Modi Govt Approves Rs 4,500 Crore Assistance For SII And Bharat Biotech To Help Ramp Up Covid Vaccine Production

The Nirmala Sitharaman led Finance Ministry on Monday (19 April) approved a Rs 4,500 crore finance assistance for Covid-19 vaccine manufacturers Serum Institute of India (SII) and Bharat Biotech, CNBC TV-18 has reported.

This supply credit will enable the manufacturers to ramp-up production of Covishield and Covaxin.

Out of the Rs 4,500 crore in approved credit, Rs 3,000 has been sanctioned for SII and the rest Rs 1,500 crore has been sanctioned for Bharat Biotech. This will be sanctioned to nodal ministries which will then pass it on to the manufacturers at the earliest.

In January, the union government had placed orders for 66 million doses to vaccinate 30 million health care and front line workers, who started receiving their first shots from 16 January. The orders were placed with both Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech.

In March, the Centre placed another purchase order with the SII for the supply of 10 crore doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, Covishield, each costing Rs 157.50, including GST.

The cumulative number of Covid-19 vaccine doses administered in India has crossed 12,38 crore out of which over 12 lakh vaccination doses were administered in the last 24 hours.