Explore possibilities of floating global tender for vaccines: Capt

The state government will also reach out directly to all vaccine manufacturers for direct purchase of Covid vaccines, including Sputnik V, Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson

Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Thursday directed the health department to explore possibilities of floating a global tender for the procurement of vaccines from all possible sources to ensure early inoculation in the state.

Explore possibilities of floating global tender for vaccines: Capt

The state government will also reach out directly to all vaccine manufacturers for direct purchase of Covid vaccines, including Sputnik V, Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson, he said.

Punjab has storage space for 35 lakh Sputnik V vaccines, which require storage temperature of minus 18 degrees Celsius. The CM said efforts would be made for procurement of vaccines to meet the acute shortage in the state, which had received fewer than 44 lakh vaccine doses so far from the Union government, of which only 1 lakh is currently available for use and which will also be exhausted within a day.

The state government was forced to stop vaccination for Phase 1 and 2 categories in the last three days because of non-availability, said the CM, directing the departments concerned to continue pursuing the matter of supply aggressively with the Centre.

As per Government of India allocation for Phase 3 (18-44 age group), the state government has been able to buy only 3.6 lakh vaccine doses, including 63,000 received on Wednesday. A total of 2.3 lakh doses have already been used, leaving only 1.3 lakh for use as of now, said the CM.

Pointing out that almost 1 lakh unregistered construction workers and their family members had so far come forward for getting vaccinated in line with the state government’s prioritisation of vaccination for 18-44 category, the CM asked the labour department to ensure the registration of these workers on priority.

DGP Dinkar Gupta said Punjab Police lost 21 personnel to Covid in the last five months, and of these, 50% were not fully vaccinated.