SHILLONG, April 30: Meghalaya Chief Minister, Conrad K. Sangma on Friday informed that the State Government will require an amount of Rs 90 crore to procure 30 lakh doses of COVID19 vaccines required to vaccinate the 15 lakh populations between 18 years above to 45 years in the state.
“Definitely it is a challenge to procure the 30 lakh doses of vaccine due the limited financial resources. But this is something which needs to be done. Therefore, we will not compromise on it even though it is a challenge,” Sangma stated.
Stating that the government is going ahead with it, he said that the government had already asked the pharmaceutical companies to supply the vaccines to the State.
“It will cost the State 90 crore plus GST. We felt that it is an investment which is going to benefit the people and the State at large,” Chief Minister stated.
He, however, informed that most States including Meghalaya will not be able to start the vaccination programme for the 18 years and above on May 1 due to the shortage in supply of the vaccine throughout the country.
Informing that that the registration for the vaccination of the 18+ have started, Sangma said that they would figure out to fix the appointments and schedules of the vaccination drive based on the supply of the vaccine given to the State.
“We have been given an unofficial communication on Friday that there will be a certain amount of vaccines which will be guaranteed to the State in this particular one month where there is shortage in the supply of vaccines. Based on this, we will ration it out and spread out across to ensure that the vaccination at least starts for the 18 plus,” Chief Minister informed
Clarifying that it will not happen for everyone in one go, he stated that it will all depend on the supply which the State will get from the different manufacturers.
According to him, there are two problems for the vaccination of the 18 plus.
“The first is the overall shortage and the second issue is Centre is giving priority to vaccinate the people in those states where prevails much worse situation in respect of COVID pandemic,” he said.
Sangma also stated that at the same time the vaccination is going on for the 45+ people adding they are hopeful that the overall vaccination driver for the 45+ would be covered in the coming week or within the next ten days.
When asked if the state government received any financial support from the Centre to deal with the COVID-19 situation, Chief Minister said that the Centre has been helping in different ways like providing vaccines for free to vaccinate the 45+.
“Three of the oxygen generation plants that are coming up to come up in the State are funded through the PM Care. The Centre has been forthcoming when we needed any support. We are looking for other forms of support like if the Centre can help to bring down the price of the vaccine so that can also purchase vaccines at Rs 150 per dose like the Centre is doing,” Sangma stated.