tuesday.

Paul did not specify the price at which Centre will be procuring the doses in the latest order. Officials familiar with the development, who did not wish to be identified, said there is a possibility that the ₹150 per dose cost of vaccine may no longer be applicable, and that the Centre