On Monday, India vaccinated a record 8.5 million individuals till 10 pm, the day that marked the beginning of the new phase of the vaccine drive in the country. If it continues this way, then the country would need 260 million doses next month.

By the day’s end, more than 233 million people had received at least one vaccine dose and over 50 million were fully vaccinated. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also tweeted that the vaccine is the strongest weapon in the fight against COVID-19. He congratulated those who got vaccinated and praised the front-line warriors who worked hard to guarantee that people in such large numbers got the vaccine. 

Serum Institute of India (SII) will produce 100 million doses of Covishield in July, and maybe more from the month of August. Bharat Biotech will produce 20-25 million doses in July and the capacity will probably double from August. The Union Health Ministry said that the production of Covaxin was being raised from 10 million doses a month in April to 60-70 million a month by July-August. It will likely reach approximately 100 million a month by September.

It is still not clear how many doses of Sputnik V vaccine will be available in the month of July, and if local production will begin in August. Dr. Reddy’s will market the first 250 million doses of Sputnik V in the country. The company said that all required supply arrangements are being made to make sure that both dose components are available in the right quantity and at the right time at the partner hospitals. Dr. Reddy’s will announce the commercial launch of the vaccineas soon as the pilot phase is completed.

On Monday, nearly every state had vaccinated the most people in one day till now; however, few have warned that they might not be able to keep with the pace unless the supplies were refilled. A Union government official said that refills will be done periodically and there won’t be a shortage of vaccines. 

Till Monday evening, almost 24.6% of the eligible 940 million people received at least one dose of the vaccine.

Source: Hindustan Times