CM wants production expanded, Delhi to float global vaccine tender
The shortage in Delhi at present is not of Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds or oxygen supply but of coronavirus vaccines, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Tuesday, urging the Centre to engage more pharmaceutical companies to ramp up production.
Kejriwal called for a national scheme to vaccinate the entire population of the country in the next few months and said that “unless every Indian is vaccinated, we cannot win the war against Covid-19”.
“Some states are struggling to widen the vaccine drive because of this shortage. Vaccine shortage is a major challenge now,” Kejriwal said at an online press briefing.
Kejriwal said the Centre should take the vaccine formula from the two companies producing it — Serum Institute of India (SII) and Bharat Biotech — and give it to the other companies which are capable of producing safe vaccines. “In such tough times, the Centre has the powers to take such decisions…,” he said.
Separately, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said the Delhi government will float global tenders for Covid-19 vaccines soon.
The Delhi government will float global tenders for Covid-19 vaccines soon, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said on Tuesday, even as he criticised the Centre for exporting vaccines to other countries and “pitting states against each other” for procurement of doses in the international market due to a shortage of doses.
The Delhi government has repeatedly flagged dwindling stocks of vaccine doses in the Capital, saying that manufacturers were not supplying enough stocks to meet the target of inoculating the city’s entire adult population in the next three months.
Addressing a news briefing, Sisodia said the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled central government was “forcing” state governments to invite global tenders for vaccine procurement. He said Delhi was faced with a situation where people aged between 18 and 44 were eager to get their Covid-19 vaccine jabs, but they were unable to do so because of a shortage of vaccines.
“We will also float global tenders for vaccines. If state governments only have to fight with each other in the international market for vaccines and
MANISH SISODIA DEPUTY CHIEF MINISTER
Why is it that states have to buy vaccines from outside India? It was the Centre’s job to procure them in
time
that is the only way left, then the Delhi government will also go that way. But, why is it that states have to buy vaccines from outside India? It was the Centre’s job to procure Covid-19 vaccines well in time from the international market and give it to states. Instead, the Centre was busy exporting vaccines for image-building exercise. Scores of lives could have been saved in our country had the central government not distributed 6.5 crore doses to other countries, and given it to its own citizens,” the deputy CM said.
He gave the examples of how the US and the European nations focused on ensuring the vaccination of all their citizens first.
A BJP spokesperson was unavailable for comment, despite repeated attempts. Earlier on Monday, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra had accused AAP of playing politics over the vaccine issue.
Sisodia, who is also Delhi’s nodal minister for Covid-19 management, blamed the central government for the “mess” created over the stocks of vaccinations.
He said the Centre was “shirking from its responsibility” by asking states to directly procure vaccines through global tenders – a step which he said should have been taken by the Centre in March this year.
He said it had never happened in the last 70 years that a central government left the states to fend for themselves at the global stage.
The deputy chief minister said that if states were asked to purchase vaccines internationally through global tenders, then the state with the largest coffers would unfairly procure the most doses.
“This will lead to fights among states, and further bashing and criticism of the country in international communities,” he said.
Sisodia’s remarks came on a day the Delhi government said it will have to temporarily shut around 125 of its vaccine centres meant for those from the 18-44 age group due to the shortage of Covaxin vaccine doses.
Sisodia reiterated that Delhi needed 300,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccines every day, of which 150,000 were for those below 45 years of age.
“I appeal to the central government to take cognisance of the crisis at hand and immediately begin a vaccine programme along the lines of the Pulse Polio Programme. If Delhi receives sufficient number of vaccines from the central government, we will ensure that all are vaccinated in a matter of three months,” Sisodia said.