BMC gets 8 foreign bids for supply of COVID-19 vaccines including Pfizer; firm clarifies

In a big development on Tuesday, BMC announced that it had received 8 foreign bids for the supply of COVID-19 vaccines including Pfizer to Mumbai. The civic body had published a Global Expression of Interest on May 12 for procurement of 1 crore vaccines. Speaking to the media, BMC Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal mentioned that 7 companies had shown interest in supplying Sputnik V and Sputnik Light while one firm claimed that it can send both Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines. It is pertinent to note that no bids were received from any foreign vaccine manufacturer.

Reacting to this development, a Pfizer spokesperson clarified, "Neither Pfizer nor any of its affiliates globally, including in India, have authorized anyone to import/market/distribute Pfizer-BioNTech COVID 19 vaccine. We continue to have discussions with the Government of India towards making our vaccine available for use nationally". Meanwhile, the BMC has extended its deadline for the second time till June 1 to pave way for additional bids and to enables the companies to submit the complete set of documents. 

The Global Expression of Interest included a condition barring bids from companies in countries that share land borders with India effectively excluding China. Earlier on May 17, the state government had floated a global tender for 5 crore doses with the condition that the companies should have US FDA and WHO approvals and also get Union government’s nod to supply to Maharashtra. A total of 23,18,686 persons have been inoculated in Mumbai whereas 7,49,565 of them have received the second dose of the vaccine too

COVID-19 situation in Mumbai

On Tuesday, May 25, Mumbai reported 1037 new novel coronavirus cases propelling the city's COVID-19 tally to 6,99,904. At present, there are 27,649 active COVID-19 cases in Maharashtra's capital out of which 66 per cent are asymptomatic ones. The number of recovered soared to 6,55,425 after 1427 patients were discharged in the day. Meanwhile, 37 COVID-19 deaths were reported on Tuesday, taking Mumbai's fatality toll to 14,708. The city's case positivity rate and fatality rate as of Monday stands at 11.43 per cent and 2.10 per cent.

So far, 61,14,937 samples have been tested for COVID-19 in Mumbai which amounts to 4,36,781 tests per million population. The number of COVID-19 cases in the city grew at a rate of 0.19 per cent from May 18- May 24. The number of available oxygen beds, ventilator beds, and ICU beds in Mumbai stands at 7451, 177, and 590 respectively. 

While there are 44 active containment zones currently, 206 buildings have been sealed. 19,155 high-risk contacts have been traced in the last 24 hours. At present, 896 high-risk contacts are admitted to Corona Care Centres 1. The patient doubling rate in the city is 345 days. The recovery rate of the Mumbai district remains constant at 94 per cent.