Delhi runs out of Covaxin, says Centre blocking fresh supplies

Sisodia: Bharat Biotech refused more doses due to govt orders

Delhi’s deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia on Wednesday alleged that

Bharat Biotech had refused to supply the required doses of its Covid-19 vaccine Covaxin to Delhi.

Addressing a press conference, Mr Sisodia said Delhi had asked for 1.34 crore doses of two Covid vaccines — 67 lakhs each of Covaxin and Covishield. However, Bharat Biotech had told the Delhi government of its inability to supply these doses as it is “making dispatches as per the directives of concerned government officials”. Mr

Sisodia said it was obvious Bharat Biotech was referring to Central government officials.

“They further wrote: ‘We sincerely regret that we cannot make any additional supplies as required by you’. I don’t know how much is being supplied to other states, but they have written to us they can’t provide to Delhi as they have to supply as per the Central government order,” the deputy CM said.

Mr Sisodia said Delhi had run out of its reserve stock of vaccines. “Our reserve stock has been exhausted. The centres administering Covishield vaccines are functioning, but we had to close the centres administering Covaxin. We had to close down more than 100 centres across 17 schools,” Mr Sisodia said.

The deputy CM urged the Centre to stop all vaccine-related exports and allow more companies to produce doses. He said the Centre must import vaccine doses from across the world and make them available to state governments. “Importing vaccines and making them available to state governments should be the Centre’s responsibility. State governments should be responsible for smooth and fast immunisation drives,” he said.

New Delhi, May 12: The national capital reported 13,287 new coronavirus cases and 300 more fatalities on Wednesday, while the positivity rate came down to 17 per cent, the lowest in nearly a month, according to the health department.

The 13,287 new cases came from 78,035 tests, including 63315 RTPCR/CBNAAT/True Nat tests, conducted on Tuesday.

As many as 14,071 people recovered from the infection during the period, the health bulletin said.

Now there are 82,725 active cases, down from 83,809 the previous day and 49,974 of them are in home isolation, it said.

The number of cumulative cases stands at 13,61,986 and the death toll at 20,310. Over 12.58 lakh people have either recovered, migrated out or have been discharged, according to the health bulletin.

The positivity rate reported Wednesday is the lowest since April 14, when it stood at 15.9 per cent. It has remained above the 20 per cent mark since April 17.