The first consignment of 6.47lakh doses of COVID-19 vaccines has arrived Bengaluru on Tuesday, and the Karnataka government said it was committed to conducting the vaccination drive in a transparent way.    Karnataka Health Minister K Sudhakar's office issuing corrections to his statement earlier in the day, said 6,47,500 doses of vaccine arrived in Bengaluru and Belagavi in the northern part of the state will receive next consignment tomorrow.

The first consignment of around  6.89 lakh doses of COVID-19 vaccines arrived in Kolkata on Tuesday in a special flight from Pune, a senior official of the West Bengal health department said. "The first consignment of COVID-19 vaccines from Pune reached the city at around 1.40 pm. There are around 6.89 lakh doses of the vaccines," he told PTI. The consignment will be transported in two insulated vans from the city airport to a state-owned store at Baghbazar, the official said. The vaccines will be dispatched from the depot to various districts on Wednesday.

The government on Monday placed firm orders in advanced commitments for over 6 crore doses of COVID vaccine from SII and Bharat Biotech for inoculating 3 crore healthcare and frontline workers in the first phase of the vaccination drive scheduled to start from January 16, together which will cost Rs 1,300 crore. Sources said the government has placed an order to Bharat Biotech for 55 lakh doses costing Rs 162 crore. The government placed a purchase order with Serum Institute of India (SII) for 1.1 crore doses of Oxford COVID-19 vaccine, Covishield, each costing Rs 210, including the GST, and committed to buy 4.5 crore more by April, together amounting to over Rs 1,100 crore, sources said.