Vijayawada: Andhra Pradesh government will extend by two weeks the deadline for filing bids in response to its global tenders for purchase of Covid-19 vaccines.
Principal Secretary (Health) Anil Kumar Singhal told media persons here on Thursday that in the wake of very poor response to the global tenders for purchase of Covid-19 vaccine, they were going to extend the last date. He said that when they had notified the global tenders on May 13 with the deadline to file by June 3 evening, only three representatives from three firms took part in pre-bid procedure but failed to file bids even by the end of deadline and added that similar was the fate of nine other states which also failed to get any response in global tenders for getting Covid jab.
The senior official stated that 1,187 black fungus cases were reported so far in state. The Centre had offered 11,605 vials of Amphotericin B for its treatment while the state government was purchasing Posaconazole injections and tablets on its own for their treatment. On the cases booked by the vigilance and enforcement authorities, he 89 hospitals were booked for a series of violations in Covid care and of them, Rs 9.9 crore was collected as fine in 66 cases.
He said that the number of Coronavirus infections was coming down in the state and added that they were going to administer 1.6 crore doses of Covid jabs by the end of June. He also said that 93 children were identified who were orphaned as they lost their parents to Covid and added that efforts were on to make a fixed deposit of Rs 10 lakh each in their names to help them get a monthly interest of Rs 5,000.
