‘Centre should ease norms for vaccine imports’

Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope says due to stringent norms, there has been no response to global tender.

Mumbai: Speaking on a range of issues, Maharashtra Health Minister Dr Rajesh Tope, in an exclusive interview to The Sunday Guardian, said that due to the stringent norms of the Centre, the state is finding it difficult to acquire vaccination tender. “Maharashtra has come out with a global tender of 5 crore vaccines, but there has been no response yet from any company as I believe the norms to fulfil are stringent because of which companies like Sputnik, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson etc, have yet not responded. Easing of norms is a must; due to stringent norms by the GOI, we are not getting any response from companies even after a global tender. They have vaccines, they can give us, the GOI should intervene in between. A national vaccine import policy is necessary so that states don’t compete with each other. If one tender comes at the national level, then rates will also decrease, we can get competitive rates and one national policy will be there for importing vaccine. I have pitched this demand to our Health minister that the Union government float a single global tender for coronavirus vaccines on behalf of all the states to avoid ‘unhealthy competition’. If the Centre provides us with sufficient dosages, we will administer more vaccines. We have been demanding from the Centre to provide us with sufficient dosages.”

On the spread of the deadly “black fungus”, Tope said, “The state has now recorded a staggering 1,500 Mucormycosis infections and there have been 100 deaths till now. On May 21, we declared it a Notifiable Disease under the Epidemic Diseases Act, making it compulsory to report each case of black fungus to the state health department. Black fungus is being taken seriously; we have come out with guidelines and giving training, especially in the rural areas, with respect to indiscriminate use of steroids which is one of the causes of this disease. We will provide free treatment to all ration card holders under the Mahatma Jyotirao Phule Jan Arogya Yojana. This includes 11 operative procedures and nine medical procedures, that too free. Hospitals are dedicated for the same. We have urged the Union government to increase the supply of Amphotericin-B injection which is used in treatment of black fungus, as there is severe shortage of the same. We have ordered 2 lakh injections to several companies, but the Government of India has not allotted because of which they are unable to give. They are also saying that some ingredients of this injection come from Germany and because of scarcity of that ingredient, they are unable to manufacture and provide. It is high time the Government of India intervenes in this.” Tope also spoke about on how Covid cases have declined, but death numbers have not in some districts.