PANAJ: Aiming to speed up the vaccination drive in the state in order to control the spread of Covid-19, the state government on Thursday decided to procure five lakh doses of vaccines .
“Our govt will be placing an order initially for 5 lakh doses of #COVID19 vaccines directly from the manufacturer. Altogether 15 lakh plus doses will be procured at a cost of over Rs 60 crore. The vaccines will be administered
free of cost to people between the 18-45 age group,” CM Pramod
Sawant tweeted on Thursday
The cost of
vaccine will be Rs 400 per
dose. He said that the government will not provide vaccines to
private hospitals.
“We are committed towards the welfare and good health of all Goans,” Sawant said in the tweet.
The chief minister said that he took his second dose of the Covid-19 vaccine at the Sakhali community health centre (CHC) on Thurday. “Once again I urge all eligible citizens to get vaccinated and strengthen the fight against this pandemic,” he said.
The state government is focusing on completing Covid-19 vaccination drive at the earliest. As there was poor response to the vaccination drive for citizens above the age of 45, the state government organised Tika Utsav across Goa after Prime Minister Narendra Modi advised the states to speed up vaccination for those in the age group.
Even as the state is witnessing a spike in Covid-19, as of now over 2.1 lakh people above the age of 45 have been administered the first dose of the vaccine. In the same age group, over 54,000 people have taken second dose of the vaccine.
The state presently has an over 15 lakh population.