Vaccine supply to states fair, based on several criteria: Centre

NEW DELHI: Dismissing concerns about non-transparent allocation of Covid vaccines to states, the health ministry on Thursday said distribution of jabs is based on population, caseload, state’s utilisation efficiency and wastage factors.
So far, over 30 crore vaccine doses have been provided by the Centre to states/ UTs, through centralised and direct state procurement categories.Of this, total consumption, including wastages is just over 28.4 crore doses, according to data available till Thursday morning.
Nearly 1.9 crore balance and unutilised Covid vaccine doses are still available with states and UTs to be administered. Besides, around 21 lakh vaccine doses are in the pipeline and will be received by states/UTs within the next 3 days, the ministry said.
Under the new vaccination strategy which came into effect from June 21, the Centre will procure 75% of the locally manufactured jabs and distribute among states for free administration to all above 18 years of age. The rest 25% has been earmarked for private hospitals, where people will have to pay for vaccination. Over 59 lakh doses were administered on Thursday till 9:30pm, after a total of over 2 crore doses were delivered through first three days since the implementation of the new policy. So far, 7.6 crore vaccine doses have been administered in the age group18-44years.\