Vaccine for all: India to have 2 billion doses between August and December

Dr VK Paul, chairman of the national task force on Covid-19 and Niti Aayog member said that apart from a total of 216 crore doses, other foreign vaccines may also become available.

New Delhi: As many as 8 companies including Bharat Biotech and Serum Institute of India (SII) will provide over 2 billion doses to innoculate the Indian population between August and December.

Informing this in New Delhi on Thursday, Dr VK Paul, chairman of the national task force on Covid-19 and Niti Aayog member said that apart from a total of 216 crore doses, other foreign vaccines may also become available.

Dr Paul said that 75 crore Covishield vaccine will be made available during August-December followed by 55 crore Covaxin, 30 crore Bio E Sub unit vaccine, 5 crore Zydus Cadila DNA vaccine, 20 crore SII – Novavax, 10 crore Bharat Biotech’s nasal vaccine, 6 crore Gennova mRNA vaccine and 15.6 crore Sputnik vaccine.

“Apart from Covaxin and Covishield, all the vaccines are in the final stage and a few will shortly apply for emergency use authorization,” said Dr Paul and added “we are also expecting to touch 300 crore vaccines in our country very shortly.”

He said that Covaxin has been highly welcomed by all stakeholders during the process.

Giving more details on the vaccine procurement ever since the mega immunization process started in India from January 16, Dr Paul said that out of the total of 35.6 crore vaccine (Covishield–27.6 & Covaxin-8) procured for ongoing vaccination drive so far, 6.6 crore vaccines (Covishield - 5.6 & Covaxin -1) under PM Cares Fund have been utilized in full.

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He said that 1 crore Covishield under GAVI-COVAX has been utilized fully. Similarly, out of 12 crore vaccines (Covishield -10 & Covaxin -2) procured by the central government for phase II immunization, 86 percent has been received and the rest will be received by the end of May.

Dr Paul said that the supply for 16 crore vaccines (Covishield -11 & Covaxin -5) for phase III immunization will begin in May and end in July and vaccines have been procured by the central government.

“16 crore additional doses in the pipeline (under direct procurement) to States & private hospitals. Hence we have presently been utilizing a total of 51.6 crore doses,” informed Dr Paul.

He said that from next week Russian-made SputnikV will also be available in the market. “Good news is from July, the manufacturer (Dr Reddy’s) will start manufacturing SputnikV in India,” said Dr Paul.

“All people in India will get vaccines,” he assured.

He said that under the new liberalized strategy, the government of India has made all-out efforts to enable foreign vaccine manufacturers to obtain expeditious approvals from the national regulator.

“FDA and WHO licensed vaccines can easily come to India. We expect that Pfizer, Moderna and J&J will also come to India and start manufacturing Covid19 vaccines. We are in constant touch with these vaccine manufacturers. Talk is going on with all these three companies at the highest level of diplomatic channels,” said Dr Paul.

He said that States have been advised to operationalize dedicated procurement teams which should remain in daily contact with vaccine manufacturers as well as private hospitals.

Dr Paul said that in the month of May, 1.65 crore free doses have been supplied by the government of India to States and UTs. Similarly, 2.35 crore more free doses will be supplied by the central government to States and UTs in May.

He further informed that 1.23 crore doses have been directly procured by States and UTs whereas more 1.27 crore doses will be directly procured by States and UTs in May. As many as 0.80 crore doses have been directly procured by private hospitals in May.

Refuting the Delhi government’s claim on the unavailability of vaccines, Dr Paul said that enough Covaxin has been distributed to the Delhi government. “In addition, the Delhi government is also directly procuring vaccines from the manufacturer,” said Dr Paul.

Raising an issue where vaccine manufacturers have been pressurized by different quarters, Dr Paul said, “companies should not be pressurized. We also should not demoralize the scientists and workers,” said Dr Paul.

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