Bengaluru: To meet the increased demand and to facilitate vaccination of those in the age group of 18 – 44 years,   2 crore COVID vaccines will be procured through global tender, said Deputy Chief Minister and State COVID Task Force Chairman Dr. C.N. Ashwathnarayan.

In addition to this, an order has been placed for 3 crore vaccines which include 1 crore Covaxin and 2 crore Covishield, he informed media persons after chairing a high-level meeting here yesterday.

He said “till now we had depended only on vaccines supplied by the Union Government and it was not procured from the open market by floating tender. Now, it has been instructed to float the tender and to complete the process within 7 days.”

Pulse oximeter bank 

Authorities have also been instructed to procure 1 lakh pulse oximeters and these will be distributed to all the districts and taluks. It will be the responsibility of the District Health Officers (DHOs) and Taluk Health Officers (THOs) to take back  the pulse oximeters after patients are cured. Later they will be used for creating a pulse oximeter bank in the State. 

The Deputy CM said 10 lakh Ivermectin, the tablet which is required to treat the infected, has been procured and the supply of this will begin from May 14. It has been also asked to further procure 25 lakh tablets and should be made available in all hospitals across the State. 

As many as 35 lakh zinc tablets and 1 crore calcigen tablets will be procured and will be made available in all District Hospitals, Taluk Hospitals, PHCs, and community health centres, he said.

Currently, 10.50 lakh RAT kits are in stock and this will be enough for 7 days. Another, 50,000 RAT kits are  being supplied every day. In addition to this, it has directed to procure 37 lakh RT-PCR kits, he noted.

Triaging to be mandatory 

Dr. Ashwathnarayan said triaging would be made mandatory to avoid unnecessary occupancy of beds and requested the urbanites not to go to villages for Covid vaccination.