State’s vaccine global tenders draws a blank

Vaccine supply is less and would continue to be so till July-end

Telangana government’s global e-tender to procure ten million COVID-19 vaccine doses drew a blank. Though two foreign companies have evinced interest till pre-bid meeting, it did not materialise into commercial bids.

A teams from Russia’s Sputnik V and a UK team of AstraZenca participated in a virtual pre-bid meeting organised by the State government on May 27.

“But the response did not materialise into commercial bids. Other States too did not receive commercial bids. The Government of India has to take the dialogue further, help States to procure the vaccine doses,” said a senior official from the government.

The State’s Industries Minister KT Rama Rao, who is also heading COVID-19 Task Force, said on Sunday that the government’s global tenders did not evoke response.

During a Twitter session on #Letstalk vaccination on Sunday, Mr Rama Rao tweeted, “When the States reach out to vaccine manufacturers, they are clearly saying they would rather deal with one entity; Govt of India, who unfortunately seems to have no urgency to go for a global procurement & supply to all Indian States.”

While the State government has been receiving the vaccines from Bharat Biotech and Serum Institute of India, the senior official said that the supply is less and would continue to be so till end of July.

There are around 2.75 crore beneficiaries of vaccines in the State. And 5.5 crore doses are needed to give the jab twice. A little over 65.75 lakh received the vaccines until Sunday.

The senior official said that the vaccines would be continued to be administered on priority basis. Currently, people at high-risk are being vaccinated in all districts. They are anticipating the supply to increase after July.