With the Centre taking its own time to supply the vaccine at the domestic front, Delhi, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana on Tuesday joined several other States which have decided to issue global tenders for procurement of Covid vaccines to ensure inoculation of its people to save them from the second wave of pandemic. The other States seeking vaccines through a global route are Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Odisha.
The Centre said it has so far provided more than 18 crore vaccine doses to States and UTs free of cost, but many of them have complained of an acute shortage of the jabs and are now prioritising people who need to be given their second dose within a prescribed period.
Two crore Covid vaccine doses will be procured through global tender to meet the increased demand and to facilitate vaccination of the age group of 18-44 years, Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister and state Covid task force head C N Ashwath Narayan said.
"Till now, we had depended only on vaccines supplied by the Central Government and it was not procured from the open market by floating tender. Now, it has been instructed to float the tender and to complete the process within seven days," Narayan said.
Delhi Government too said it will float a global tender for procuring coronavirus vaccines.
Addressing a press conference, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia alleged that the BJP-ruled Centre was "forcing" State Governments to invite global tenders for vaccine procurement while the Telangana cabinet also decided to follow suit.
Officials said the Andhra Pradesh government will float a global tender in a day or two for the procurement of Covid-19 vaccines from foreign manufacturers to complete the vaccination process as quickly as possible.
"We are exploring the option of buying the vaccine from any foreign manufacturer since there is a short supply of Covishield and Covaxin," the state's Principal Secretary (Health) Anil Kumar Singhal said while Uttar Pradesh Government had earlier this month floated global e-tenders to procure four crore doses of Covid-19 vaccines from licensed manufacturers.
State officials on Tuesday said that UP may directly procure a large amount of international Covid-19 vaccines such as Sputnik V and those developed by Moderna and Johnson & Johnson.