Chandigarh, June 4 (IANS) After facing criticism, Punjab government on Friday issued an order for taking back Covid vaccine doses from private hospitals.

State Health Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu said that the instruction to provide one-time limited vaccine doses to the private hospitals has been withdrawn by the state and all these vaccines will be administered free of cost to those in the 18-44 age group at the government vaccination centres.

Sidhu said that as per the information provided by the state in-charge for Covid vaccination, Vikas Garg, about 42,000 doses were allotted to the private hospitals out of which only 600 were administered to the people.

He said instruction has been issued to all civil surgeons that no fresh allotment to be made to any private hospital. Also, the private hospitals should return forthwith all the vaccine doses available with them.

--IANS vg/arm