The Centre will be providing Serum Institute of India’s Covishield and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin vaccines to states but the distribution of the vaccines at the district level will be undertaken by the state government, according to a report by The Indian Express.
Sources told IE that states will decide which district gets which vaccine. “The job of the Union government is to provide vaccine doses. We have also told the states that whatever is the proportion… that would be the proportion in the booths which will administer the vaccine. Because there cannot be mixing of doses," they added.
DH couldn't independently verify the report.
All 1.65 crore doses of Covid-19 vaccines — 1.1 crore of Covishield and 55 lakh of Covaxin — procured by the Centre have been allocated to all states and UTs in proportion to their healthcare workers database. Most of the Covishield doses have been shipped to 60 consignee points across India from where they will be sent to smaller centres. Of the 55 lakh doses of indigenously developed Covaxin ordered by the Centre, the first tranche of 2.4 lakh doses has been dispatched to 12 states.
The report added that once a state government chooses a particular session site, it will be official and cannot be changed later. "Because whoever is inoculated at that site on January 16, which is Day 0, will come there again on Day 28 to get a second dose.” one of the sources were quoted as saying by the report.
“Suppose the Centre has given the Covishield and Covaxin vaccines in a certain proportion to Punjab. If Punjab is operating 100 session sites a particular day, that X and Y proportion will apply to those 100 sites. The Centre will convey to the states what is the proportion that will apply,” another source said.
Earlier this week, the government hinted that vaccine recipients, for now, will not have the option to choose from the two vaccines that have been approved for restricted emergency use in India.
(With PTI inputs)