PremiumThe Serum Institute of India has informed the central government that it will be able to manufacture and supply 10 crore doses of its anti-coronavirus vaccine, Covishield in June.
In a recent letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, the Pune-based vaccine manufacturing company said its employees have been working round the clock to meet the rising demand for the Covid vaccines in the country.
"We are pleased to inform that in June we will be able to manufacture and supply nine to 10 crore doses of our Covishield vaccine to the country as compared to our production capacity of 6.5 crore doses in May," Prakash Kumar Singh, the Director of Government and Regulatory Affairs at SII, said in the letter.
In early May, SII had communicated to the Centre that production of Covishield would be ramped up to 6.5 crore in June, seven crore in July and 10 crore each in August and September.
"Serum Institute of India has always been sincerely concerned about the protection of the citizens of our country and world at large from COVID-19. Under the leadership of our CEO, Adar C Poonawalla, our team have been working relentlessly shoulder to shoulder with our government to fight the COVID-19 pandemic," he said in the letter.
"We assure you that with the support of the Government of India and under your kind guidance, we are trying our best by utilizing all of our resources to increase our production capacity of Covishield in the coming month also."
India is currently using made-in-India vaccines -- Covishield manufactured by SII and Covaxin of Bharat Biotech -- in its Covid-19 vaccination drive.
The Russian Sputnik V is the third vaccine to get approval from the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) for emergency use and is being used in a few private hospitals.
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