Amravati, June 30: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and urged the centre to allow the state government to procure COVID-19 vaccines that had not been lifted by a private hospital.
In a letter addressed to PM Modi, the Jagan stated that while only 2,67,075 beneficiaries had been vaccinated at private hospitals so far, 17,71,580 doses had been earmarked for private hospitals for July.
He further wrote, "Past experience and demand for vaccines at private hospitals indicate that such huge quantities of vaccines cannot be utilised by private hospitals. I recommend that the vaccine stocks not lifted by private hospitals should be procured and supplied for the implementation of the vaccination drive.
He further pointed out that the state had earlier demonstrated its capacity for large-scale vaccination by vaccinating over 13.72 lakh on June 20, 6.32 lakh on April 14, and 5.79 lakh on May 27.
Stating that the country is currently in the midst of what has been called the 'world's largest vaccination drive' he said "We can easily replicate this performance frequently if more vaccines were made available to the state. He requested PM Modi an early decision in this matter.
It should be noted that, under the Central government's new vaccination policy, 75 percent of all vaccines are made available to states free of cost. The remaining are procured by private hospitals.
According to the data available on the COWIN website, overall 1,53,89,563 doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered to beneficiaries in Andhra Pradesh so far. This includes 1,23,47,245 first doses and 30,42,318 second doses.
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