After Maharashtra, UP, Rajasthan got max vaccines: RTI
Of the total doses given to Rajasthan, 10.5 million were of Covishield and the rest were of Covaxin
KOTA: After Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan received maximum number of Covid-19 vaccine doses while the Centre paid an additional ₹446 crore from PM Cares Fund for the purchase, a Right to Information reply has revealed.
According to the response by the Union health ministry to RTI activist Sujeet Swami, in the first phase, the Centre purchased 10 million doses of Covaxin for ₹310 per dose and 56 million doses of Covishield for ₹210 per dose from the PM Cares Fund for the state.
The RTI response also said that the Centre supplied a total of 129 million doses to all states and Union territories till April 14. Of these, 12.9 million were given to Maharashtra, 11.7 million to Uttar Pradesh and 11.6 million to Rajasthan.
Of the total doses given to Rajasthan, 10.5 million were of Covishield and the remaining were of Covaxin.
While Covishield is manufactured by Serum Institute of India, Covaxin is produced by Bharat Biotech International Limited.
Initially, the Centre purchased 10 million doses of Covaxin (Covishield doses for ₹210 per dose and Covaxin for ₹309.75 per dose) from the PM Cares Fund. However, it later bought 120 million doses for ₹57.50 per dose, from both the firms.
“The reason for not negotiating and buying Covaxin and Covishield at higher price from PM care fund is not given in the RTI reply,” Swami said.
Meanwhile, chief minister Ashok Gehlot on Saturday said that the time has come to provide comprehensive social security to the needy, helpless and deprived people just like developed countries to facilitate healthy and dignified living and to bridge the gap of richness and poverty while launching the CM Chiranjeevi Health Insurance Scheme, which will free the people from worrying about the huge expense of treatment.
Gehlot was inaugurating the health scheme and free vaccination for the age group of 18 to 45 years through video conference.
“Rajasthan is the leading state providing universal health insurance with the objective of providing health protection to every resident of the state. We have implemented Chiranjeevi scheme in the direction of giving right to health to the people of the state,” said Gehlot.
State health minister Raghu Sharma said, “The scheme will free the people from complications such as health check-up at the time of registration, number of family members, and getting the benefit of insurance only after a certain period. An amount of ₹6500 crore will be spent on the health security despite lack of financial resources in Rajasthan.”