Govt to procure 37.5 crore Covishield doses, 28.5 crore Covaxin doses by December

In all, the government has spent Rs 9,229 crore on vaccines between March and July, which includes full payment for the doses already procured as well as the advance payments made to the vaccine manufacturers. This is 26.3 percent of the Rs 35,000 crore fund earmarked by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for vaccination for the financial year 2021-2022. To be sure, data from March has been included as the payments for this month of FY21 were released later.

In the March to July period, a total of 21 crore Covishield doses were procured whereas seven crore Covaxin doses were received, the government said in response to the RTI filed by activist Vivek Pandey.

On the distribution of doses, the Health Ministry said, "As on 02.09.2021, more than 64.65crore (64,65,07,160) vaccine doses have been provided to States/UTs so far through Govt of India (free of cost channel) and through direct state procurement category.”

For the initial part of the nationwide inoculation drive in January and February this year, the government said it used Rs 1,392 crore worth of funds from the PM Cares Fund to procure 6.6 crore doses of vaccines, which includes both Covishield and Covaxin.