E-Paper
K’taka to float global tender for 20mn vaccine doses
Bengaluru: The Karnataka government on Tuesday said that it has decided to launch a short-term global tender within the next one week for 20 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines
Bengaluru: The Karnataka government on Tuesday said that it has decided to launch a short-term global tender within the next one week for 20 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines.
“In order to meet the increased demand and to facilitate vaccination of the age group of 18-44 years, 20 million Covid vaccines will be procured through global tender,” CN Ashwath Narayan, deputy chief minister and state Covid task force head said in a statement on Tuesday.
This tender will take the total number of vaccines ordered by Karnataka to 30 million.
Narayan said that this includes 10 million doses of Covaxin and 20 million doses of Covishied.
“”Till now we had depended only on vaccines supplied by the central government and it was not procured from the open market by floating tender. Now, it has been instructed to float the tender and to complete the process within 7 days,” Narayan added.
The order comes at a time when the state is facing shortages of vaccines that has added to the mounting challenges of the BS Yediyurappa-led administration in containing the surge of Covid-19 infections.
Karnataka recorded 39,510 new infections in the 24 hours on Tuesday that takes the total number of active cases to 587,452.
The positivity rate stood at 33.99%, according to the daily bulletin of the state health department.
Bengaluru reported 15,879 new infections, showing a decline for the third straight day and increasing hopes that the spike is likely showing signs of halting.
The state reported 480 new fatalities of which 259 were in Bengaluru.
Narayan added that the state will procure 1,00,000 pulse oximeters and these will be distributed to all the districts and taluks. He added that 1million of Ivermectin, the tablet which is required to treat the infected has been procured and the supply of this begins on May 14. It has been also asked to further procure 2.5 million tablets and it should be made available in all hospitals across the state. 3.5 million zinc tablets and 10 million colchicine tablets will be procured and will be made available in all district hospitals, taluk hospitals, PHCs, and community health centers, Narayan said.
He added that there were 1.5 million RAT kits are in stocks that would last for another week and directed to procure 3.7 million more such kits. However, Karnataka has seen a sharp decline in testing over the last few days, which goes against the measures to contain the surge in the south Indian state. The Yediyurappa-led administration has announced lockdown-like measures across the state that came into effect on May 10 and will remain in force till at least May 24.
