PM-CARES to foot 80% cost of Covid vaccine drive

February 02, 2021 19:03

The PM-CARES fund, which has been set up to provide relief during the coronavirus pandemic, has contributed over Rs 2,200 crore for the first phase of vaccination drive, which is looking to inoculate frontline healthcare workers, the Expenditure Secretary said on Tuesday.

Set up in March 2020, the exact collections made by the fund through voluntary contribution by individuals and corporates, are not known but the corpus managed by the PMO has been providing relief to pandemic-hit sectors.

Expenditure Secretary T V Somanathan said the cost of vaccination of frontline and healthcare workers in the current fiscal is being borne fully by the central government and the money is coming from PM CARES fund and Health Ministry.

"For January-March the (vaccination) cost is expected to be about Rs 2,700 crore approximately. Part of it is coming from the Health Ministry and some part of it is funded from the PM CARES fund. This is for the first round of 3 crore frontline and health workers," he said.

The entire cost of this round will be borne by the Central Government, he said.

"We had provided extra funds to the health ministry for incidental costs to vaccination. We made an additional allocation of Rs 480 crore just for the 3 crore batch of vaccination," he said.

The remaining about Rs 2,220 crore will come from PM-CARES fund.

-- PTI

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