Agency – India’s central government has given advance orders for a total of 74 crore (740 million) doses of Covid-19 vaccines, VK Paul, one of the key members of the NITI Aayog and the Prime Minister’s Covid management team, said on Tuesday.

“25 crore doses for Covishield and 19 crore doses of Covaxin have been ordered. This advance order has been given, for which 30 per cent payment will be given in advance. The Biological E vaccine is expected to be available in September, for which 300 million (30 crore) doses have been ordered,” he said.In an address to the nation on Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced that the central government will provide free vaccines to states for all above 18 years starting from June 21.

Announcing the centralised vaccination drive, PM Modi said that all Covid-19 vaccine doses will be procured by the central government and given to the states free of cost.With this, 25% of vaccination procurement work being done by the states will also be handled by the center, which was already purchasing and allocating 50% of the vaccines manufactured in the country to states free of charge.Private hospitals will have access to the remaining 25% of vaccine doses that are produced.

It is worth noting that the number of vaccine doses administered against Covid-19 saw a single-day rise of 3,364,476 in the last 24 hours. The cumulative number was at 236,198,726 on Tuesday morning.Meanwhile, continuing with the positive trend seen over the past several days, India has recorded less than 1 lakh cases for the first time since April 6.The 86,498 new Covid-19 cases recorded in the last 24 hours represent the lowest single-day rise in 66 days.

According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the country’s Active Caseload further declined to 13,03,702.on Tuesday morning. The active cases have decreased by 97,907 in the last 24 hours and now comprise 4.50% of the overall caseload.Tuesday’s data showed an addition of 182,282 recoveries from the coronavirus disease, taking the nationwide recoveries to 27,341,462 and a further improvement in the recovery rate to 94.30%.Data released by the government-run Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Tuesday showed 1,873,485 samples were tested on June 7, as against 1,587,589 a day before. With this, 368,207,596 samples have been tested till now, ICMR said.

According to the Health Ministry, testing capacity has been substantially ramped up and 36.8 crore total tests have been conducted to date.
source _ India News Network