Bhubaneswar: Odisha government on Sunday ordered more than 387 Lakh doses of vaccines to two major COVID vaccine manufacturing companies in the country after Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik announced to provide free vaccines for all in the State.
As per reports, the Health department has ordered 377 Lakh doses of Covishield vaccines to the Serum Institute of India and 10.34 Lakh doses of vaccines to the Bharat Biotech which sells its vaccines under the brand name Covaxin.
It is pertinent to mention here that Chief Minister of Odisha, Naveen Patnaik had earlier announced that vaccination for all people above 18 years of age will be free of cost.
Addressing the people of the State through video conferencing, Patnaik informed that the State government will shell out Rs 2000 crore from the exchequer to bear the cost of free vaccination for people from 18 to 44 years of age.
The major announcement by the Odisha government is slated help universal vaccination of around 2 crore beneficiaries in the State.
(Edited By Suryakant Jena)