India’s largest hospital chain, Apollo Hospitals has stated that it is ready to administer around one million coronavirus vaccine doses a day, however, the government has not made it clear about the distribution of vaccines and whether private health-care systems will also be involved.

Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Ltd. has trained 6,000 staff to give shots across its network of 71 hospitals, hundreds of their clinics and thousands of its pharmacies, as per the Managing Director Suneeta Reddy. She said that the company is in talks with officials in New Delhi about providing any firm guidance.

Reddy said in an interview that they need to know if the government alone wants to handle the whole situation or allow the private sector also. Apollo is ready to offer help in any capacity. She also said that the government can do it, but it will take a lot of time.

Krishna Ella, the chairman of Bharat Biotech International Ltd, said that there will be a flood of COVID vaccines in the coming five to six months. They are also producing one of India’s leading indigenous candidates.

Apollo is telling clients via its digital app that a shot will be available in 60-120 days and clients and customers will be the first ones to know about it.

Apollo Hospitals was in talks with the Serum Institute of India Ltd., which is the world’s largest vaccine maker and has already produced millions of doses of AstraZeneca Plc’s shot. However, Reddy said that developers are waiting for instruction from New Delhi because all of them had committed capacity with the government first.

Private hospitals in India are criticized for being on the side-linesin the coronavirus crisis. Though the private sector holds for around 60% of India’s total hospital bed capacity, however there were reported examples of few private hospitals and doctors who had refused to treat COVID-19 patients as cases were increasing in India from June.

Apollo has treated above 30,000 COVID patients and offered about 400,000 tests. India has approximately 10 million cases of the coronavirus and is adding more than 30,000 new infections daily.

Source: ET Healthworld