US pharmaceutical giants Pfizer and Moderna have made it clear they won't sell vaccines directly to Delhi, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said today, stressing that vaccine manufacturers have underlined "they will deal with the central government". Vaccine rollout for the 18-44 age group was paused on Saturday in Delhi due to the shortage of doses.
"We've spoken to Pfizer and Moderna for vaccines, and both the manufacturers have refused to sell vaccines directly to us. They have said they will deal with the central government. We appeal to the centre to import vaccines and distribute to the states," Mr Kejriwal told reporters this afternoon.
His statement comes a day after Punjab said Moderna has refused to sell vaccines to the state directly. The Amarinder Singh government had reached out to all such manufacturers, according to officials, looking for direct purchases.
Meanwhile, fresh COVID-19 infections in India dipped to 2,22,315, the lowest in around 38 days, pushing the total tally of coronavirus cases to 2,67,52,447, while the deaths crossed the 3-lakh mark, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Monday.
The death count climbed to 3,03,720 with 4,454 daily deaths, the data updated at 8 am showed.
India had registered 2,17,353 new infections on April 16.
The active cases have further reduced to 27,20,716 comprising 10.17 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has improved to 88.69 per cent. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 2,37,28,011, while the case fatality rate has increased to 1.14 per cent, the data stated.
