A meeting of the State Cabinet held under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik approved a proposal in this regard. The State will float global tender for procurement of COVID19 vaccine from various companies across the world.
For this, the State Government will form a technical committee, said Chief Secretary Suresh Chandra Mohapatra.
Mohapatra said the State Government will request the Union Government to lift surcharge and cess from vaccines and medicies to be procured form the global market. “Waiving of surcharge and cess will lessen the financial burden on the States,” he said.
Recently, the Union Government had stated that the States can procure vaccines on their own from global market.
It may be noted that the State Government is currently procuring Covishield from the SII and Covaxin from the Bharat Biotech for the vaccination of people aged between 18 and 44 years, where as the Union Government is vaccinating people aged above 45 free of cost.
