Vaccine shortage: Delhi govt floats global tender for 1 crore COVID-19 jabs

The Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government has issued a global Expression of Interest (EOI) for procuring 1 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses on an urgent basis.

In the EOI, the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) has explained that the vaccines offered to the state government must be approved by a competent authority of the Centre. The Delhi government has stated that it will accept an offer or EOI for COVID-19 vaccines through e-mail. The state government has set the deadline for the same at 5 pm on June 7, 2021.

The Delhi government has floated the global tender to scale up the COVID-19 vaccination drive in the national capital.

Earlier on May 22, the Delhi government had put the vaccination of beneficiaries aged between 18-44 years on hold for five days due to a shortage of COVID-19 vaccines. It had stated that that state's stock of Bharat Biotech's Covaxin COVID-19 vaccine had been completely exhausted. Even Covaxin is not available for people above the age of 45 in the national capital.

"The Health and Family Welfare Department of NCT of Delhi intends to procure SARS-Cov2 vaccine on an urgent basis to control and manage the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. Global Expression of Interest is hereby invited from international manufacturers of COVID-19 vaccine or their authorised agents or from direct importers with appropriate license to import the vaccine in India. The offered COVID-19 vaccine must be duly approved by the competent authority of the government of India," the EOI document said, according to PTI.

Recently, pharma giants Pfizer and Moderna had refused to sell their COVID-19 vaccines directly to Delhi and Punjab governments. The firms stated that they will only deal with the central government.

"We have spoken to Pfizer and Moderna for vaccines, and both the companies have refused to sell vaccines directly to us. They have said that they will deal with the Government of India alone," Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had said.

The national capital has so far vaccinated 52,64,232 people and is left with 2,65,010 doses of Covishield for healthcare workers, frontline workers, and those above 45 years of age.

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