With Karnataka seeing an alarming surge in Covid-19 cases, the State government on Tuesday decided to invite global tenders from vaccine manufacturers for procurement of the Covid-19 vaccine. The state is facing a severe shortage of vaccines to administer those above 18 years of age.
Deputy Chief Minister and state Covid task force head Dr C N Ashwath Narayan said that the state will procure two crores Covid vaccine doses through global tender in order to meet the increased demand and to facilitate vaccination of the age group of 18-44 years.
“In addition we have already placed another order for three crore vaccine doses, one crore Covaxin and two crores Covishield,” said Narayan who chaired the high-level meeting in Bengaluru.
“Till now, we had depended only on vaccines supplied by the Central government and it was not procured from the open market by floating tender. Now, it has been decided to float the tender and to complete the process within seven days,” Narayan added.
Pulse oximeter bank to be set up at district and taluk hospitals
Apart from this the health officials have been instructed to procure one lakh pulse oximeters and distribute them to all the districts and taluks.
“It will be the responsibility of the district health officers and taluk health officers to collect the pulse oximeters back after the infected patient recovers from Covid and the used can be kept in a pulse oximeter bank,” he said.
Narayan also informed that 10 lakhs of Ivermectin, the tablet which is required to treat the infected, has been procured and its supply will begin on May 14 and it has been further decided to procure 25 lakh tablets and make them available in all hospitals across the State.
“Thirty-five lakh zinc tablets and one crore calcigen tablets will be procured and made available in all district hospitals, taluk hospitals, PHCs, and community health centres,” the deputy CM added.
The state which is reporting daily more than 40,000 new Covid-19 cases, currently, has a stock of 10.50 lakh RAT (Rapid Antigen Tests) kits and according to the minister, “this will last for seven days. A total of 50,000 RAT kits are being supplied every day. In addition to this, it has been decided to procure 37 lakh RT-PCR kits,” Narayan said.