Over 1.33 crore COVID vaccine doses still available with states: Centre

Over 25 crore vaccine doses have been provided to states and UTs so far, through the government of India (free of cost channel) and through direct state procurement category.

PTI
June 09, 2021 / 02:23 PM IST

Over 25 crore vaccine doses have been provided to states and UTs so far, through the government of India (free of cost channel) and through direct state procurement category.

More than 1.33 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses are still available with states and union territories and over 3 lakh doses are in the pipeline and will be received by them within the next three days, the Union health ministry said on Wednesday.

Over 25 crore vaccine doses have been provided to states and UTs so far, through the government of India (free of cost channel) and through direct state procurement category.

Of this, the total consumption, including wastage, is 23,74,21,808 doses (according to data available at 8 am on Wednesday), the ministry said.

"A total of 1,33,68,727 COVID-19 vaccine doses are still available with states and UTs to be administered.

"Furthermore, 3,81,750 vaccine doses are in the pipeline and will be received by states and UTs within the next three days," the ministry said.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

View more
How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

View more
Show

As part of the nationwide vaccination drive, the government of India has been supporting states and UTs by providing them Covid vaccines free of cost.

In addition, the government of India has also been facilitating direct procurement of vaccines by states and UTs.

Vaccination is an integral pillar of the comprehensive strategy of the government of India for containment and management of the pandemic, along with ''test, track, treat'' and Covid appropriate behaviour.

Implementation of the liberalised and accelerated phase-3 strategy of Covid vaccination had started from May 1 this year.

Under the strategy, in every month 50 per cent of the total Central Drugs Laboratory (CDL) cleared vaccine doses of any manufacturer would be procured by the government of India.

It would continue to make these doses available to the state governments totally free of cost as was being done earlier, the ministry said.
PTI
TAGS: #coronavirus #Covid-19 #Current Affairs #India #vaccine
first published: Jun 9, 2021 02:25 pm