New Delhi, Jul 20 (PTI) About 56 per cent of the vaccine doses administered in the country between May 1 and July 15 were in rural COVID-19 Vaccination Centres (CVCs) while 40 per cent were in urban facilities, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Tuesday.

The remaining four per cent doses were in CVCs that are not specifically classified as urban or rural in the Co-WIN portal, Union Minister of State for Health Bharati Pravin Pawar said.

In response to a question, she said that between May 1 and July 15, around seven per cent of the total inoculations were done in private COVID-19 Vaccination Centres. Segregated report of CVCs located in non-metropolitan cities is not maintained on CoWIN portal, the minister said.

In addition to government and private facilities, COVID-19 vaccination is also available at 'workplace CVCs', set up at workplaces, and 'near-to-home CVCs' established at a place nearest to residential localities to improve the accessibility of jabs in both urban and rural areas.

In view of the dynamic nature of these CVCs, the average distance to the nearest vaccination centre is not maintained on the CoWIN portal, Pawar said.

In a separate reply, the minister said 32,49,90,140 COVID-19 vaccines doses (28,44,15,820 Covishield and 4,05,74,320 Covaxin) have been supplied free of cost by the Government of India to states as on July 15.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)