COVID-19 Vaccine: Delivery of Sputnik V to India will begin by end of April

On Thursday, April 15, Indian Ambassador to Russia, Bala Venkatesh Varma said that the first batch of Russia’s COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik V will be delivered to India in April.

Bala Venkatesh Varma said, “What we heard from companies is that by the end of this month, the first shipment will take place and the production will be launched there in May and slowly increase,” as quoted by Russian news agency Sputnik.

Bala Venkatesh also said that the volume of vaccine production in India will be gradually increasing and may exceed 50 million doses per month.

Earlier on Thursday, Russian Deputy Envoy to India, Roman Babushkin had said that Sputnik vaccine emergency use approval by India will open up a new dimension in the special partnership to Russia.

Roman Babushkin said that– “As far as Sputnik vaccine approval is concerned, this is a very significant step because it will open up a new dimension in our special privileged strategic partnership. It would definitely support efforts of vaccination in India.

By approving it for use, India has become the 60th country to authorise the use of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine against coronavirus.

Central government has started to accelerate the production of COVID-19 vaccines, as many states are asking for more doses of vaccination and complaining for the shortage of vaccines.

India is currently manufacturing two vaccines in India, Covishield of Serum institute and Covaxin of Bharat Biotech, and after getting approval of Sputnik V, soon India will now get 4 more vaccines.

In the last 24 hours, India reported 2,17,353 new COVID-19 cases and reached the milestone of highest single day surge and 1,18,302 patients got discharge, while 1,185 people died of this deadly virus. Total active cases in India is now around 15.6 lakhs.