As states hustle to buy vaccines directly from foreign manufacturers to expedite the mass inoculation drive, they are facing refusals from these drugmakers who aren’t willing to sell it to them. After Moderna dismissed Punjab’s request to avail the vaccine, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said that US pharmaceutical giants Pfizer and Moderna have both refused to sell their vaccines to the state government saying that “they will deal with the central government” directly.
Shortage of vaccines has forced Delhi to temporarily halt the vaccination process for age groups 18-44 on Saturday.
Today afternoon, the CM told reporters, “We’ve spoken to Pfizer and Moderna for vaccines, and both the manufacturers have refused to sell vaccines directly to us. They have said they will deal with the central government. We appeal to the Centre to import vaccines and distribute to the states.”
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The latest revelation from Delhi comes a day following Punjab’s statement that Moderna did not accept their request to sell the vaccines directly to the state. According to officials, the government led by Amarinder Singh had approached all its manufacturers to use every chance of availing the vaccines for the people.
On Saturday, Mr Kejriwal wrote a letter to PM Modi appealing an increase in the number of doses being given to Delhi. He said that though the city needs 80 lakh doses every month, it received only 16 lakh doses in May. This further got reduced to just 8 lakh doses for June.
The CM, in his letter, suggested Narendra Modi to use 4 ways in accelerating the vaccination drive. “The centre should speak to international vaccine manufacturers, buy from them and distribute to states. States and union territories are fighting with each other,” he said.
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He said that international manufacturers of the vital need of the hour should be allowed to produce their vaccines in India while stressing that nations that have stocked more vaccines than it needs should send the additional doses to India as it requires them at the earliest.
“All vaccine makers in India, within 24 hours, should be ordered to manufacture Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin to ramp up stocks,” he requested the Centre.
Though Delhi recorded a positivity rate of below 2.5 per cent, lockdown in the city was extended for the 6th consecutive week on Sunday to keep the numbers at bay. In the last 24 hours, Delhi reported 1,649 new infections as its hospitals struggled to cater to the overflowing patients in the second wave of coronavirus.
