Covid wave ebbing in 9 regions, shows data
NEW DELHI : The second national wave of the Covid-19 outbreak continues to take a toll on India, but its trajectory appears to be receding in at least six regions – Delhi, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh – with cases and positivity rates seeing a steady drop in the past few weeks. Meanwhile, another three states – Bihar, Gujarat and Jharkhand – are exhibiting early signs of a plateau, according to data analysed by HT.
To be sure, despite the relative recovery, several of these states remain among the worst-hit regions as districts there continue to report high volume of cases with respect to their populations. Districts in states such as Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand are still seeing the highest rate of addition of new Covid-19 cases, and are likely facing most pressure on available resources, the data suggests. To analyse the outbreak, HT analysed data from the past month in India’s 20 most populous states and UTs, looking at two factors — new infections of Covid-19, and positivity rates.
NEW DELHI: At least 10 states have decided to float global tenders to buy Covid-19 vaccines from international manufacturers even though officials said that there is no clarity by when these manufacturers will be able to supply the vaccines, because most supplies have been mopped up by countries -- some of which have ordered enough to vaccinate their population twice or thrice over.
There is another procedural problem -- India’s drug regulator has to approve the vaccine for its import. Thus far, it has approved only three, Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin; Serum Institute’s Covishield, and Russia’s Sputnik V.
The Centre allowed the states to procure vaccines to carry out vaccination for those in 18 to 44 age group and decided to continue supplying vaccines for older people and frontline workers.
On Tuesday, the governments of Karnataka, Uttarakhand, Delhi, and Telangana decided to float global tenders to buy vaccines as Indian manufacturers Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech are unable to meet the demand of the states to provide vaccination to all adults. Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Odisha have previously announced plans to import vaccines.
The Karnataka government on Tuesday said that it has decided to launch a short-term global tender for 20 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines.
“In order to meet the increased demand...20 million Covid vaccines will be procured through global tender,” CN Ashwath Narayan, deputy chief minister and state Covid task force head, said in a statement on Tuesday. This tender will be in addition to 30 million vaccines ordered by the state government from Bharat Biotech and SII. The two companies are expected to manufacture 85 million doses in May and June, of which states will be entitled to around 20 million. That’s no where close to what states need although the situation is expected to improve by July by when Bharat Biotech hopes to increase its capacity to 55 million doses a month and SII, 100 million.
Neighbouring Telangana also decided to float global tenders to procure vaccine. Chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has asked the officials to work out the details in the next few days, an official note from the CMO said. The Uttarakhand government on Tuesday decided to float global tenders for procurement of vaccines and formed a committee of officials to work out the modalities. Yugal Kishore, additional secretary in Uttarakhand government, said the global tender will be floated within this week. “We will decide tomorrow on how much stock of vaccines needs to be imported.”
Officials and political functionaries in several states said that there was no clarity on by when the international vaccine manufacturers would be able to provide vaccines. Maharashtra health minister Rajesh Tope said the state government has written to Russian Direct Investment Fund for the import of Sputnik V asking about the quantity available and the time schedule of delivery. “There was no response,” he said. A Rajasthan government officials said that international manufacturers were not responding to queries on availability of vaccines with them. The Uttar Pradesh government on May 5 decided to float a global e-tender to procure 40 million doses of vaccines. In Andhra Pradesh, too, chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy on Monday decided to go global in search of vaccines, but the process is yet to commence. Director of Odisha Health services Bijay Mohapatra on Tuesday said,. “We have not decided on a timeline as to when the vaccines from global companies would be available.”
However, several states such as Bihar, Punjab, Goa and Himachal Pradesh are yet to decide on global tenders. Officials in these states said they were getting adequate vaccines from the Indian manufacturers.