Telangana govt in talks with AstraZeneca, RDIF to buy one crore vaccine doses

Dr. G Srinivas Rao, Director of Public Health said the Telangana State Medical Services and Infrastructure Development Corporation (TSMSIDC) confirmed that they are in talks with AstraZeneca and RDIF, the manufacturer of Russian Sputnik-V, to procure one crore doses of Covid-19 vaccine.

He said that a consensus is expected to emerge by June 4, the last date for submitting the quotations.

Earlier, Telangana's government decision to float a global tender for one crore vaccine doses evoked a good response.

Several companies have shown interest in submitting bids for supplying the vaccines. The last date for submission of the bids is June 4. The bidders are willing to supply the vaccines directly to the state government.

The successful bidder has to supply 10 million doses within a six months period from the issuance of `Letter of Intent'. The supplies should be not less than 1.5 million doses per month. The state government has decided to vaccinate the entire four-crore population.

The state government placed an order of 10 lakh doses of Covaxin with Bharat Biotech, of which it has received 2.5 lakh doses till now.

Meanwhile, Dr. G Srinivasa Rao said the department had received 88 complaints against 64 private hospitals so far. These relate to excess and inappropriate billing, drugs-related grievances, and failure to provide patients' information.

A majority of 39 complaints were received from GHMC limits, 22 from Medchal ­Malkajgiri and 15 from Rangareddy. Show cause notices had been served on these hospitals with a deadline of 24 to 48 hours for submitting their explanation relating to the complaints.

He said that the department has canceled the permission given to a hospital for offering COVID treatment in the recent past. He said the government will derecognize the hospital if need be.