Bhubaneswar: Terming vaccination as a game-changer in most countries in saving lives and economy, Odisha Health Minister Naba Kishore Das Tuesday wrote to Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, requesting statutory clearance for vaccine procurement from global manufacturers.
Mentioning the shortage of vaccine in Odisha, the minister said after the states were being allowed to procure vaccines directly from manufacturers for the 18-45 age group, Odisha placed orders of 220 lakh doses of Covishield with Serum Institute of India (SII) and 10.34 lakh doses of Covaxin with Bharat Biotech. But they have so far supplied 5,78,480 doses and 1,65,490 doses respectively. The supplied numbers of vaccine doses are quite inadequate comparing to the demand.
In order to do away with the issues involved in direct procurement, the state had floated a global tender and after not getting any bids again floated a flexible global tender, he said, adding that the global vaccine manufacturers like Pfizer and Moderna will be requiring the Central Government’s statutory clearance for supplying to states.
Informing that the state will bear the cost of vaccines, Das said procurement of global vaccines at the country level rather by states individually will be faster and economical.
Odisha has so far inoculated 61,06,415 with at least one dose. The state government had been vaccinating at a rate of 2,00,000 people a day in April. Despite having the capacity to vaccinate 3,00,000 people a day, the state is currently vaccinating 60,000-70,000 people a day owing to lack of vaccines, the minister wrote in the letter.
PNN
