K'taka received 88 L Covishield vaccines, 67.15 % by Centre

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: During the first and second wave of Covid pandemic, the previous BJP government in Karnataka had purchased 21,67,320 doses of Covishield developed by the UK pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca.

As per the report shared by 'The File,' a total of 88.08 lakh doses were administered in the state including the 66.41 lakh supplied by the Government of India during the pandemic.

The data on the vaccine supplies came out after AstraZeneca admitted that its Covid-19 vaccine can lead to a rare side effect known as Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome (TTS).

This acknowledgment comes amidst legal action against the company alleging severe harm and deaths linked to the vaccine, which was earlier reported by several media houses.

Karnataka State Medical Supplies Corporation (KSMSCL) received 3 lakh doses in April 2021. On May 3 they received 7,04,050; 3.5 lakh on May 6 and 8,13,270 doses on May 29 respectively.

It is learnt that in total the Karnataka government had purchased 21,67,320 additional doses during this time.

The previous BJP government in Karnataka had paid nearly 67.15 crores to the company from the state funds.

In this period, former minister B Sriramulu and Dr K Sudhakar had successively held the portfolio of the Health and Family Welfare in the state.

The report also reveals that the KSMSCL had distributed 21.67 lakh doses of Covishield to all the districts here while 66,41,620 doses of Covishield had already been supplied to Karnataka by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.

The report from the Central Health Ministry shows that 97,43,830 doses of Covishield were supplied to Gujarat; 71,02,720 to Madhya Pradesh; 1,13,19,250 to Maharashtra; 46,46,820 to Tamil Nadu; 24,44,160 to Telangana and 1,04,43,580 to Uttar Pradesh.