New Delhi: The Delhi Cabinet in a meeting on Wednesday chaired by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal approved the Health Department's proposal for emergency procurement of Anti Rabies Vaccine (ARV), and also granted its ex-post facto approval for the already purchased 40,000 ARVs by the Department.
The Cabinet approved the procurement of 80,000 vials of the Anti Rabies Vaccine on a single bid basis. The ARV is an essential life saving vaccine, administered to dog bite cases to prevent the deadly rabies infection. Currently, there is an acute shortage of this vaccine in Delhi hospitals, since the Central Procurement Agency could not procure due to withdrawal of rate contract by the bidder, poor availability of ARV in the open market, and other reasons, a report said.
An official statement stated, "To tackle the situation, a meeting under the Chairmanship of Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), Government of India, was held in Nirman Bhawan to find a solution. In the meeting various decisions were taken to tackle the situation. It was decided all organisations shall make all the
possible effort to overcome the shortage and if required, this vaccine may be procured from the public sector undertaking and other State Medical Service Corporations."
Considering the grim situation, the Finance Department also accorded approval to purchase 30,000 vials from a single source, since the availability of this vaccine in the local market is scarce. In the current financial year 2019-20 there is a Budget provision of Rs 297.80 crore under Central procurement Agency (CPA) for purchase of medicines, a report stated.