Centre provides more than 23 cr COVID vaccine doses to States, UTs

More than 23 crore COVID vaccine doses have been provided to States and UTs so far, said the Union Government on Tuesday.

"The Government of India (GoI) has so far provided, both through the free of cost category and through direct state procurement category, more than 23 crore vaccine doses (23,18,36,510) to States/UTs. Of this, the total consumption, including wastages is 21,51,48,659 doses," reads the GoI statement.

According to the central government, more than 1.57 crore COVID vaccine doses are still available with the States and UTs to be administered.

As part of the nationwide vaccination drive, the Government of India has been supporting the States and UTs by providing them COVID vaccines free of cost. In addition, the central government has also been facilitating direct procurement of vaccines by the Statesn and UTs, said the Union Government.

Implementation of the Liberalized and Accelerated Phase-III strategy of COVID-19 vaccination has started from May 1, 2021.

Under the strategy, every month 50 per cent of the total Central Drugs Laboratory (CDL) cleared vaccine doses of any manufacturer would be procured by the central government. "It would continue to make these doses available to the State Govts totally free of cost as was being done earlier," stated the Government of India.

Meanwhile, India recorded a single-day rise of 1,27,510 new COVID-19 cases, the lowest in 51 days, taking the country's infection tally to 2,81,75,044, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Tuesday.

The death toll due to the virus climbed to 3,31,895 with 2,795 fatalities being recorded in a span of 24 hours.

With 2,55,287 recoveries in the last 24 hours, the recovery tally has reached 2,59,47,629 and the recovery rate stands at 92.09 per cent.