A senior state official said on Sunday that the COVID-19 vaccine maker Moderna has declined to give vaccines directly to the Punjab government, claiming that it only deals with the Centre.
According to Punjab’s nodal officer for vaccination, Vikas Garg, all vaccine manufacturers, including Sputnik V, Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson, were approached for direct procurement of Covid vaccines on Chief Minister Amarinder Singh’s orders.
He only got a response from Moderna, in which the company said that it would not negotiate with the state government.
The Punjab government said in a statement that Moderna only works with the Indian government and not with state governments or private parties.
Earlier, Chief Minister Singh had ordered officials to look into the possibility of issuing a global tender for the procurement of vaccines from all available outlets in order to ensure that the state’s residents are protected against COVID-19 as soon as possible.
Due to a shortage of vaccine doses, Punjab was forced to halt vaccination for the phase 1 and phase 2 groups.
According to the release, all attempts will be made to procure vaccines to address the state’s acute shortage, which had secured less than 44 lakh vaccine doses from the Indian government so far.
The state government has been able to purchase only 4.2 lakh vaccine doses from the government of India’s allocation for phase 3 (18-44 age group), including 66,000 doses collected on Saturday, according to Garg.
