Odisha seeks Centre’s help in procurement of vaccines from global manufacturers

Das’s request came as the Odisha government did not get any positive response in the global tenders it floated to procure about 3.8 crore vaccines.

In a letter to the Union Minister, Das said besides the international manufacturers even the Serum Institute of India (SII) and Bharat Biotech did not participate in the pre-bidding meeting of the flexible global tender floated by the state government.

He said Odisha like other states are also facing no response from vaccine manufacturers despite floating a global tender for procurement of vaccines.

Global vaccine manufacturers like Pfizer and Moderna are concerned about indemnity related issues among others, Das said, adding the global manufacturers are willing to deal with federal-level central procurement only at this stage and looking for central government statutory clearances for supplying vaccines to the states.

Hence, it would be much faster and economical if the procurement of global vaccines is made at the country level rather than by individual states, Das said.

He said the state will bear the cost of the vaccine as Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has committed to vaccinating people of Odisha free of cost.

Das also requested the centre to give flexibility to the state to design and decide on the distribution of vaccines taking local factors into consideration.

The state, the health minister said, has been vaccinating at the rate of two lakh per day in early April and had so far vaccinated 61,06,415 people with at least one dose.

However, due to vaccine supply constraints, it came down to 60,000 to 70,000 per day even though the state has the capacity to vaccinate three lakh people per day.

Das said after the Union government allowed the states to directly procure vaccines from manufacturers for 18 -45 age group, the state has placed an order for 220 lakh doses of Covishield with Serum Institute of India and 10.34 lakh doses of Covaxin with Bharat Biotech.

Against the supply order, Odisha received 5,78,480 doses of Covishield and 1,65,490 doses of Covaxin so far which is inadequate as the state has to inoculate about two crore people in the age group of 18 to 44, Das said.