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Video Producer: Mayank Chawla
Video Editor: Sandeep Suman, Prashant Chauhan
The second wave of COVID-19 has caught India off guard, exposing its crippled healthcare infrastructure. The county is currently reporting 50 percent of new infections worldwide and had breached the 3,00,000 mark of deaths on 24 May.
While experts have pointed towards the need for increased production and procurement of vaccines, states are left to fend for themselves to procure these vaccines directly from the manufacturers and global markets. States, including Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka, have even floated global tenders.
Terming the act of the central government as ‘criminal negligence’, Former Union Minister and Congress leader Kapil Sibal says that pharma companies like Moderna and Pfizer expect the commitment of the central government for the payment against their supply.
“They expect a projection of the Centre. Moreover, states have no money, how are they going to negotiate?” he questioned.
On 1 May 2021, the government opened vaccinations for those in the age groups 18-44 years. From a high of 43 lakh doses being administered on 5 April, less than 7 lakh doses were administered on 9 May.
While Moderna has conveyed that it does not have a surplus vaccine to share in 2021, some Pfizer doses could come in July as against the American pharma giant’s request for indemnity.
Sibal questions the Centre’s basis of announcing to open the vaccination programme for those in age group 18-44 years when there were no vaccines to be administered.
While the government claims to have a liberalised vaccine policy, Sibal argues that vaccination should be undertaken by the Center just like the polio immunisation programme.
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