Disheartened, says Bharat Biotech, as two chief ministers complain of slow Covaxin rollout

HYDERABAD: A day after Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and

Andhra Pradesh CM

YS Jaganmohan Reddy urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to allow other companies to manufacture Covaxin and Covishield to tide over the vaccine crunch,

Bharat Biotech

has termed the complaints as “disheartening”.



Some states complaining about the company’s intentions was disheartening at a time when the company was trying to churn out vaccines despite manpower and lockdown challenges, Bharat Biotech’s joint managing director Suchitra Ella said the company had dispatched Covaxin to 18 states, which includes Delhi and AP.

"Covaxin dispatched 10/5/21.18 states have been covered thou in smaller shipments. Quite disheartening to the teams to hear Some states complaining about our intentions. 50 of our employees are off work due to

covid

, yet we continue to work under pandemic lockdowns 24x7 for U,” Ella tweeted early on Wednesday




Both Kejriwal and Jagan on Tuesday wrote to PM Modi pointing out that the current supply of vaccine doses is not enough to cater to the country’s demand and sought transfer of Covaxin technology to other companies to enable quick ramp-up of vaccines.