News Analysis India

Tag: COVID-19 Vaccines

  • Punjab Health Minister orders probe into allegations of govt ‘diverting’ COVID vaccines to pvt hospitals

    By PTI
    CHANDIGARH: Punjab’s Health Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu on Friday said he has ordered a probe into the Oppositions’ allegations that the state government has been “diverting” Covid vaccines to private hospitals.

    Sidhu made the statement when he was specifically asked about the Oppositions’ allegation.

    “What I have learnt through media, I have already ordered for a probe and we will order a proper inquiry. We will keep the issue before the chief minister,” he said.

    Without going into the specifics of the allegations, he said he will first wait for the entire picture to emerge.

    On the opposition allegations, Sidhu, at the outset, said the vaccine programme is not concerned with his department.

    ALSO READ | Punjab Congress infighting: CM Amarinder Singh meets party panel in Delhi

    “The vaccine programme is not concerned with my Health Department and is under the control of Chief Secretary and Vikas Garg, who is the state’s nodal officer for the vaccination drive,” said Sidhu.

    He said his department conducts testing, treatment and administering vaccines.

    “As much as the supply of vaccines is made available to our department, we have been administering them free of cost in our hospitals and in the health camps which the department conducts,” he said.

    Punjab’s opposition party SAD had on Thursday accused the state’s Congress government of “diverting” Covid vaccines to private hospitals at “hefty margins”.

    Shiromani Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal, in a statement here, had alleged that vaccine doses were not available in the state but they were being sold to private institutions instead of being given free of cost to the common man.

    He claimed that a Covaxin dose costing Rs 400 to the state was being sold to private institutions at Rs 1,060.

    He said the private hospitals are further charging people Rs 1,560 for each dose.

    “This amounts to a cost of Rs 6,000 to Rs 9,000 per family for a single dose”.

    Badal had alleged that in Mohali alone, 35,000 doses were sold to private institutions to “earn a profit” of nearly Rs two crore in a single day.

    He said it was “immoral” for the Congress government to “make a profit” from the sale of vaccines.

    “The government was also punishing people by forcing them to cough up Rs 1,560 per dose during a time of economic slowdown,” he alleged.

    Badal had demanded a high court-monitored probe into how the Congress government was allegedly creating an “artificial shortage” of vaccines for the common man by selling its doses at a “hefty profit” to private hospitals, the SAD said in a statement.

  • Covaxin manufacturing to vaccination takes four months, says Bharat Biotech

    By PTI
    HYDERABAD: Manufacturing to supply of COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin involves four months of lag time depending on technology and regulatory approvals, Bharat Biotech said on Friday.

    “The timeline for manufacturing, testing and release for a batch of Covaxinis approximately 120 days, depending on the technology framework and regulatory guidelines to be met. Thus, production batches of Covaxin that were initiated during March this year will be ready for supply only during the month of June,” the vaccine maker said in a press release.

    Bharat Biotech’s clarification comes at a time when the country is facing a shortage of COVID-19 vaccines, leading to disruptions in the nationwide inoculation programme.

    “There is a four-month lag time forCovaxinto translate into actual vaccination,” it said.

    The manufacturing, testing, release and distribution of vaccines are complex and multi-factorial processes with hundreds of steps, requiring a diverse pool of human resources, the firm said.

    For vaccines to result in actual vaccination of people, highly coordinated efforts are required from international supply chains, manufacturers, regulators and State and Central government agencies, it said.

    Production scale-up of vaccines is a step-by-step process, involving several regulatory SOPs of GMP (Standard Operating Procedures of Good Manufacturing Practices), Bharat Biotech said.

    Based on Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) guidelines, all vaccines supplied in India are mandated by law to be submitted for testing and release to the Central Drugs Laboratory, Government of India.

    All batches of vaccines supplied to State and Central Governments are based on the allocation framework received from the Centre, the company said.

    The timeline forvaccine supplies to reach the depots of the State and Central Governments from Bharat Biotechs facilities is around two days.

    The vaccines received at these depots have to be further distributed by the State Governments to various districts within their respective states.

    This requires an additional number of days.

  • Make Covid vaccine slot booking easier: Centre

    By Express News Service
    NEW DELHI:  The Centre on Tuesday asked states to keep a fixed window everyday for publishing the Covid-19 vaccination schedule on the CoWIN portal to make it easier for people to see availability and book appointments.

    The instruction comes amid complaints that there is no uniformity in publishing the slots available at vaccination centres, which means people have to spend a lot of time looking for slots every day.In a meeting on the progress of the inoculation drive in the country, Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan said private hospitals should not allow offline vaccine registration and all registrations should be online, following SOPs shared by the Centre.

    Private hospitals were also advised to publish adequately longer schedules of vaccination, in terms of days rather than single day calendars, to ensure there is no overcrowding at vaccination centres and the process of booking appointments on CoWIN is also more hassle-free. It was also clarified that industrial organisations and corporate entities which don’t have a hospital are required to tie up with a private hospital.

    While states have been urged repeatedly to keep vaccine wastage below 1%, in many states such as Jharkhand (37.3%), Chhattisgarh (30.2%), Tamil Nadu (15.5%), Jammu and Kashmir (10.8%), Madhya Pradesh (10.7%), the wastage is above acceptable limits, the health ministry highlighted.Bhushan also asked states to make complete use of the available flexibilities on CoWIN to enhance pace of vaccination.

    States have been asked to plan for scaling up of vaccination coverage through available stocks and anticipated supplies till June end, with an assurance of the visibility of anticipated supplies of each tranche with expected date of delivery up to June 15 for the Central quota supply and till June 30 for state quota supply.

    It was also suggested that states should form dedicated teams to regularly coordinate with vaccine manufacturers for timely supply through state and private hospital quotas. States were also directed to prepare and implement decentralised communication strategy to address vaccine hesitancy in rural, tribal or faraway areas.

    Over 570 orphans in ministry tally577 children in India have been orphaned due to Covid-19, Women & Child Development Minister Smriti Irani said. This daily was the first to run a series on children orphaned in the pandemic.

  • No company responded to Uttarakhand govt’s global tender for COVID-19 vaccines procurement

    By ANI
    DEHRADUN: No company has, so far, responded to the global tender floated by the state government to procure COVID-19 vaccines, the Uttarakhand government informed on Tuesday.

    “So far, no company has responded to the global tender for COVID19 vaccines procurement by the state government. The time for submission of interest for tender has been extended till May 31 May”, informed an official statement by State Health Department.

    The Uttarakhand government on May 15 floated a global tender for procurement of COVID-19 vaccine to vaccinate people in the state.

    Amid the shortage of COVID-19 vaccines supply, the Uttarakhand Government on May 11 constituted a 5-member committee that aimed to work towards procuring vaccines through global tenders.

    “It has become necessary to vaccinate the people of the state immediately against COVID-19 in order to contain the outbreak. Considering the shortage of Covishield and Covaxin, a committee has been formed to import these vaccines like Sputnik V from different countries. The committee will work towards procuring vaccines through global tenders”, the state government order had informed.

    Meanwhile, Uttarakhand reported 3,194 fresh COVID-19 cases, 6,173 discharges and 71 deaths in the last 24 hours, as per the state health bulletin on Monday. To curb the number of Covid-19 cases, the government has imposed a lockdown in the state till June 1. 

  • In touch with US entities for vaccine procurement: MEA

    By Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: India on Thursday said it was engaged with entities in the US for the procurement and subsequent manufacture of Covid-19 vaccines.  New Delhi’s reaction came after US President Joe Biden announced that his country will distribute 80 million doses of vaccine to nations in need. 

    “We remain engaged with US entities on prospects of procuring vaccines from the US and perhaps, also manufacturing them in India subsequently. This will boost vaccine availability once the process is complete,” MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said. 

    The US has announced that it will distribute 80 million vaccines including 60 million of the AstraZeneca and 20 million doses of Moderna, Pfizer and Johnson and Johnson. It is not yet clear how much India’s share would be. Bagchi said New Delhi has noted the recent announcement of the Biden administration. On the regulations that the vaccines given to India would have clear, he said all vaccines procured from abroad will have to be in line with India’s regulatory guidelines. 

    EAM: Pandemic must not be treated as one-off episodeEAM S Jaishankar the pandemic may be the most serious in living memory and should not as a one-off episode.  “India, Japan and Australia are working on a supply chain resilience initiative and called for strengthening and de-risking the global economy through effective partnerships,” Jaishankar said during his online address at the Future of Asia conference.  He said the answer to the pandemic is to expand global flows while creating confidence that benefits are beneficial for the entire world.  

  • If there’s need to float global tender for COVID-19 vaccines, Centre should do it: Delhi health min

    Amid the worrying shortage of COVID-19 vaccines across the country, Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain on Friday said if there is a need to float a global tender, it should be done by the Central government.

    “Through a global tender, we can only procure Covishield, Covaxin and Sputnik V vaccines in the country. If there is a need for a global tender then it should be done by the Central government,” Jain said.

    Over the last few days, state governments of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), among others, have spoken of floating global tenders amid the shortage of vaccine and rising COVID-19 cases.

    The minister said if all states issued separate global tenders, vaccine companies would give different prices to each state based on negotiation and states will start competing with each other.

    “The country has at least 30 companies that can manufacture enough for the whole country. The Centre is telling us that we have sent our country’s vaccines abroad, now we have to buy vaccines from outside. This is very strange,” he said.

    Several inoculation centers across the country, including over 100 in the national capital, have been forced to close due to this shortage.

    The health minister further urged the Centre to share the formula for Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin vaccine to other manufacturers.

  • Can’t send someone to war without gun: HC on need for vaccinating lawyers going to prisons

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court Thursday asked the Centre and Delhi government whether legal aid lawyers and judicial officers in the 18-44 age bracket, working to implement Supreme Court orders to decongest prisons, can walk-in for vaccination shots at the centres set up in district courts, saying “you cannot send someone to war without a gun”.

    Justice Navin Chawla said legal aid lawyers and judicial officers were working to ensure that the apex court’s directions are implemented and need to be protected against the COVID-19 pandemic.

    The court was hearing a plea by the Delhi State Legal Services Authority (DSLSA), represented by advocate Ajay Verma, seeking directions to the Centre and Delhi government to urgently vaccinate judicial officers and legal aid lawyers at the vaccination centres set up in district courts.

    The central government told the court that at present there is no separate classification of lawyers as frontline workers for priority in vaccination and said that the issue of vaccinating the legal aid lawyers was a pan-India concern.

    Additional Solicitor General Chetan Sharma also told the court that there was a gestation period of more than a month between the first and second shot of vaccination and during this period the legal aid lawyers would be exposed to the risk of COVID-19 infection.

    To this, the court said that while what the ASG said was true, however, it would provide some “solace” to these lawyers if they get the first shot on priority basis.

    “We should at least give them what we can,” the court said.

    Delhi government standing counsel Santosh K Tripathi told the court that lawyers and judicial officers of 45 years or above can walk-in for vaccination at the centres in the district courts, but that was not the case with regard to the 18-44 age group.

    He said that the Delhi government does not have the discretion to allow walk-in of the 18-44 age group and a decision regarding that has to be taken by the Centre.

    During the hearing, the court was told that a well known law firm was carrying out a drive to vaccinate its lawyers.

    On this, the court asked the Centre to find out how the law firm was able to do that if the vaccination was being carried out as per a national policy.

    The court said the intention should not be to stop what the firm was doing, but to find out how they were doing it so that the same can be applied to the instant case.

    DSLSA, meanwhile, submitted to the Centre and Delhi government a truncated list of its empanelled lawyers for the purposes of vaccination.

    The court on Tuesday, May 11, had asked the DSLSA to prepare a list of the legal aid lawyers and judicial officers who would be in need of the vaccination, so that the same can be shared with the Centre and Delhi government for their consideration.

    On the last date, the court had also observed that legal aid lawyers, who go to jails to meet the prisoners and get their consent for moving bail applications, and the judicial officers hearing such matters are a small subclass which is easily differentiable.

    It had said that if these lawyers decide to stay at home so as not to risk their lives, “then who will implement the orders of the Supreme Court to decongest jails?” DSLSA in its plea has contended that its legal aid lawyers have “selflessly devoted themselves to the speedy and effective justice delivery mechanism even during the present grave situation” and therefore, they have been “wrongfully and discriminatingly excluded from the list of frontline workers” and hence, deprived of priority vaccination.

    It has contended that already a number of deaths of lawyers, judicial officers and court staff have occurred due to the COVID-19 infection.

  • States fighting with one another for vaccines portrays bad image of country: Kejriwal

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday said the fact that the states are left to competing and fighting with one another in the international market for COVID vaccines portrays a “bad” image of India.

    The Centre should procure the vaccines on behalf of the states, he said in the backdrop of a shortage of the vaccine doses in Delhi and many other states.

    “Indian states left to compete/fight with each other in international market. UP fighting Maha, Maha fighting Orissa, Orissa fighting Delhi. Where is ‘India’? Portrays such a bad image of India. India, as one country, shud procure vaccines on behalf of all Indian states (sic),” the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo said in a tweet.

    In another tweet, he said India approaching the vaccine-manufacturing countries will have much more bargaining power rather than the states doing it individually.

    The Indian government has much more diplomatic space to negotiate with such countries, the chief minister added.

    His deputy Manish Sisodia had earlier said Delhi will float a global tender for vaccines, while accusing the BJP-led Centre of forcing the states to do so.

    Around 100 vaccination centres have been closed down in Delhi as they ran out of their Covaxin stocks.

    Sisodia alleged on Wednesday that Bharat Biotech, which manufactures Covaxin, has refused to provide “additional” doses of the vaccine to Delhi under instructions from officials of the central government.

    The city government had placed orders for 67 lakh doses of Covishield and Covaxin each on April 26, he said.

  • Amid slow vaccination drive, Maharashtra looks to import jabs to prevent third COVID wave

    By PTI
    MUMBAI: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has been asked to explore the possibility of global procurement of COVID-19 vaccines to ensure efficient inoculation, Maharashtra minister Aaditya Thackeray said on Monday.

    In a series of tweets, he said work was also on to ensure those not well-versed with technology or those who are unable to operate the CoWin app get access to vaccines in time.

    “Looking at the need for adequate vaccines to ensure that vaccination is swift & efficient, after discussing the issue with CM Uddhav Thackeray ji, as guardian minister of Mumbai, we have asked @mybmc to explore possibilities of global procurement of vaccines,” he tweeted.

    “Our efforts to increase vaccination centres are constantly on going and the @mybmc shall be having a centre in every municipal ward, along with a drive in vaccination centre across all zones of Mumbai, on my humble request to @mayor_mumbai @KishoriPednekar ji and MC Chahal ji,” Thackeray said in another tweet.

    The Worli MLA said BMC, on Monday, issued guidelines on housing societies partnering with hospitals for inoculation within society complexes.

    The city on Monday recorded a steep drop in new coronavirus cases at 1,794, the lowest single-day count in nearly two months, while 74 patients succumbed to the infection, the city civic body said.

    With the addition of 1,794 new coronavirus infections and 74 fresh fatalities, the financial capital’s cumulative caseload rose to 6,78,269 and the toll to 13,891, according to Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) updated data.

    After a gap of 54 days, Mumbai has logged less than 2,000 COVID-19 cases in a day.

    Earlier on March 16, the metropolis had witnessed 1,922 new cases.

    Also, for the 10th day in a row, Mumbai’s daily COVID-19 case count remained below the 4,000-mark though the number of fatalities has fluctuated between 62 and 90 during the period.

    ALSO READ | Odisha to float global tender for Covid vaccines

    Fewer coronavirus tests over the weekend could have led to a significant drop in the number of new infections.

    According to the BMC, 23,061 COVID-19 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours, taking the number of samples examined so far to 57,33,431.

    Mumbai reported 609 less new infections, but half a dozen more fatalities as compared to Sunday, when it had reported 2,403 cases and 68 fatalities.

    As per the BMC, the number of active COVID-19 cases in Mumbai has gone down to 45,534.

    In the last 24 hours, 3,580 patients were discharged from hospitals, pushing the number of recovered cases to 6,16,998, according to the BMC data.

    Mumbai’s COVID-19 recovery rate has improved to 91 per cent.

    As per the BMC, the city’s average growth rate of COVID-19 cases for the period May 3 and May 9 was 0.41 per cent, while the case doubling rate was 163 days.

    According to the civic body, Mumbai has 87 active containment zones in slums and ‘chawls’ (old row tenements), while 493 buildings have been sealed after a certain number of their residents tested positive for coronavirus.

    The number of sealed buildings has gone down below 500 after a gap of more than a month.

    Mumbai had reported the highest-ever 11,163 new COVID-19 cases on April 4, whereas during the second wave the highest single-day fatalities – at 90- were recorded on May 1, 2021.

    ALSO READ | Old age home inmates live in uncertainty over Covid vaccine availability

    Mumbai has been registering a steady drop in daily cases, earning praise from the Supreme Court for its COVID-19 management.

    Meanwhile, the Bombay High Court has permitted Biovet Private Limited, an associate company of Bharat Biotech, to take possession of a fully operational and ready-to-use vaccine manufacturing plant on a 12-hectare plot in Pune to produce Covaxin.

    Bharat Biotech produces Covaxin, a vaccine against COVID-19.

    A division bench of Justices K K Tated and N R Borkar on May 6 heard an application filed by Karnataka’s Biovet Private Limited seeking direction to the Maharashtra government to hand over possession of the manufacturing unit at Manjari Khurd village in Pune.

    The unit was being used by Intervet India Pvt Ltd, a multinational and subsidiary of Merck & Co, after land was granted to it in 1973 to manufacture vaccine for Foot and Mouth Disease.

    Intervet is exiting business operations in India and entered into an agreement with Biovet to transfer the land and manufacturing unit to the latter.

    When Biovet sought the government’s approval for the transfer, the deputy conservator of forests (Pune division) pointed out that it was a reserved forest and the initial 1973 grant itself was bad.

    Biovet then approached HC in challenge and, in an interim application, also sought direction to the government to grant it licences and permissions to enable the manufacture of vaccine for Foot Mouth Disease as well as Covaxin.

    RD Soni, appearing for Biovet, argued that the unit and machinery was lying idle due to delay in handing over possession of the land.

    ALSO READ | Jagan wants to explore global options for COVID-19 vaccine

    He also told the court the company would not claim any equity in respect to the land in question.

    The company also submitted an undertaking stating it would use the unit to manufacture Covaxin.

    Advocate General Ashutosh Kumbhakoni told the court the Maharashtra government had no objection if the company used the unit for manufacturing lifesaving vaccines, including Covaxin, but it should not claim any right, title and interest in future.

    Kumbhakoni further told the court if the company filed applications seeking permissions, the state government shall consider the same expeditiously.

    The HC said considering the COVID-19 situation, the concerned authorities are directed to handover peaceful possession of the ready-to-use BSL-3 vaccine manufacturing facility.

    “The respondent (state government) is directed to grant appropriate licences/permissions/NOCs to the applicant (Biovet) in a time-bound manner to enable manufacture of the Food and Mouth Disease vaccine, Covaxin and other life saving vaccines,” the HC said.

  • EU yet to firm up position on patent waiver for COVID vaccines even after virtual meet with India

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The European Union on Saturday did not provide a clear position on whether it supports a proposal to temporarily waive patents on COVID-19 vaccines after the issue was discussed at a virtual India-EU meeting.

    Secretary (West) in the Ministry of External Affairs Vikas Swarup said at a media briefing that Prime Minister Narendra Modi invited the EU to support the proposal by India and South Africa to waive patents on COVID-19 vaccines so that there can be equitable vaccine access for the entire world.

    “The prime minister requested the EU’s support for our joint proposal with South Africa for a TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) waiver on vaccine production-related patents,” he said.

    “The US has also supported the proposal a couple of days ago. The EU’s support at WTO for this waiver will ensure that we can scale up the vaccine production for equitable and global access and save lives,” he said.

    EU officials said there was no concrete decision on the matter.

    Swarup said India will be watching the evolving EU position on the matter.

    The virtual meeting was participated by leaders of 27 member states of the EU.

    “When it comes to a proposal of a temporary TRIPS waiver for vaccine international property rights, I think it is very important that we should be open to this discussion,” President of European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said after the Leaders’ meeting.

    She said issues relating to licensing, price of licensing and investment for capacity building are also very important and all stakeholders should discuss them.

    “These are important topics to discuss. We should be aware of the fact that these are topics for the long-term. These are not topics for short or medium term,” she told reporters.

    At the same time, she said: “We should not lose sight of main emergencies now which is ramping up vaccine production as quickly as possible.”

    The top EU official also said that the countries which are producing COVID-10 vaccines in a large scale must keep the exports open.

    “We are the only democratic region in the world that is producing vaccines at large scale and exporting at least 50 per cent of the production,” she said.

    In the meeting, Modi appreciated the EU’s swift response for mobilising support to India’s COVID-19 response.

    “Our collaboration is essential to stopping the Covid-19 pandemic and ensuring a sustainable and inclusive recovery in a more digital and greener world,” Modi said in a tweet.

    “I thank the leaders of EU and its Member States for their continued commitment to strengthening relationship with India. I also thank my friend Prime Minister @antoniocostapm for this initiative and according high priority to India during Portuguese Presidency of the EU Council,” he said in another tweet.

    In the media briefing, Swarup, referring to economic cooperation, said both sides also agreed to have dedicated dialogues on WTO issues, regulatory cooperation, market access issues and supply chain resilience, demonstrating the desire to deepen and further diversify our economic engagement.

    In the meeting, India and the EU also reiterated their commitment to achieving the goals of the Paris agreement and agreed to strengthen joint efforts for mitigation, adaptation and resilience to the impacts of climate change.

    India and the EU also agreed to enhance bilateral cooperation on digital and emerging technologies such as 5G, artificial intelligence and quantum and high-performance computing including through the early operationalisation of the joint task force on AI and the Digital Investment Forum.