New Delhi, Apr 22 (IANS): The Centre on Thursday said that state governments are free to procure vaccine doses from the manufacturers as per the "Liberalised Pricing and Accelerated National Covid-19 Vaccination Strategy."

In a statement the Union Health Ministry said that there have been some media reports suggesting that the Serum Institute of India (SII) has contracted all its production till May 25 to the Centre, and therefore till that date the state governments will not be able to procure vaccines from SII. "These media reports are based on incorrect facts and are without any basis," the Health Ministry said.

According to the statement, in order to expand and liberalise the countrywide vaccination drive, the Union Government had on April 19 announced the "Liberalised Pricing and Accelerated National Covid-19 Vaccination Strategy" which would come into effect from May 1.

"A key feature of the strategy is that the vaccine manufacturers would supply 50 per cent of their monthly Central Drugs Laboratory (CDL) released doses to the Government of India (GoI) and would be free to supply the remaining 50 per cent doses to state governments and other than GoI channel. The state governments are free to purchase the vaccine doses from the vaccine manufacturers," the Ministry said.

The Ministry pointed out that it is very clear that every month out of the total CDL cleared doses available with any vaccine manufacturer, 50 per cent doses would be available for other than GoI channels.