Ten states gear up to import vaccines; bottlenecks remain
The Centre allowed the states to procure vaccines from manufacturers to carry out Covid vaccination for those in 18 to 44 age group and decided to continue supplying vaccines to states for older people and front line workers.
At-least 10 states have decided to float global tenders to buy Covid-19 vaccines from international manufacturers even though officials said that there is no clarity by when these manufacturers will be able to supply the vaccines, because most vaccine supplies have been mopped up by countries -- some of which have ordered enough to vaccinate their population twice or thrice over.
There is another procedural problem -- India’s drug regulator has to approve the vaccine for its import. Thus far, it has approved only three, Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin; Serum Institute’s Covishield, and Russia’s Sputnik V.
The Centre allowed the states to procure vaccines from manufacturers to carry out Covid vaccination for those in 18 to 44 age group and decided to continue supplying vaccines to states for older people and front line workers.
On Tuesday, the governments of Karnataka, Uttarakhand, Delhi and Telangana decided to float global tenders to buy vaccines as Indian manufacturers Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech are unable to meet the demand of the states to provide vaccination to all adults. Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Odisha have previously announced plans to import vaccines.
The Karnataka government on Tuesday said that it has decided to launch a short-term global tender for 20 million doses of covid-19 vaccines.
Also read | States can procure only 20 million Covid-19 jabs for 18+ in May
“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 woill be in addition to 30 million vaccines ordered by the state government from Bharat Biotech and SII.
The two companies are expected to manufacture 85 million doses in May and June, of which states will be entitled to around 20 million (the Centre will get half, and private hospitals another 20 million). That’s no where close to what states need although the situation is expected to improve by July by when Bharat Biotech hopes to increase its capacity to 55 million doses a month and SII, 100 million.
Neighbouring Telangana also decided to float global tenders to procure vaccine. Chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has asked the officials to work out the details in the next few days, an official note from the CMO said.
The Uttarakhand government on Tuesday decided to float global tenders for procurement of COVID vaccines including Covishield, Covaxin and Sputnik and formed a committee of officials to work out the modalities. Yugal Kishore, additional secretary in Uttarakhand government, said the global tender will be floated within this week. “We will decide tomorrow on how much stock of vaccines needs to be imported.”
Officials and political functionaries in several states said that there was no clarity on by when the international vaccine manufacturers would be able to provide vaccines.
Maharashtra health minister Rajesh Tope said the state government has written to Russian Direct Investment Fund for the import of Sputnik V asking about the quantity available and the time schedule of delivery. “There was no response to the enquiry,” he said. A Rajasthan government officials said that international manufacturers were not responding to queries on availability of vaccines with them. Sputnik V is being distributed in India by Dr Reddy’s Laboratories.
Earlier, the Maharashtra government had announced a global tender for procurement of the vaccines manufactured by international firms such as Pfizer, Johnson and Johnson.
“We want the Centre to give the approvals to other vaccines like they have given it to Sputnik V. Central authorities should act on this fast for the approvals to other vaccines so that the state can directly procure them through global tendering,” said Tope said.
Maharashtra has set titself the target of vaccinating 57.1 million people in the age group of 18-44 years in six months by procuring 120 million doses of vaccines.
The Uttar Pradesh government on May 5 decided to float a global e-tender to procure 40 million doses of vaccines (the last day of online submission is May 21). Chief minister Yogi Adityanath announced on April 29 that state government would float global tenders to procure 40-50 million doses.
The state government previously placed orders for the supply of 10 million Covid vaccine doses —50 lakh vaccine doses each from Bharat Biotech and Serum Institute of India (SII) . Additional Chief Secretary, Health and Family Welfare, Amit Mohan Prasad said the state government has received 3.50 lakh doses of Covishield from SII and three lakh doses of Covaxin from Bharat Biotech till Sunday.
In Andhra Pradesh, too, chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy on Monday decided to go global in search of vaccines, but the process is yet to commence. Director of Odisha Health services Bijay Mohapatra on Tuesday said the state government would soon fix the modalities for the global tender. “We have not decided on a timeline as to when the vaccines from global companies would be available. But we expect to get them quickly.”
Rajasthan government on Sunday decided to import vaccines and has sought clarification on imports from the Drug Controller of India. “Only those vaccines approved by Drug Controller can be imported. Only Covaxin, Covishield and Sputnik are approved by Drug Controller,” said a Rajasthan government official, who asked not to be named.
Several states have either slowed or suspended vaccinations for people in the 18-44 age group people because of shortage of vaccines . Maharashtra and Rajasthan are vaccinating only those above 45 and Odisha has closed half of its vaccination centres. The pace of vaccination has reduced in several states due to dose crunch. “Earlier, we used to administer 2.80 lakh doses a day, but now the figure has drastically come down to 40,000-50,000 per day,” Mahopatra said.
However, several states such as Bihar, Punjab, Goa and Himachal Pradesh are yet to decide on floating global tenders. Officials in these states said they were getting adequate vaccines from the Indian manufacturers. According to Punjab’s Principal Secretary, Health and Family Welfare, Hussan Lal, there is no plan to purchase Covid vaccines from the global market.
(With inputs from state bureaus)
