Gujarat govt to provide free vaccines, secures 1.50 crore doses

Govt said that it has secured one crore doses of Covishield from Pune-based Serum Institute of India and 50 lakh doses of Covaxin from Bharat Biotech

The Vijay Rupani-led BJP government on Sunday announced that it has secured 1.50 crore doses of vaccines for the inoculation drive beginning May 1 for people aged 18 and above. The government said that vaccines will be free to all. The decision was taken in the core committee meeting chaired by Rupani in Gandhinagar.

In a note issued late on Sunday night, the state government said that it has secured one crore doses of Covishield from Pune-based Serum Institute of India and 50 lakh doses of Covaxin from Bharat Biotech, Hyderabad. The note said that the state has already administered nearly 1.13 crore vaccine doses at over 6,000 public and private vaccination centres. The online registration for people aged 18-45 will start on April 28.

Also read: Maharashtra to vaccinate all its citizens against Covid-19 free of cost

The state government's daily health bulletin stated that till April 25, a total of 93, 63,159 persons received the first dose of vaccines while 19,32,370 have taken the second dose.

On the other hand, Gujarat reported 14,296 fresh cases of coronavirus infection on Sunday, taking the total number of active cases to 1.15 lakh. The state also reported 157 fatalities in 24 hours that included 27 in Ahmedabad, the highest in the state followed by Surat, 26, Vadodara 11, Rajkot 9, among others.

Meanwhile, in view of the worsening condition and human resource crunch at hospitals, the state government passed an order asking over 1,200 MBBS pass-outs, who are yet to appear for bond service, to present themselves for Covid-19 services by 27th April else action will be taken under Epidemic Diseases Act. The notice states that due to a shortage of manpower for the treatment of Covid-19 patients, doctors are required for emergency cases.