Naveen S Garewal 
Tribune News Service 
Hyderabad, May 19

Facing a constant shortage of vaccine the Telangana Government on Wednesday invited 10 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from manufacturers or their agents through global tenders. The state has seen closedown of all vaccination facilities for the past five days due to the non-supply of vaccines by the Government of India. 

The tender has sought that the supply should be as per the guidelines issued by Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR), Telangana State Medical Services and Infrastructure Development Corporation (TSMSIDC).  

"TSMSIDC requires at least 15 lakh (1.5 Million) to 20 Lakh (2 Million) doses of the vaccine to be supplied every month. The supplies have to be initiated within 7 days of the release of the purchase order and completed within 30 days," the document said. 

TSMSIDC is the central procuring agency for all essential and specialized drugs and medical devices. Bidders can quote their offers to supply the vaccine in part also, provided monthly supply shall not be less than 1.5 million and the total supply of 10 million doses shall be completed within six months from the issuance of the Letter of Intent (LoI), it further said. 

Meanwhile, the Chief Minister, K.Chandrashekhar Rao has appointed Dr B.Janardhan Reddy, presently principal secretary, Agriculture, as Chairman, Telangana State Public Service Commission. 

The others appointed as members of the Commission include Ramavath Dhan Singh, retired Engineer-in-Chief, Public Health, Prof.B.Linga Reddy, Head, Department of Physics, Chaitanya Bharathi Institute of Technology, Kotla Aruna Kumari, Special Grade Deputy Collector, Sumithra Anand Tanoba, Telugu language pandit, Karam Ravinder Reddy, Dr Aravelli Chandrashekar Rao and R.Satyanarayana.