CM asks centre to procure COVID-19 vaccines for Tamil Nadu

After pharma companies announced differential pricing for states, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, on Monday, wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging the Centre to procure and supply the required quantum of vaccines for people between 18 and 45 in Tamil Nadu.

“Differential price mechanism is inherently unfair since it places a higher financial burden on states. It is also iniquitous since the state governments have considerably less fiscal resources at their command than the central government," the Chief Minister wrote.

Recently, the central government announced the third phase of vaccination in which the vaccine policy was extended to all those above the age of 18. Following the announcement, the Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech had announced differential pricing for the state, centre, and private hospitals.

Chief Minister said that since states were given the responsibility to administer vaccines for people between 18 and 45, there is an additional financial burden on the state governments. “Since the budgetary provision of Rs 35,000 has been made for the COVID-19 vaccination program, states have a legitimate expectation that the central government would supply the COVID-19 vaccines in phase 3," Palaniswami said.

He added that the central government can also explore alternative sources of supply of vaccines including possible imports to ensure that the vaccine rollout takes place smoothly across the country and expeditiously in the coming weeks.