Garg said that the Punjab government reached out to several vaccine manufacturers including Sputnik-V, Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson

COVID-19 vaccine manufacturer Moderna Inc declined Punjab government’s request to procure vaccines, state nodal officer Vikas Garg said in a statement on Saturday.

Garg also said that Moderna refused to send vaccines to the state government citing their policy which outlines that the company will only deal with the Centre. “One of the Covid vaccine manufacturer ‘Moderna’ has refused to send direct vaccination to the Punjab government as according to their policy, they only deal with the Government of India and not with any state government or private parties,” the statement said.

The statement highlighted that the Punjab government approached Sputnik-V, Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson after being directed by the chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh. It also pointed out that the state government was forced to stop vaccinations due to unavailability of vaccines for the last three days.

“All efforts are being made for procurement of vaccines to meet the acute shortage in the state, which had received fewer than 44 lakh vaccine doses so far from the Government of India,” the statement further added.

Garg’s statement pointed out that Punjab has been able to buy only 4.2 lakh vaccine doses, including 66,000 doses which were received on Saturday. Garg said that 3.5 lakh doses have already been used and the state is left with 64,000 doses currently.

Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh on May 20 had directed the health department to look out for possibilities if a global tender can be floated to meet the vaccination requirements of the state. He also said that the government has the capacity to store at least 35 lakh doses of Sputnik-V vaccine.

Garg said out of all the vaccine manufacturers, it was only Moderna which replied to the Punjab government’s query. The statement did not specify if other vaccine manufacturers replied to Punjab’s proposal.

Punjab reported 5,421 fresh Covid-19 cases on Saturday taking the tally to 5,33,973. The state also registered 201 Covid-19 fatalities pushing the death toll to 13,089. Punjab currently has 61,203 active cases of Covid-19.