The Centre on Monday said the order books of Pfizer and Moderna were already full and it was in touch with them for supply of Covid-19 vaccines, even as it told the Kerala High Court that only 57% of the doses produced in the country were reaching the people.
“Based on their surplus and how much they can provide to India, they will come back to the government… based on that we can facilitate the state governments,” said Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary Health Ministry, after Punjab and Delhi claimed that the two US vaccine makers turned down their requests for jabs.
At least eight states and three municipal corporations have either floated global tenders for vaccines or were planning to do so to ramp up vaccination as the second wave of Covid-19 rips through India’s urban centres and hinterlands.
Besides states, big civic bodies such as Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), Pune Municipal Corporation and Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation, too, have decided to go global to source vaccines.
The BMC is learnt to have received bids from the manufacturers of the Sputnik-V Covid-19 vaccine.
Amid widespread vaccine shortages, the Union Government on Monday told the Kerala HC that only 57% of the vaccines produced in the country were reaching citizens, while the court sought to know why the vaccination was not being provided free.
According to the affidavit filed by the government, out of the 28.33 lakh doses of vaccines being produced daily in the country, only 12 to 13 lakh doses were being distributed.
Hearing a bunch of pleas challenging the Centre’s vaccine policy, a Division Bench of Justices Vinod Chandran and M R Anitha even suggested that excess funds from the Reserve Bank of India may be used for vaccinating all citizens for free.
The country’s 137 crore people can be vaccinated with Rs 34,000 crore. The Centre could procure vaccines at Rs 150 or Rs 250 and this amount could be sourced from the Rs 54,000-crore dividend from the RBI to the Centre, the court suggested.