The Punjab government has taken back its order to sell Centre-allocated Covid-19 vaccines to private hospitals amid fire from Opposition and Centre on charge of making profit during the pandemic. The state government has cited that the decision was not taken in the “right spirit”.
The Amarinder Singh led Congress government has been at the receiving front for diverting the supply of vaccine doses to the private hospitals and making profit. According to the data the government has sold Covaxin doses at Rs 1,060 too the private hospital which it procured at Rs 400 and then the private hospitals sold them at Rs 1,560 per dose to earn their profit.
As claimed by the government a total of 42,000 doses were sent to these hospitals out of which only 600 were administered to the people aged between 18-44 years.
The statement government has now ordered the private hospitals to return all the given doses available with them and the doses which they used to be returned once they get supplies directly from the manufacturers. The government will then refund all the money paid by these private hospitals.
The order to provide vaccines to the private hospitals has been withdrawn on the instructions of the Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, said state Health Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu.
