The Centre has provided a total of 1.29 billion Covid-19 vaccine doses through a free-of-cost channel and through direct state procurement category to states and union territories. Of these, more than 216.5 million jabs remain unutilized and are still available with the states and union territories, the Union health ministry said on Saturday.
The health ministry said that the Union government was committed to amplifying India’s vaccine coverage and expanding its scope to the far ends of the country.
“In the new phase of the universalization of the Covid-19 vaccination drive, the Union Government will procure and supply (free of cost) 75% of the vaccines being produced by the vaccine manufacturers in the country to States and UTs,” the ministry said in a statment.
The coronavirus vaccination drive has been ramped up with the help of increased availability of vaccines, its advance visibility to the states and UTs for enabling better planning by them and streamlining the vaccine supply chain, the ministry noted.
As part of the nationwide vaccination drive, the government has been supporting the states and UTs by providing them Covid-19 vaccines free of cost, it underlined.
Notably, a total of 51,59,931 vaccine doses have been administered in the last 24 hours, taking the country’s vaccination coverage above 115.79 crore, as per the ministry’s reports till 7am on Saturday.
India logged 10,302 new coronavirus cases today to reach 3,44,99,925 in total, while the number of active cases declined to 1,24,868 during the same period. The active cases remained below one per cent of the caseload. Meanwhile, the death toll climbed to 4,65,349 with 267 more fatalities.