Free COVID-19 vaccine for healthcare workers in first phase of vaccination: Choubey

The COVID-19 vaccine is being provided free of cost to states and UTs for vaccination of healthcare and frontline workers in the first phase of vaccination, Minister of State for Health Ashwini Choubey informed Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.

On whether any state has announced to supply the COVID-19 vaccine to the public free of cost including Kerala, Choubey said, "The government of India has not received any formal communication from states and UT regarding announcement to supply the COVID-19 vaccine to the public free of cost, including Kerala."

A total of 165 lakh doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been procured of which 110 lakh doses are of Covishield vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute of India and 55 lakh doses are of Covaxin vaccine manufactured by Bharat Biotech International Limited.  The total cost of procurement of these doses of vaccines is Rs 350.25 crore.