No passing the vaccine buck to states: Uddhav

resources and borrowings to fund the universal vaccination drive. Further, the cabinet said the government would make bids to procure Covishield and Covaxin and at the same time, would import vaccines from other countries. Public Health Minister Rajesh Tope said the government would divert funds from all departments to conduct an extensive inoculation campaign, on the lines of the United Kingdom.

“The cabinet has decided to carr y out an exemplar y vaccination drive. If required, we will slash funds for all other departments, to ensure availability of vaccines for people,” he added. The state would like to follow the example of the United Kingdom, which had witnessed a severe spike in Covid cases last year, he said. “Today, 60 per cent of the UK's population is vaccinated. Ver y few new cases are being detected, while the death toll is in single digits. The entire countr y was kept under lockdown for three months and the vaccination drive was carried out on a massive scale,” he said.

“We have decided to cut expenses of all departments and divert the funds for vaccine procurement. We will not limit our plans only to Covishield and Covaxin that are manufactured in the countr y. The state government will bid for vaccines made abroad such as Sputnik-V, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and Moderna, if these are available,” the minister said.

“The state’s vaccination drive will cover people in the age group of 18 to 45, while people above 45 will be covered under the Centre’s drive for which doses will be supplied by the Centre,” he said.