Andhra Pradesh government floats global tenders for COVID-19 vaccines

Andhra Pradesh government has sought the approval of the Union government to import the COVID-19 vaccines as it decides to inoculate the entire population of the state eligible for the COVID jab, which sums up to be around 4 crores, free of cost at an estimated price of Rs 1,600 crore.

Health secretary Anil Kumar Singhal said that the AP government has decided to float global tenders in order to procure COVID-19 jabs, including Russia's Sputnik V.

He further added that the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy government is also preparing to allow the manufacturing of the vaccines with quickened approvals.

CM Reddy, who reviewed the inoculation and COVID situation in the state on Monday, asked his officials to work on the details in order to share with the union government and further get in touch with the officials to finalise the global tenders.

“The state government is seeking the approval of the union government for procuring Covid-19 vaccines from the overseas markets by floating global tenders,” said an official at the chief minister’s office. 

“The state government is also seeking clarity on who all can participate in the global tenders, especially to get clarity on contentious issues like whether Chinese vaccine makers should be allowed to participate in the tenders or not.”

AP Chief Minister Reddy wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday requesting him to transfer the manufacturing technology of COVAXIN to other companies.

"Considering that the COVAXIN manufacturing is intended to be ramped up, we would request you to please direct Bharat Biotech to do technology transfer of manufacturing COVAXIN and ICMR-NIV to provide viral strain to whoever interested in and capable of vaccine manufacturing," read the letter.

He also sought allocation of additional 320 metric tonnes (MT) of Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO) and 20 tankers for oxygen supplies.

Apart from Andhra Pradesh, states like Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Delhi have already opted for global tenders to procure the COVID jabs.

Now Haryana too has joined the list as Health Minister Anil Vij took to Twitter on Thursday to inform that the state government will float a global tender for the procurement of vaccines in order to make sure that everyone above the age of 18 gets vaccinated.

"Haryana will float Global tenders to purchase Corona Vaccine for people of Haryana so that free vaccination could be provided to every 18+ citizens of the State at the earliest," he wrote.

COVID Situation In AP

On Thursday, Andhra Pradesh reported 22,399 new COVID-19 infections in the state taking the total case toll to 13,66,785. 89 people succumbed to the virus and 18,638 people recovered. 2,01,042 active cases were recorded in the state.