Mumbai: The global tender floated by the Maharashtra government for vaccines hasn't received any response from foreign companies yet. Due to this, the validity of the tender has been extended till May 25.
State Health Minister Rajesh Tope said the reason why foreign companies haven't shown interest could be because the Centre has not given all requisite permissions to the state governments to procure vaccines. "But, it won't be too long before the global tender gets a response. Soon, the state will have five crore vaccines," he said.
5L vaccines available
The state currently has a repository of three lakh Covishield and two lakh Covaxin doses. "These vaccines have been kept aside for the second dose," Tope said.
Speaking about the number of cases, he said the recovery rate of patients in Maharashtra has gone up to 90 per cent, a 10 per cent increase compared to the recovery rate recorded during the peak. Currently, the mortality rate in the state is only 0.5 per cent, he said.
Also read: 111 cases of Mucormycosis reported in Mumbai
According to Tope, 2.31 crore people in the state have been vaccinated and this is the highest by any state so far.
Increase in Mucormycosis cases
As on Wednesday, at least 1,500 cases of Mucormycosis were reported in the state, of which around 500 patients had recovered, Tope said.
"A drug named Amphotericin B is effective in treating Mucormycosis. However, control over the production of this drug lies with the central government. The Maharashtra government has already placed a request before the Centre to grant us more vials of the drug," Tope said.
He said, the state is in need of 2 lakh doses of Amphotericin B. However, the Uddhav Thackeray-government has ordered only 1.10 lakh doses, which will be available after May 31.
He also said the the state government will issue a global tender for Amphotericin B too. "Tomorrow (Thursday), 17 district collectors from the state are going to have a video conference with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. During this conference, we will update him on the Mucormycosis cases and also demand more Amphotericin B vials," he said.
