Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Cabinet Monday approved a proposal to float global tender for procuring vaccines for Covid-19 from international manufactures. This comes at a time when the state is grappling with vaccine shortages due to non-supply by Indian manufacturers of the vaccines. The decision will help the state to procure vaccines for people in the 18 plus category. Odisha government has decided to vaccinate all the people between eighteen and forty four years free of cost on its own using own resources. For this the government has also constituted two high level committees i.e., technical committee and managerial committee for swift action and procurement.
With this big announcement, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has yet again showed that the priority for him is providing the best of the health services to the people of his state. Initially, Odisha was among the few states in the country to declare free vaccination for the people. It also issued purchase orders to the two vaccine manufacturers of the country – Bharat Biotech and Serum Institute for the required number of doses. But, inadequate supplies by both the manufacturers prompted the Odisha Government to look for global manufacturers who can supply maximum number of vaccines swiftly.
The global tender process will also help the state government to look for other alternate vaccines available globally. In the coming days, if everything goes well, Odisha can see vaccine imports from countries such as Russia, America and the UK. Russia’s Sputnik V has also been approved by the Drugs Control General Of India. With several vaccine candidates queuing up to be available in the coming days such as those belonging to Moderna, BioNTech, and Johnson and Johnson, they can also be procured to vaccinate the nearly four crore people of the state.
The initiative to procure through global tender will definitely help Odisha in procuring the Sputnik V Vaccine developed by the Gamaleya Research Institute of Russia that has an efficacy of more than 90 percent. A sizable number of these vaccines can be procured by the state government as it seriously trying to vaccinate all its eligible people. Odisha government has earmarked an amount of Rupees two Thousand Crore for vaccines.
In the last few days, Odisha had to close down a number of vaccine sites as there was no adequate supply of vaccines from the Center for the 45 Plus category also. The number of people waiting to get the second dose of the vaccines is also increasing day by day. According to a health expert who did not want to be named, “At this critical juncture, the effort to procure with its own resources through global tender is the best practical decision that the government has taken. There is uncertainty in supplies from the present manufacturers and the center is also not providing enough vaccines. This will also help the government to procure the vaccines at globally competitive prices.”
In its pursuit of universal vaccination, Odisha government is leveraging all its resources and has decided to ramp up procurement. As vaccination seems to be the only available means to fight with the pandemic, Odisha’s step will be pathbreaking. As always, Odisha’s response in the current situation is driven by the intent of its Chief Minister for free health services for all. It is just another step by Naveen for his four hand half crore family members.