Global tender for Covid-19 vaccine: Which state stands where

Going by the Centre's liberalised vaccine policy, several states floated global tenders for direct vaccine procurement though a few chief ministers, including Andhra Pradesh CM YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik, opposed the idea of states separately trying to procure vaccines. The Tamil Nadu government on Sunday said it will again float a global tender as no companies bid for the first one. Tamil Nadu medical and family welfare minister M Subramanian said global tenders floated by states like Kerala, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh had not received any response. Odisha, however, received two bids, reports said.

Andhra Pradesh was one of the first states to float a global tender seeking vaccines, but after its bid remained unresponded, chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy wrote to all chief ministers that the situation has now transformed into a "state vs union" battle over vaccine and all chief ministers should "speak in a single voice", he wrote.

Tamil Nadu had on May 15 floated a global tender to procure 3.5 crore doses of COVID-19 vaccines to administer to those in the 18 to 44 years age group. The state sought a delivery schedule of 180 days progressively from the date of the purchase order for 3.5 crore (35 million) vaccines for ₹2,00,00,000 (20 million), news agency PTI reported.

Mumbai civic body, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, floated a global tender for one crore vaccine doses on May 12 and has received nine proposals, reports said. But it has rejected all of them as none of them could produce complete documents. The civic body is now in talks with Dr Reddy's Laboratories which has agreed to supply some doses of Sputnik on an experimental basis before June-end, the civic body has said.

The Haryana government on Saturday said it has received an expression of interest from a Malta-based company willing to provide up to 60 million doses of Sputnik V vaccine. The offer came after the due date of the tender was over, but the government will consider the offer, minister Anil Vij said. "Haryana has received offer from Pharma Regulatory Services Ltd. of Malta for supply of 30 Million Dose - 1 plus 30 Million Dose – 2. That is total 60 Million Doses of Sputnik Vaccine. We are considering the offer and will put up in Cabinet for final approval," he tweeted.

(With agency inputs)