Nagaland still waiting for vaccine consignment: Official

The State is yet to start the 18-45 years vaccination process

Morung Express News
Dimapur | May 6

Nagaland has placed order for 36,850 doses of COVIDSHEILD for starting the 18-45 age group vaccination process but the consignment is yet to reach the State, a health official informed today.

We have to wait for its arrival to start the process, the official said when queried. A sum of Rs 1.15 crore has already been transferred for the 36,850 doses, he added.

When pointed out that the amount is higher than the cost announced by the Serum Institute of India (SII) at Rs 300 per doses, the official said that it is inclusive of ‘Goods and Services Tax’ (GST) which was “huge.”

In addition, asked whether 36,850 doses would be enough for the 18-45 age group, the official said that the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW) allocates the same on the basis of population, cases, etc.

This would be the first consignments, more will arrive in later months as allocated, the official added.

As per an MOHFW release, as of 8:00am on May 6, out of over 3.26 lakh covid doses provided to Nagaland by the centre free of cost, a total of 1,04,147 were still in balance with the state. The State so far has consumed 2, 22,293 doses including wastage, which was at 4.13%, it said.

Overall the Government of India has so far provided more than 17.15 crore vaccine doses to States/Union Territories free of cost, it informed.

Meanwhile, it was informed that the State Government is now collecting data from all facilities regarding availability of Intensive Care Units and beds, ventilators, workforce etc and the status would be updated regularly on the Nagaland COVID-19 portal.

We are currently collecting data from private facilities. It will be updated once it is done and finalised, the state health official informed when queried on the availability of such status and why it was taken down from the portal.