Coronavirus Cases in India Live, Covid-19 Vaccine Update India: The Narendra Modi government has introduced new changes in the CoWin settings which will allow the beneficiaries in the 18-44 group to go for on-site registration. Yes, it's a good step. The Centre has also promised more doses for the states in the next 72 hours. All this looks very promising, but there seems to be no coherent policy on the national level to vaccinate the 133 crore Indians. After states say that 'Big Pharma' is turning them down, will the Centre now decide on procuring the vaccines? Or should it all be left to Q3 supplies promised to us in August? As the nation debates over the vaccination agenda, here are the latest coronavirus-related updates from India and around the world:
India on Tuesday recorded 1,96,427 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours. It's the first time since April 14 that the country has seen the daily Covid numbers going below the 2 lakh mark. There's a slight dip in the fatalities also. According to the health ministry data, 3,511 Covid deaths were recorded in the last 24 hours. The number of tests carried out in a day also stood above 20 lakh, the ICMR data says. However, most of these tests may be antigen as the ICMR had said that it would like the local officials to go far faster results.
Two things are very clear - a. There is a massive shortage of vaccines in India; b. India is late in ordering vaccines. No matter what the Centre says, the truth of the matter is that the nations around the world were lining up and pre-ordering vaccines as early as August last year. India on the other hand started ordering vaccines in January and that too in very little numbers. This means that if now India tries to consult either Pfizer or Moderna, they simply can't supply any jabs to us. Reason - they are already contractually bound to deliver vaccines to those who have already ordered vax in 2020 and paid up for it. Essentially, India missed the bus! For us, this means that the pace of vaccination would be painfully slow and the officials will have to resort to lockdowns to reduce the viral load.
It was seen as the answer to the vaccine problem. With the Centre putting the states in the driver's seat, the new formula gave freedom to the states to choose from lots of pharma players across the world. 'Global tender' was the buzzword. So what happened? Well, in short, nothing! With great fanfare, the state governments floated the global tenders only to be turned down by the foreign vaccine producers. Here is the state-wise status check: Uttar Pradesh - The global tender was floated for 4 crore doses. The date for submitting the application was May 13. No company has shown interest so far. The deadline has now been extended to May 31s. The same is the case with Uttarakhand. As of now, the state officials say that they are in the talks but no deal or player has been named yet. Maharashtra, the worst-hit state, floated a global tender for 5 crore doses. Nobody responded. Russia's Sputnik was contacted over mail. Be it Tamil Nadu or Kerala or Karnataka, its the same story everywhere.
