Bharat Biotech refuses additional Covaxin doses to Delhi: Sisodia
Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia on Wednesday alleged that Bharat Biotech has refused to supply the required doses of its Covid-19 vaccine Covaxin to Delhi.
Addressing a press conference, Sisodia said that Delhi had asked for total 1.34 crore doses of two Covid vaccines - 67 lakhs each of Covaxin and Covishield. However, Bharat Biotech informed the Delhi government of its inability to supply the said doses as it is “making dispatches as per directives of concerned government officials”.
Sisodia claimed that it was obvious that Bharat Biotech was talking about central government officials. “They further wrote, “We sincerely regret that we cannot make any additional supplies as required by you”. I do not know how much is being supplied to other states but they have written to us that they cannot provide to Delhi
because they have to supply as per the central government order,” the deputy CM said.
Manish Sisodia said that Delhi has run out of its reserve stock of vaccines.
Our reserve stock has been exhausted. The centres administering Covishield vaccines are functioning but we have had to close the centres administering Covaxin. So, we have had to close down more than 100 centres across 17 schools,” Sisodia said.
The deputy chief minister and AAP leader urged the Centre to stop all vaccine-related exports and allow more companies to produce the doses.
“The Centre should act as the government of a country. They should carry out their responsibility and stop all exports,” he said.
Sisodia also said that the Centre must import vaccine doses from across the globe and make them available to state governments. “Importing vaccines and making them available to state governments should be the Centre’s responsibility. The state governments should be responsible for smooth and fast immunisation drives,” he said.
Under the national vaccine policy, the Centre is responsible for the immunisation drive for all adults above the age of 45. For the age group 18-44, the state governments have been asked to procure the vaccines directly from sellers, domestic or international. However, domestic manufacturers Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech are under obligation to sell at least 50 per cent of their stock to the Centre, while the rest can be sold to the states as well as to health care facilities.