The Kerala government on Wednesday decided to purchase one crore doses of the Covid-19 vaccine directly from the manufacturers. CM Pinarayi Vijayan said that the State cabinet has approved the purchase of 70 lakh doses of Covishield and 30 lakh doses of Covaxin in the next three months.
He added that the government is committed to giving Covid-19 vaccine free-of-cost to all those above 18 years of age. He also requested the Union government to give vaccines to the states for free as they are already under financial burden due to the pandemic.
The vaccines from Serum Institute of India (SII), which produces Covishield will cost approximately Rs 294 crore, and 30 lakh doses from Bharat Biotech, which produces Covaxin will incur approximately `189 crore, a communication from the CMO added.
