SII to supply 200 mn doses, Bharat Biotech 35 million
THE INCREASE IN SUPPLIES WILL BE A SIGNIFICANT BOOST FROM THE 185 MILLION SHOTS ADMINISTERED IN AUGUST
NEW DELHI: Serum Institute of India (SII) is expected to supply 200 million doses of Covishield and Bharat Biotech 35 million doses of Covaxin this month, government officials said on Friday, while adding that supplies have now reached a level where they have surpassed the demand.
The September supplies number quoted by the official represent a significant boost. Last month, India administered 185 million doses.
“In terms of Covid-19 vaccine supplies, we have reached the stage where government is able to provide states the volume of doses they demand based on their vaccine administration capacity. No state can now be seen complaining that they were in a position to administer more vaccine doses than what they were administering in a single day but were not doing that because of the short vaccine supply from the Centre,” said the senior government functionary, asking not to be named.
On Friday, more than 20 million doses were administered, making it a record. It was only the fourth time the country crossed the number of 10 million vaccinations a day.
The number of doses available will further get a boost of close to 10 million doses when shipments of the recently approved Zydus Cadila Zycov-d vaccine arrive. These are scheduled to be available either by September-end or by early October, according to a government official privy to the development.
The number of available and unutilised vaccine doses has also seen a jump lately, with 50 million doses available on an average almost each day for states in the month of September. “Close to 77 million doses were pending with states on Friday for use in the programme (vaccinations on Friday). The availability, on average, has been around 50 million doses for a while now, and that speaks volumes about how there is no vaccine shortage anymore in the country,” the official quoted above said.
“We are fortunate enough to be able to produce the vaccines locally, and the central government has provided enough support to companies in research and development, and also monetary support,” the official added.
The Centre has also asked states to prioritise recipients due for their second doses, and to even conduct special campaigns, if required, earmarking certain days and centres for the exercise so that no one misses their second dose.
Vaccine manufacturers typically inform the government about availability of doses 4-5 days before the start of a new month, helping plan the distribution across the country.
Nearly 62% of country’s all adult population has received at least first Covid-19 vaccine doses, and 20% of the population is fully vaccinated, according to the government data. India targets vaccinating all adults by the end of December 2021. “Vaccine hesitancy is more or less down now, and we have been administering on average about 6-7 million doses per day for a while,” said the official, adding that the government will look at exporting doses once the country’s population is taken care of.
Experts say while the vaccination rate seems to have improved, still it was too early to announce that vaccine hesitancy was over among people. “To an extent it does look like that many of those who are coming to take the shot now are those who were initially hesitant to get vaccinated. However, to say that vaccine hesitancy is over would be too early to say because we have to look at how north and central Indian states do as these are the regions that are known to be vaccine hesitant even for childhood vaccinations. The hesitancy is actually seen in states such as UP, MP, etc, and once these states cover 60-70% population with first dose then it will be a big deal. Mid to late October will be crucial,” said Chandrakant Lahariya, senior public health and vaccine expert.