A person being vaccinated against COVID-19. (Express Photo by Ashish Kale) The Uttar Pradesh government on Wednesday announced its decision to float a global tender for four crore vaccine shots.
The decision was taken at a government core committee meeting to help the administration meet the demand for vaccines in the 18-44 age group that will be eligible for vaccination from May 1. The registration process for this age group was thrown open from 4 pm on Wednesday.
Senior minister and government spokesperson Sidharth Nath Singh told The Indian Express, “While the registration process has started for vaccination, it has been decided to go for global tender to meet the vaccine supply.”
If things went as planned, the tender would be floated in a day or two, Singh said, adding, “The tender will be opened in a day or two for four crore doses of vaccines, initially. It can be extended further, depending on the availability from Indian manufacturers.”
To date, 1.2 crore people have been vaccinated in Uttar Pradesh. Of them, 99,75,626 people have received the first dose while 21,13,088 people have completed the inoculation process.
Meanwhile, an online system where people can check the availability of Covid beds started functioning on Wednesday with the government uploading the data of 25 hospitals.
According to the data, 66 beds were available in L-3 hospitals, including 52 at the King George’s Medical University (KGMU) and 14 at the Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGI). Both the hospitals are in Lucknow. The remaining beds were available in L-2 hospitals.
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