VIJAYAWADA: The Andhra Pradesh government has floated global tenders to procure Covid-19 vaccine. The interested pharmaceutical companies have been asked to respond to the global tenders within three weeks. The bids for supply of vaccine need to be filed by June 3. A pre-bid meeting is likely to be held on May 20 and 22. As AP has come up with the proposal of floating global tenders for Covid vaccine first, the response is expected to be good.
The decision to float global tenders was taken by Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy in the wake of delay in supply of vaccine to the State by the Centre. AP’s initiative was lauded by other States and some of them decided to go for global tenders to procure vaccine. Jagan also underlined the need for involvement of more companies in vaccine production as it is the only solution to combat Covid effectively.
The Chief Minister took stock of the Covid situation in the State, oxygen availability and hospital preparedness at a high-level review meeting on Thursday evening. He said the State has received a total of 75.49 lakh Covid vaccine doses from the Centre, including 62,60,400 Covishield doses from the Serum Institute of India, Pune. The rest of Covaxin doses came from Bharat Biotech, Hyderabad.
The Chief Minister directed officials to come up with an action plan to meet the future requirements of oxygen, besides ramping up the production to meet the present demand of the State. The State’s demand for oxygen has crossed 600 MT. Hence, long term plans should be evolved to overcome the crisis, he said.
Jagan instructed the officials to initiate measures for setting up an oxygen plant with 300 MT capacity at Krishnapatnam in Nellore district or in Kadapa, which will not only cater to the needs of Covid patients now, but also of the proposed steel plants there in the future.
The officials informed the Chief Minister that the number of vehicles delivering liquid medical oxygen was increased to 78 from 56. Fourteen more vehicles will be deployed to refill and deliver oxygen soon after the arrival of a tanker. Eight cryogenic oxygen tankers were allotted to the districts.
State buying 15,000 oxygen concentrators
The old oxygen tanks were retrofitted and their storage capacity was increased to 44 KL. Further, 36 vehicles are being used to transport 210 MT of oxygen a day from various places in Odisha. Of the total, four vehicles are being airlifted daily from Vijayawada to Bhubaneswar by IAF cargo planes. The State will also receive two ISO oxygen tankers filled with LMO from Durgapur in West Bengal shortly and 25 cryogenic tankers will arrive in the State by mid June, they said.
Jagan also asked them to ensure that proper pressure is maintained while supplying oxygen to patients in hospitals. The Navy has come forward to extend support to strengthen the oxygen supply network.
The officials also informed him that 15,000 oxygen concentrators, 10,000 D-type cylinders and 250 ventilators are being procured by the State.
Further, negotiations are underway to procure 125 KL storage tank and also 6,500 medical gas pipelines and 53 PSA units to strengthen oxygen supply network. Jagan wanted the officials to set up German hangars at hospitals to accommodate 25 to 50 more Covid patients. Deputy Chief Minister (Health) Alla Kali Krishna Srinivas, Chief Secretary Aditya Nath Das, Covid Command and Control Centre Chairman KS Jawahar Reddy and Principal Secretary (Health) Anil Kumar Singhal were present.