120 million vaccine doses in June: Govt

Nearly 120 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine would be available in June for the national vaccination programme, half of which would be supplied by the Centre to states free of cost, the health ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

The government said in June it will procure 60,960,000 doses for the vaccination of the priority group including healthcare and frontline workers and persons above 45 years of age.

In addition to this, 58,610,000 doses would be available with the vaccine manufacturers from direct procurement by states and private hospitals.

The health ministry has said that it would share the delivery schedule of the allocation of doses to states in advance. The government has asked the states to direct the officials concerned to ensure rational and judicious utilisation of allocated doses and minimise vaccine wastage.

The objective behind informing the states in advance of the quantum of free vaccine doses to be made available by the Centre for 15 or 30 days and the total vaccine doses available for direct procurement by states is to ensure their better planning and delivery, the health ministry said.

In May, the Centre provided over 40 million vaccine doses to states. Another 39 million doses were procured directly either by states or private hospitals. According to health ministry data, 79,405,200 doses were available for Covid vaccination during May. Around 210 million doses have so far been administered as part of the Covid vaccination drive in the country.

Since May 1, the highest number of doses given on a single day was on Saturday (May 29) with more than 3 million people getting their jab. With more than 22 million doses administered so far, Maharashtra has taken the lead in the vaccination drive. Uttar Pradesh is second with over 18 million doses, followed by Gujarat and Karnataka, which have given almost 17 million doses so far.

SII to supply 100 mn doses in June

Serum Institute of India (SII) has informed the government that it will be able to manufacture and supply 90-100 million doses of Covishield in June as compared to its production capacity of 65 million doses in May, Prakash Kumar Singh, director of government and regulatory affairs at SII, said in a recent letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah. SII said its employees had been working round the clock to produce the vaccine.