Odisha Government has urged the Centre to procure global COVID-19 vaccines at the country-level rather than by individual states. Making the request in his letter to Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Tuesday, the Odisha Health Minister Naba Das has said that global vaccine manufacturers are willing to deal with federal level Central procurement only and will be requiring the Central Government statutory clearances for supplying vaccines to the states. He said, the state will bear the necessary cost of the vaccines.<br />'' <br />''Stating that vaccination has become a global game changer in most countries in saving both life and economy, the letter says that there has been a limited response to the global tender floated by the Odisha Government on the 14th of May for vaccine procurement. It says, even domestic manufacturers like Serum Institute of India has so far supplied only about 5.78 lakh doses of Covishield as against an order for 2.20 crore does. Though Odisha has vaccinated over 61 lakh people with at least one dose thus far, currently it is vaccinating only 60 to 70 thousand people per day.<br />