Stalin asks GoI to allot more vaccines to Govt hospitals

Stalin also asked the union government to make compensatory allocations to states that have been allocated a lower number of doses per capita.

In his demi-official letter to the union health minister, Stalin urged the union health ministry to revise the inter-se allocation between the government and private institutions to 90:10 as against the current allocation of 75:25. Pointing out that of the 1.43 crore doses used so far in the state, private hospitals account for only 4.5% (6.5 lakh doses), the CM said the above demand-supply mismatch between govt and private institutions have created a situation where private hospitals have 7-8 lakh doses, which is equivalent to their one month performance, whereas govt hospitals only have two lakh doses, which is less than their current single day usage.

Suggesting that it could be rectified only by a more rational and performance based distribution of available vaccine doses, the CM said the allotment of 25% of manufactured vaccines to private institutions might be to incentivize manufacturers by allowing them to sell a portion at a comparatively better price. While this is acceptable, the need for a better blended pricing for vaccine manufacturers should not be allowed to undermine our immediate goal of vaccinating our people at maximum possible speed.

Stating that it could be achieved by increasing allocation to performing government hospitals, Stalin suggested that the procurement price of the union government could be increased to ensure that the manufacturers are not affected by reduction in share to private hospitals.

The CM also asked the ministry to evaluate the vaccine doses allotted to various states so far, in terms of doses allotted per thousand population and ensure that necessary compensatory allocation are made to states who have been allotted lower number of doses per capita.

Claiming that vaccine allocation to Tamil Nadu has been one of the lowest in terms of doses per thousand population in the country, Stalin drew GoIs attention to his request for allocation of one crore doses to the state not being done and said that incremental increase in allocation in June-July is just in line with increases made available to other state who had got higher allotment in the past and therefore have already vaccinated more people. The chief minister added that continuous efforts of his government to eliminate vaccine hesitancy has tripled Tamil Nadu’s daily performance of vaccination during the current month, but availability of vaccines has emerged as the principal constraint in the last few weeks, after the pick up in vaccination.