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Covid vaccine: Jagan Mohan Reddy hints at calling for global tenders

The Chief Minister criticised political leaders who were trying to spread fear among the people with misinformation campaigns

Vijayawada: Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan directed officials to explore the possibility of purchasing Covid-19 vaccine by calling for global tenders.

He held a review meeting on Covid-19 management and vaccination with ministers and senior officials at his Camp Office here on Monday.

Speaking on the occasion, he said that it was the Centre, which was deciding the number of vaccine doses to be sold by their manufacturers and also purchases made by states.

Reddy opined that if Andhra Pradesh could get one crore doses of the vaccine per month, it could complete vaccination of all people in six months. But the reality was that the state was getting only 19 lakh doses on an average per month. He underscored the need for purchasing the doses after calling for global tenders.

The Chief Minister criticised political leaders who were trying to spread fear among the people with misinformation campaigns. He asked officials to explain the facts to people.

He urged officials to ensure that there is no rush at Covid vaccination centres by informing them clearly through ANMs and Asha workers about who would get the dose and when. He instructed them to give priority to the second dose for people aged above 45 years. He said there should be no compromise on supply of medicine kits to Covid patients staying at home isolation within three hours of getting information at the call centre. He sought an action plan for setting up PSA oxygen plants and said that out of 590 metric tonnes of medical oxygen that has been allotted, they could draw 571 MT only on May 8. He said that they had asked the Centre to allot 10 ISO cryogenic tankers and added that officials were making efforts to get more allocation of medical oxygen from Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. The officials informed that if they could get 60 MT of medical oxygen from Tamil Nadu and 130 MT from Karnataka, it would help meet the state's basic requirements.

Reddy called for curbing black-marketing of remdesivir injections. The DGP was instructed to submit a district-wise report every day on implementation of curfew in the state.

The Chief Minister said that there was a need for the proper functioning of 104 call centre so that it would help patients to get beds. He also insisted on having an Arogya Mitra at every hospital.

( Source : Deccan Chronicle. )
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