In an attempt to enhance the ongoing vaccination drive to fight Covid in Assam, Chief Minister Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma gave a cheque of Rs.50 crores from the CM's Relief Fund to the health minister Keshab Mahanta for the procurement of Covid-19 vaccines.
Announcing it during a press conference, the Chief Minister said, informed a similar appeal for Covid-19 relief last year led to the collection of Rs 119 in the Arogya Nidhi bank account created for the same purpose.
Dr. Sarma urged the people to donate for vaccination as a birthday gift.
Dr. Sarma also appealed to the citizens of the state to donate for the purchase of Covid-19 vaccines for beneficiaries in the 18-44 age group.
During the presser, Dr.Sarma explained that the government will have to atleast spend Rs 800 crore to inoculate nearly 1.5 crore in the 18-44 age group.
He is expecting that donations could almost raise a 100 crore.
The Chief Minister also informed that the central government will fund for the vaccines for the age group of 45 and above and a decision is yet to be taken regarding the funding of vaccines between the age group of 18 and below.
He also asserted that regardless of crowd funding, the government will provide the vaccines.
The Chief Minister also noted that over 35 lakh people have been vaccinated in the state and every day nearly 50,000 citizens are inoculated.
Dr. Sarma said that there is a crisis of vaccines nationwide, however, he assured that sufficient vaccines will be available in a month or two.
On the Covid situation, Dr. Sarma said that positivity rate of the cases have dipped from 9 per cent to 6 per cent creating a ray of hope, however, he noted that there are nearly 48,000 active cases and there is a long fight ahead.