Govt says have orders for over 160 million covid-19 vaccine doses till July
Premium- The government also has over 23 million doses that are yet to be delivered from its previous orders of the two covid-19 vaccines Covaxin and Covishield
NEW DELHI : The government on Monday said it has already placed orders for 160 million doses of Covishield and Covaxin combined, which will be delivered from this month till July. It also has over 23 million doses that are yet to be delivered from its previous orders of the two covid-19 vaccines.
The statement was apart of a rebuttal to a report on Monday that said the Centre has not yet placed fresh orders with the two Indian vaccine manufacturers—Serum Institute of India (SII) and Bharat Biotech—for Covishield and Covaxin respectively.
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1 min read . 10:02 AM ISTThe Union health ministry said that the government has already paid an advance of Rs1,699.50 crore, after deducting tax at source, to Serum Institute for 11 crore doses of Covishield, as well as Rs772.50 crore to Bharat Biotech for 50 million doses of Covaxin. Both payments were made on 28 April, and the orders are expected to start from this month and go on till July, the government said.
Apart from the fresh orders, the government also has about 12.6 million doses of Covishield and 11.2 million doses of Covaxin that are still to be delivered from the previous orders of 100 million and 20 million respectively, the health ministry said.
Serum Institute on Monday issued a statement endorsing the one issued by health ministry.
“We remain committed to ramping up our vaccine production to save every life we can," the company said on Twitter.
The Pune-based firm is planning to scale up manufacturing capacity of Covishield to 100 million doses per month by July from 60-70 million currently.
Bharat Biotech is also planning to scale up its capacity in a staggered manner from 10 million doses per month to about 20 million by June, 60-70 million by August and then 100 million by September. The capacity expansion would be done through scaling up of its own plant as well as through partnerships with three state-owned companies—Indian Immunologicals Ltd, Bharat Immunologicals and Biologicals Corporation Ltd and Haffkine Biopharmaceuticals Ltd.
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1 min read . 03:15 PM ISTAbout 3 million doses of vaccine were being administered each day in April, and this pace is expected to increase this month after the Centre opened up vaccination for all adults starting 1 May as compared with only healthcare and front line workers and people of age 45 years and above last month.
The health ministry also said states currently have more than 7.8 million doses available in their inventory that are yet to be administered, while over 5.6 million doses will be provided to them in the next three days.
“Under the Liberalized Pricing and Accelerated National Covid-19 Vaccination Strategy, Govt of India would continue to procure its share of 50% of the monthly Central Drugs Laboratory (CDL) cleared vaccines & would continue to make it available to the state governments totally free of cost as was being done earlier," the health ministry said.
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