Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami on Friday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting the supply of about 20 lakh doses of COVID-19 vaccines and to ensure easy accessibility of Remdesivir, a life-saving drug for patients with COVID-19.
“I would request that an assured supply of at least 10 days consumption of vaccine, of about 20 lakh doses, may be supplied well in advance to ensure that the vaccination drive in the individual sites are not affected and persons coming for the second dose are assured of vaccination on the date and in the site they report,” Mr. Palaniswami said in his letter, a copy of which was circulated to the media.
Referring to reports about certain directions issued by national and State regulators, prioritising supplies by individual manufacturers to certain States and restricting Remdesivir sales only within the State where Remdesivir is being produced, he contended: “This would be very damaging to the availability of such valuable life-saving drugs in places of need.”
At this stage, any restrictive orders by individual States, should be strictly barred to ensure easy accessibility of Remdesivir, he said, urging the Centre to take up this issue with such States where the companies have their production facilities located.
Mr. Palaniswami also brought to the attention of the PM, the Integrated Vaccine Complex at Chengalpattu in Tamil Nadu (a Centrally-executed project of national importance) which was structurally and functionally ready and awaiting commissioning and validation. “I am informed that this would be possible if some pending works can be fast-tracked. I would appeal to you to bring this facility to working condition at the earliest, so as to augment the production of COVID vaccines,” he requested.
So far, Tamil Nadu has administered 47.31 lakh doses of COVID vaccines and is expected to continue at least 2 lakh vaccinations a day.
