K.T. Rama Rao, the Telangana Information Technology Minister, appealed to the Central Government to procure vaccines for the Wuhan virus from different countries.
Mr. K.T. Rama Rao said, “The Central Government should wake up and procure COVID-19 vaccines from the countries where availability is more. Prime Minister Narendra Modi should directly speak to our ally countries and import vaccines.”
Highlighting the shortage of vaccines in India, KTR said, currently India has high demand for vaccines against the Wuhan virus amid an economic collapse. He asked the Central Government to use allocated funds to procure vaccines from other countries. The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) Minister who is also the Chairperson of the COVID-19 Task Force Committee, said that 50 crore vaccines manufactured by AstraZeneca are unutilised in countries like Norway, Denmark, Canada and the United States of America U.S.A. He said, “What is preventing the Centre from opening dialogue with these countries and procuring the vaccines. This will allow for vaccination of half of the Indian population.”
Speaking about the vaccination process in Hyderabad, Telangana, Mr. K.T. Rama Rao said, “Hyderabad is the vaccine capital for the world but it is because of thoughtless policies of the Centre that the vaccination phase is slow when it should have been completed by now. My information is that there are at least 50 crore vaccine doses stockpiled in US and Europe, and those can be procured for vaccinating our people.”
KTR asked why the Government of India (GoI) is only dependent on two companies for COVID-19 vaccines. As of now, two India made vaccines are only being administered to people. One is Covishield, manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII,) and the second one is COVAXIN, manufactured by the Hyderabad based Bharat Biotech International Private Limited. Soon, the Russian made Sputnik V, in collaboration with the Hyderabad based Dr. Reddy’s Laboratory would also be an available vaccine for people in India.
KTR said, it is impossible for the two companies to meet the demand of the country in order to vaccinate the entire population of 135 crores. It is to be noted, the vaccination drive across India started on the 16th of January 2021 and so far administered COVID-19 vaccine doses to only 21.8 crore people. Of the total, only 4.4 crores, which is 3.2 % people are fully vaccinated with both the anti COVID-19 vaccine doses.
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