Jaipur, May 13 (IANS): The Rajasthan government on Wednesday decided to float a global tender to procure Covid-19 vaccine doses from the international manufacturers in the absence of adequate supply of vaccine shots for the 18+ age group.

In a virtual Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, the proposal to float a global tender to import Covid vaccine doses was approved.

Around one crore vaccine doses will be imported under this process. To ensure a quick process, expression of interest (EoI) will be generated by making the National Health Mission a nodal agency.

At the meeting, the ministers expressed concern over the rising number of Covid cases in the state and said that vaccinating people at a fast pace is the need of the hour.

The Chief Minister had earlier said in a tweet, "Due to lack of Covid vaccine in the country, many states are taking out global tender to get vaccines from other countries. It would have been better had the Central government taken out the global tender and bought vaccines and distributed them to the states, and collected payments from the state governments later."

The issue of providing free vaccination to the 18+ group was also discussed in the meeting, and it was informed that the state government would spend around Rs 3,000 crore collected from its resources for the free vaccination drive.

Gehlot also appealed to the people of state to maintain discipline and follow the protocols during the two festivals of Eid (May 13-14) and Akshaya Tritiya (April 14).