Kerala | Vaccine Shortage
Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan writes to Centre on vaccine shortage, says 'received only 5.5 lakh against the requested 50 lakh doses'
Thiruvananthapuram/IBNS: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi highlighting shortage of coronavirus vaccine and pointing out financial constraints in Centre's proposal to states to buy some doses directly from manufacturers at a pre-agreed price.
Vijaya stated in his letter that Kerala has been constrained to stop on the spot registration for vaccination as it received only 5.5 lakh of the 50 lakh doses it had requested.
"... would like to bring to your notice that we had requested for 50 lakh doses to implement our vaccination plan. We have received only 5.5 lakh doses, due to which we have been constrained... affecting our effort to deal with the rapid surge," Mr Vijayan said in his letter.
"I request you to allot the balance vaccine doses at the earliest," he added.
Maximum vaccination is required to crush 2nd wave of #COVID19. Requested @PMOIndia to reconsider new policy on vaccine distribution so that availability is assured & no additional financial burden is incurred, enabling States to perform constitutional obligation in health sector. pic.twitter.com/sEE6dpGzpE
— Pinarayi Vijayan (@vijayanpinarayi) April 20, 2021
Kerala currently has over 1.03 lakh active cases and recorded nearly 5,000 covid deaths.
Last week Vijayan had appealed for immediate vaccine supply of at least 50 lakh more doses warning that the state had doses to last less than 72 hours.
In his letter, Vijayan also expressed apprehension that states may have to puchase vaccines at potentially much higher rates than the Centre amid "additional financial commitments (due to the) pandemic".
"... State governments have obligation in the health sector and need an assured quota of vaccines... ," he wrote and sought Centre's assurance that they would not "be left to compete with open-market players..."
He called for a government channel to distribute vaccines from Centre to states and asked that producers be given a fixed priced "so unscrupulous players do not exploit the public".
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