UP floats global e-tender for 40 mn vaccine doses
Over 51K people in 18-44 age group have got jabs in state: CM
LUCKNOW : The Uttar Pradesh government on Wednesday floated a global e-tender to procure 40 million (four crore) doses of the Covid vaccine from manufacturers even as chief minister Yogi Adityanath announced that a total of 51,284 people in the age group of 18-44 had been vaccinated in Uttar Pradesh since May 1.
With the intended procurement of vaccines, the government plans to boost the inoculation drive launched for people between 18 and 44 years as well as those above 45 years across the state.
“Since the launch (May 1) of vaccination for people in the age group of 18-44, a total of 51,284 persons have been given the first shot of the vaccine. And vaccination for people over 45 years of age is going on smoothly. So far, overall, a total of 1,30,90,985 doses have been administered. Minimise vaccine wastage for maximising inoculation. The state government has also issued a global tender for procurement of doses for the age group of 18-44,” the chief
minister said.
The state government had earlier placed orders for the supply of one crore Covid vaccine doses —50 lakh vaccine doses from the Hyderabadbased Bharat Biotech International Limited that manufactures Covaxin and 50 lakh doses from the Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) that manufactures Covishield.
The state health and family welfare department has a stock of 1.50 lakh vaccine doses for people between 18 to 44 years and 13 lakh doses for the beneficiaries above 45 years. An officer said the department was likely to receive a consignment of doses from manufacturers on Friday-Saturday.
For its part, the Uttar Pradesh Medical Supply Corporation Limited (UPMSCL) said online short-term global e-tender was invited from licensed manufacturers for supply of 40 million doses of Covid vaccine to UPMSCL, Lucknow. The tender will be governed as per guidelines of the Central government. The tender can be downloaded on May 7 and the last date for the online submission of the tender documents is May 21.
The chief minister on April 29 had announced that state government would float global tenders to procure four to five crore doses of the Covid vaccine. The state government has said it will give free vaccines to beneficiaries at the government vaccination centres set up in hospitals and medical colleges.
Additional chief secretary (health and family welfare) Amit Mohan Prasad said till Wednesday 1.5 crore people had received the first dose and 25.22 lakh people got the second dose too. A total of 1.30 crore Covid vaccine doses had been given to the beneficiaries, he said.
On Wednesday, 2,755 beneficiaries in the age group of 18 to 44 years, including 1,683 male and 1,072 female, were vaccinated in Lucknow. In all, a total of 10,474 beneficiaries of all age groups took the jabs at 70 vaccination centres in Lucknow district.