Andhra CM urges PM to allow procurement of vax not lifted by pvt hospitals

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Wednesday requested the Centre to allow the state government to procure COVID-19 vaccines that had not been lifted by private hospitals.

In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Chief Minister explained that while only 2,67,075 beneficiaries had been vaccinated at private hospitals so far, 17,71,580 doses had been earmarked for private hospitals for July.

"Past experience and demand for vaccines at private hospitals clearly indicate that such huge quantities of vaccines cannot be utilised by private hospitals. I recommend that the vaccine stocks not lifted by private hospitals should be procured and supplied for the implementation of the vaccination drive," the Chief Minister wrote.

He further pointed out that the state had earlier demonstrated its capacity for large-scale vaccination by vaccinating over 13.72 lakh on June 20, 6.32 lakh on April 14 and 5.79 lakh on May 27.

"We can easily replicate this performance frequently if more vaccines were made available to the state," he said, requesting an early decision in the matter.

The country is currently in the midst of what has been called the 'world's largest vaccination drive'.

Under the Central government's new vaccination policy, 75 per cent of all vaccines are made available to states free of cost. The remaining are procured by private hospitals.

As per the Union health ministry, a total of 1,53,89,563 doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered to beneficiaries in Andhra Pradesh so far. This includes 1,23,47,245 first doses and 30,42,318 second doses.