Nearly 120 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine would be available in June for the national vaccination programme, half of which would be supplied by the centre to states free of cost, the health ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

During June, the government would procure 60,960,000 doses for the inoculation of the priority group such as frontline healthcare workers and persons above 45 years of age.

In addition to this 58,610,000 doses would be available with vaccine makers for direct procurement by states and private hospitals.

The Health ministry said it would share the delivery schedule and allocation of doses to states in advance. The Centre has asked the states to direct the concerned officials to ensure rational and judicious use of allocated doses and minimise wastage.

“The basic objective behind informing the States in advance of the quantum of free vaccine doses to be made available from the Government of India for 15 or 30 days and the total vaccine doses which are available for direct procurement by states is to ensure better planning and delivery of vaccine,” the health ministry said.

In May the centre provided over 40 million vaccine doses to states. Another 39 million doses were procured directly either by states or private hospitals.

According to the health ministry data 79,405,200 doses were available for Covid vaccination during May.

A total of around 210 million doses have so far been administered as part of the Covid vaccination drive in the country.

Since May 1, the highest number of doses given on a single day was on Saturday with more than 3 million people getting their jab.

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