Covid vaccination drive: PMC floats tenders to get syringes amidst shortage

PMC has floated tenders to ensure continuous supply of syringes to match the regular supply of vaccine doses as the state government stopped the supply of syringes along with Covid vaccines since past few days

Pune: Since the past few days, the state government has stopped the supply of syringes along with the Covid vaccines. Hence, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) is looking out to buy syringes to ensure that the Covid vaccination drive is not affected. The civic body has floated tenders to ensure continuous supply of syringes to match the regular supply of doses.

PMC has floated tenders to ensure continuous supply of syringes to match the regular supply of vaccine doses as the state government stopped the supply of syringes along with Covid vaccines since past few days. (AP (FOR REPRESENTATIONAL PURPOSE))

PMC has vaccinated about 4,550,043 vaccines since January in the city, including both first and second doses. Until now, the state was providing the vaccines along with syringes in proportion and also accounting for the possible wastage. However, now as the dose supply has been streamlined, the supply of syringes has become a problem for the local administration.

Dr Suryakant Deokar, immunisation officer, PMC, said, “The state has stopped sending syringes along with Covid vaccine doses unlike earlier since the past five-six days and we used PMC’s syringes to fill the gap. On Thursday, we even purchased one lakh syringes to ensure that the drive runs smoothly. We have also floated tenders to get more syringes. On Monday, we received 0.1 million vaccine doses from Bajaj group who also gave us 0.110 million syringes considering the wastage buffer. As of now I have over 60,000 doses of Covid vaccines and about 65,000 syringes. We need about 50,000 syringes and about 40-45,000 doses daily.”

Deokar said that despite using PMC syringes for Covid immunization drive, the routine drive would not be affected.

The shortage of syringes has begun a political war of words as Pune mayor Murlidhar Mohol accused the state of stopping supply of needles without informing while opposition party Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), an alliance at the state government, said that the BJP has proved to be inefficient in managing the drive.

Mohol said, “Since the beginning, both needles and doses were being supplied by the state government and then few days ago the state stopped the supply of syringes without prior intimation. Moreover, this needle is unavailable in the open market. This naturally had an effect on vaccination drives and we had to immediately purchase 0.1 million alternative needles to continue the vaccination drive. The people in Pune know that PMC has handled both the waves competently.”

Prashant Jagtap, NCP Pune city president, said, “While the citizens are trying their best to get the vaccine, PMC has failed to provide syringes (needles) required for vaccination. It is a great tragedy that the civic body which has a budget of Rs8,500 crores is not able to provide syringes to vaccinate its citizens. The fact that the BJP is a disruptive organisation is being underlined once again. While many distributors in Pune city have the capacity to supply syringes from manufacturing units across the country, these distributors do not even have the confidence in BJP leaders that they can provide syringes to the city in case of emergency. So, it has been proved once again that the BJP cannot handle the municipal corporation.”

PCMC’s 75-hr Covid vaccination drive

The PCMC administration announced to keep their vaccination centres open for 75 hours non-stop from September 30 to October 3. The drive would be called “Aazadi ka Amrut Mohatsav” wherein three vaccination centres run by PCMC would be kept open for more than three days so that residents can visit the centre at any time, even during night hours, and get themselves vaccinated.