Can supply 100mn doses by June: Serum to Centre
UTS,” it said.
For the month of May, 4,03,49,830 vaccine doses have been made available by the Union Government to states.
In addition, 3,90,55,370 doses were available for direct procurement by the states as well as private hospitals in May. “Therefore, in May 2021 a total number of 7,94,05,200 doses were available for the national Covid vaccination programme,” the ministry said.
Meanwhile, India recorded a single-day rise of 1,65,553 new Covid-19 cases, the lowest in 46 days, taking the country’s infection tally to 2,78,94,800, according to Union Health Ministry data updated on Sunday.
The daily positivity declined to 8.02 per cent, remaining below the 10 per cent-mark for the sixth consecutive day, while the weekly positivity rate dropped to 9.36 per cent, it said.
The death toll due to the disease climbed to 3,25,972 in the country with 3,460 fatalities being recorded in a span of 24 hours, the data updated at 8 am showed. Also, 20,63,839 Covid-19 tests were conducted in the country on Saturday, taking the total number so far to 34,31,83,748, the ministry said.
Serum Institute of India (SII) has informed the government that it will be able to manufacture and supply nine to 10 crore doses of Covishield in June, official sources said on Sunday amid complaint by states about the shortage of anticoronavirus vaccine jabs.
In a recent letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, SII said its employees have been working round the clock in spite of various challenges because of the pandemic.
“We are pleased to inform that in the month of 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.
Singh also thanked Shah for his “valuable guidance and continuous support” at various stages of their endeavour to make India ‘aatmanirbhar’ (self-sufficient) in Covid-19 vaccines and making it available for the people of the country.
“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.” 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. NEW DELH: