UP extends last date for vaccine bids by 10 days again
LUCKNOW : The state cabinet on Monday approved a proposal to further extend by 10 days the last date for the submission of bids in response to a global tender floated to get 40 million Covid-19 vaccine doses for Uttar Pradesh. June 10 is now the last date for the bids.
“Yes, we are extending the last date for the submission of bids by 10 days,” said additional chief secretary (health and family welfare) Amit Mohan Prasad.
This is the second such extension.
A senior officer of the state government said sufficient quantity of vaccine was available in Uttar Pradesh. The officer also said the state government proposed to administer one crore doses in June following the directives of chief minister Yogi Adityanath in this regard.
The state government had earlier fixed May 21 as the last date for the submission of the bids and then extended it by 10 days to May 31 on the request of the vaccine manufacturers.
The decision to further extend the last date was taken after briefing the state cabinet (by circulation method) about the demand and the availability of the vaccine for the 18-45 year age group.
Prasad said the last date was extended again on the request of the companies that were keen to participate in the global tender.
The representatives of the companies again sought the extension on the same issues as earlier, including regulatory approval from the central government, Prasad said. Others said that they needed time to maintain the vaccine stock as, according to the bid conditions, the companies would have to supply the second dose after the first one, he added. The representative of another company said that they needed time for obtaining approval for the vaccine rate, the additional chief secretary said.
Even as foreign companies Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson and Johnson have said that they have a policy for agreements only with national governments, Uttar Pradesh government spokesperson and cabinet minister Sidharth Nath Singh said the Uttar Pradesh government had opened channels with the foreign companies.