Centre sets record straight, denies not placing fresh order for vaccines

The Centre has strongly refuted media reports which alleged that the government had not placed any fresh order for Covid-19 vaccines.

The reports, which surfaced on Monday, claimed that the last order Centre placed was in March 2021 for 100 million doses of Serum Institute of India's Covishield and 20 million doses of Bharat Biotech's Covaxin.

The Centre clarified that a 100 per cent advance of Rs 1732.50 crore had been released to the Serum Institute of India on April 28, 2021, for 11 crore doses of Covishield vaccine during May, June and July. As of date, 8.744 crore doses have been delivered till May 3 against the last order of 10 crore doses for supplies of Covishield vaccine.

Bharat Biotech too was paid an advance of Rs 787.50 crore on the same date for 5 crore Covaxin doses in three months, the government said, adding that 0.8813 crore doses have been delivered out of the last order of 2 crore doses of Covaxin.

The media report was latched upon by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi who alleged that a "policy-paralysed government cannot secure victory over the virus". 

However, the government's assertion was backed by the Serum Institute, which stated that the company remains committed to ramping up vaccine production to save every life it can.

The government also dismissed claims of a vaccine shortage. 

As of May 2, India provided more than 16.54 crore free vaccine doses to states and UTs of which over 78 lakh doses were still available to be administered with the latter. 

The Centre also assured that over 56 lakh additional doses will be delivered to the states/UTs in the next 3 days.

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