Karnataka to float global tender for two crore Covid-19 vaccine doses

The B S Yediyurappa administration on Tuesday finalised its plan to procure two crore Covid-19 vaccines through a global tender, with the chief minister maintaining there was no need for citizens to worry even amid the shortage of doses.

This came on a day the High Court directed the state government to place on record within two days a roadmap on the vaccination drive, observing that the availability of vaccines was “very disturbing”.

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Karnataka now joins the list of states such as Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Odisha and Telangana to go for a global tender to procure vaccines.

Deputy Chief Minister C N Ashwath Narayan, who heads the Covid-19 Task Force, said two crore Covid-19 vaccine doses will be purchased in addition to an order already placed for one crore Covaxin and two crore Covishield doses.

“Till now we depended on vaccines supplied by the Centre. Vaccines were not procured from the open market by floating a tender. Now, it has been instructed to float the tender and to complete the process within a week,” Narayan said.

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Narayan said the government did not have an estimation on how much it would cost. According to market research firm Statista, the Covid-19 vaccines by Pfizer and Moderna cost $17 per dose in the US. At this rate, the vaccine will cost the government $340 million, or nearly Rs 2,500 crore.

Earlier in the day, Yediyurappa told reporters that citizens need not “panic or queue up all night” at vaccination centres. “Doses have started coming. Citizens will get the doses as and when they come,” he said.

The shortage of vaccines has hit Karnataka’s inoculation drive: As on Monday, 17,519 people aged 18-44 years received the first jab. There are an estimated 3.26 crore people in this age bracket.

The Congress kept up its attack on the government on vaccination. While Bangalore Rural MP DK Suresh wrote to PM Modi on the urgent requirement of vaccines, his brother and Karnataka Congress president DK Shivakumar mocked Yediyurappa for talking about the third Covid-19 wave even as his government “bungled” in the ongoing second wave.

“The government asked people to book vaccination slots online. I tried for my children, but couldn’t,” Shivakumar said, advising the government to follow the Common Entrance Test (CET) model where all Covid-19 information, including vaccines, are available on a single platform akin to colleges and seats.