No data on private vaccine procurement: Health Ministry
The Hindu
‘Private hospitals procure vaccines directly from manufacturers, so no data available’
The Health Ministry says it does not know how many COVID-19 vaccines were procured by private players, nor does it have separate data on how many vaccine doses were administered by private hospitals and service providers, according to its response to a Right to Information request filed by Commodore Lokesh Batra (Retd).
Despite the fact that the government had reserved 25% of vaccine allocation for the private sector, Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan recently said only 6% of doses administered since May were in private hospitals. To date, India has administered 65.8 crore doses.
Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal had earlier targeted industry groups for not doing enough on the vaccine drive. The Centre has capped inoculation charges .
A crowd comprising farmers, researchers, professors, students, and horticulture enthusiasts thronged the ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (IIHR), Hesaraghatta, Bengaluru, on Friday for the inaugural ceremony of the Triphal Diversity Show which showcased 300 mango, 100 jackfruit, and 100 banana genotypes in collaboration with ICAR-National Research Centre for Banana, Tiruchirappalli.
The State government on Friday constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT), headed by Additional Director-General of Police, Manish Kharbikar of the Economic Offences division of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to probe the alleged multi-crore scam in the government-run Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation.