Bengaluru: In order to meet the increased demand and to facilitate vaccination of the age group of 18-44 years 2 crore COVID vaccines will be procured through global tender, Deputy Chief Minister and state COVID task force head Dr. C.N.Ashwatha Narayana, told on Tuesday.
In addition to this an order has been placed for 3 crore vaccines which include 1 crore Covaxin and 2 crores Covishield, he informed.
This decision was taken in the high-level meeting held where he was presided over. Javed Akhtar, ASC, Department of Health, Anjum Parvez, In-Charge, Drugs Procurement, Lata Kumari, MD, State Medical Supplies Corporation, Om Prakash Patil, Director, Department of Health were present.
Sharing the details with the reporters after the meeting, he told, “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 instructed to float the tender and to complete the process within 7 days.”
Authorities have also been instructed to procure 1 lakh pulse oximeters and these will be distributed to all the districts and taluks. It will be the responsibility of the DHOs and THOs to collect back the pulse oximeters after the infected user gets cured. Later they will be used for creating a pulse oximeter bank, he told.
10 lakhs of Ivermectin, the tablet which is required to treat the infected has been procured and the supply of this begins on May 14. It has been also asked to further procure 25 lakh tablets and should be made available in all hospitals across the state. 35 lakh zinc tablets and 1 crore calcigen tablets will be procured and will be made available in all district hospitals, taluk hospitals, PHCs, and community health centers, Narayana informed.
Currently, 10.50 lakh RAT kits are in stock and this will be enough for 7 days. 50,000 RAT kits is being supplied every day. In addition to this, it has directed to procure 37 Lakh RTPCR kits, he informed.
He said, Triaging would be made mandatory to avoid unnecessary occupancy of beds and requested the urban people not to go for villages to get vaccinated.
