Oneof a Covid vaccine manufacturer ‘Moderna’ has refused to send directvaccination to Punjab government as according to their policy, they only dealwith Government of India and not with any state government or private parties.
Disclosingthis here today, State Nodal Officer for vaccination and Senior IAS Officer MrVikas Garg said that all vaccine manufacturers were approached for directpurchase of various Covid vaccines, including Sputnik V, Pfizer, Modern, andJohnson & Johnson, as per the directions of Chief Minister CaptainAmarinder Singh to explore possibilities of floating a global tender for theprocurement of vaccines from all possible sources to ensure early inoculationin the state.
Divulgingfurther, the Nodal Officer Mr Garg said that reply was received from Modernaonly in which the company refused to deal with State Government.
Itmay be recalled that the state government was forced to stop vaccination forPhase I & Phase 2 categories in the last three days because ofnon-availability. All efforts would be made for procurement of vaccines to meetthe acute shortage in the state, which had received fewer than 44 lakh vaccinedoses so far from the Government of India.
Asper GoI allocation for Phase III (18-44 age group), the state government hasbeen been able to buy only 4.2lakh vaccine doses, including 66,000 receivedyesterday. A total of 3.65 Lakh have already been used, leavingonly 64000 foruse as of now, said Vikas Garg.