Union govt to procure 60.5 crore vaccine doses by December: Kishan Reddy

He said that over 16 companies were assisting the Central government in producing vaccines

Hyderabad: The Central government has set a target of producing over 60.5 crore of Covid vaccine doses by December, said Union Minister of State for Home Affairs G Kishan Reddy here on Saturday.

In May, June and July, the Centre has decided to get 35.9 crore vaccine doses of Covishield, Covaxin and Sputnik V from manufacturers, he said while addressing a press conference virtually. The Centre was also striving to improve the production of vaccines in addition to other vaccines being developed by a few more pharma companies in the country, he said.

He said that over 16 companies were assisting the Central government in producing vaccines. Asked whether the Central government gave permission to the State government, which decided to call for global tenders to get vaccines, he said necessary permission was given to get vaccines from manufacturers.

Permission was also given to the private hospitals to get vaccines, he said. Vaccines were given free of cost to as many as 18 crore people in the country so far. The Covaxin and Covishield were yielding excellent results, Reddy said.

Seeking cooperation of people in containing the spread of Covid-19 virus, he said the Central government was leaving no stone unturned in getting more vaccine doses. “We are also extending necessary cooperation to Telangana during the pandemic and providing assistance in getting medicines, oxygen and other material,” he said.

Apart from the medical fraternity, the military, navy, air force, railway and the police including 11 lakh para-military forces were assisting the Central government in tackling the situation. Explaining how Prime Minister Narendra Modi is striving hard to deal with the situation and improve the vaccination process, he said several pharma companies expedited the process of developing more vaccines and added that efforts were on to import Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine.

He said Prime Minister was working relentlessly to administer vaccines to everyone in the country and the initiative in this regard was already started. Reddy found fault with the Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for criticising Prime Minister when he gave permission for Covaxin vaccine.

Rahul Gandhi described Covaxin as a BJP vaccine. “This is not the time to resort to politics, he added.

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