Hello and welcome to News Explained, In today's podcast we look at Vaccine distribution strategy across India.

The Bihar government has approved a proposal to provide free Covid-19 vaccine to the people of State in a cabinet meeting today. With this, the newly elected government is implementing a poll promise.

Not only Bihar, but other states are promising to do so. Recently, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, is the latest to join this bandwagon, joining Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh.

Even as States announce their vaccination plans, the Centre is preparing the needed infrastructure for the immediate rollout of a Covid-19 vaccine, whenever one is ready. What is the Centre's plan?

The infrastructure would consist of 29,000 cold chain points, 240 walk-in coolers, 70 walk-in freezers, 45,000 ice-lined refrigerators, 41,000 deep-freezers, and 300 solar-freezers. The Centre is also setting up at least one centre in every block for managing any Adverse Event Following Immunisation (AEFI).

Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan, in a press briefing, has said that adequate equipment has been provided to States that lack the infrastructure. He also said that doctors, across the nation, are undergoing training for the same.

He also said that all 36 States and UTs have held meetings of their State Steering Committees, which have formed for vaccine management and administration. Similarly, 633 districts have held meetings of their task force set up for the purpose.

There is just one issue here -- India hasn't yet granted the emergency use of a Covid-19 vaccine to any company so far. Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, Moderna vaccine and Sputnik V vaccine have all received this permit in many parts of the world, including the US, Europe and Russia.

The Centre wants to vaccinate at least 30-40 crore people during the first six months of 2021, which means a requirement of up to 80 crore doses. It is believed that the Centre might look into the price of the vaccine and the infrastructure needed to vaccinate a huge number of people while buying a decision on procuring a Covid vaccine.

This means that the government could rely on domestic manufacturers to deliver vaccines to India. The Serum Institute of India (SII), Bharat Biotech, Zydus Cadilla, Biological E. Ltd, Hetero Biopharma and Dr Reddy's Labs are the companies that are making the covid vaccine in the nation.

Though pricing has not been finalised, some of these companies could sell a dose at ₹220-250 to the government. If Pfizer’s deal with the US government is considered as a baseline, the cost of two doses could go up to ₹2,900. Additionally, the vaccines made in India may require storage between +2 and +8 degrees C only, compared to the foreign vaccines, which need to be stored at -20 to -70 degrees C.

However, a funding will not be an issue, as an official told BusinessLine that the funding will be made through an allocation to be made in the Budget for financial year 2021-22.

Thank you and until next time, this is Siddharth signing off.