New Delhi, May 30: The Government of India targets to procure 20 to 25 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses by July-end and 30 crore doses in August-September, informed government sources on Sunday. This came amid reports of shortage of COVID-19 vaccines in the country as flagged by several state governments.
According to sources, the Serum Institute of India (SII) has initiated the process of ramping up the production of vaccine and will provide 10 crore doses of Covishield to the Central government by the next month and 10 to 12 crore doses by July. Serum Institute of India To Supply 1.1 Billion Doses of COVID-19 Vaccines to COVAX Vaccine Scheme as Part of New Long-Term Deal, Says UNICEF Chief Henrietta Fore.
After procuring sufficient amount of vaccine doses, the Government of India aims to inoculate 1 crore people on a daily basis, sources said. According to the Union Health Ministry, a total of 21,20,66,614 vaccine doses have been administered through 30,07,831 sessions, as per the provisional report till 7 am today. More than 30.35 Lakh (30,35,749) vaccine doses have been given in the last 24 hours.
“For the month of May, a total quantum of more than 4.03 crore (4,03,49,830) vaccine doses has been made available by the Union Government to States, free of cost. In addition, a total quantum of more than 3.90 crore (3,90,55,370) doses was also available for direct procurement by the States as well as private hospitals in the month of May 2021. Therefore, in May 2021 a total number of 7,94,05,200 doses were available for national COVID vaccination programme,” the ministry informed.
India is currently using made-in-India vaccines — Covishield manufactured by SII and Covaxin of Bharat Biotech — for its COVID-19 vaccination programme. Russian Sputnik V is the third vaccine to get approval from the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) for emergency use.
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