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Delhi’s deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia
Delhi’s deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Wednesday claimed that Hyderabad-based biotechnology company, Bharat Biotech, has declined to provide Covid-19 vaccine to the national capital. Bharat Biotech is manufacturing Covaxin that is currently being administered to the people in the country along with Covishield. Pune-bases Serum Institute of India is manufacturing Covishield — the local version of Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.
“We had demanded 1.34 cr doses, 67 lakhs each of Covaxin and Covishield. Covaxin (Bharat Biotech) wrote to us yesterday that they can’t provide. They wrote ‘we are making dispatches as per directives of concerned government officials’. Obvious that these are central government officials,” Sisodia said while addressing the media.
Sisodia added that the reserve stock of vaccine is exhausted in Delhi. The centres administering Covishield vaccines are functioning, he said, adding that but we have had to close the centres administering Covaxin.
“So, we have had to close down more than 100 centres across 17 schools,” the Aam Aadmi Party leader said.
Lashing out at the Modi government for the crisis, he said, “Centre should act as the governemnt of a country. They should carry out their responsibility and stop all exports.”
The deuty CM also urged the Centre to approve Covid-19 vaccines available in international market for use in India and issue orders to states to vaccinate everyone in three months.
Earlier on Tuesday, Sisodia said that the city government has decided to float a global tender for procuring coronavirus vaccines. Besides Delhi, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana on Tuesday joined several other states that have decided to issue global tenders for procurement of vaccines.
Only three vaccines have been approved to be sold in India — Covaxin, Coveshield and Sputnik V. Sputnik V has been approved to be imported from Russia by Dr Reddy’s, but is yet to be widely available in the country.
According to Delhi’s Health Minister Satyender Jain, while the Covid wave is still very much on, the the city is past the peak and the number of cases and the positivity rate are both on their way down. Delhi reported 12,481 COVID-19 cases and 347 deaths over the last 24 hours. The positivity rate dropped from 19 per cent to 17.7 per cent — lowest since April 14 when the positivity rate was around 35 per cent.
READ MORE: Panel approves Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin for phase 2/3 trials on children
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