Serum to supply nearly 22 cr doses of Covishield vaccine to Centre in Oct

The Serum Institute of India (SII) has informed the government that it will be able to supply nearly 22 crore doses of Covishield next month as the Centre has announced resuming export of surplus Covid-19 vaccines in the coming fourth quarter under the 'Vaccine Maitri' programme.

In a communication to the Centre on Monday, Prakash Kumar Singh, Director, Government and Regulatory Affairs at SII, said the company has enhanced its production capacity of Covishield and it will be able to supply 21.90 crore doses in October to GoI and private hospitals.

The Pune-headquartered vaccine maker has enhanced the manufacturing capacity of Covishield to over 20 crore doses per month.

“Starting from January 2021, we have supplied 66.33 crore doses of Covishield to MoHFW, Government of India in addition to supply of more than 7.77 crore doses to state governments and private hospitals till 19th September 2021 evening,” the pharmaceutical company stated. 

"All this has become possible under the dynamic leadership and kind direction of our Prime Minister Narendra Modi Ji, continuous support from team Ministry of Health and GoI, visionary leadership of our CEO, Dr Adar C Poonawalla, along with untiring efforts of Team SIIPL," news agency PTI quoted a source as saying.

Singh further assured that by December end, keeping with the timeline, the company will complete the recent supply order of 66 crore Covid-19 vaccine doses.

"At this juncture, I can assure you that by December 31, 2021, we will complete supply of 66 crore doses of Covishield against the recent order and will touch supplies of more than 130 crore doses of Covishield in the year 2021. We are working relentlessly to fulfill our prime minister's dream for successful completion of world's largest vaccination drive so that our country overcomes Covid-19 pandemic," the communication stated.

Meanwhile, Chairman and Managing Director of Bharat Biotech International Ltd, Krishna Ella said that Covaxin production would touch 55 million doses in October as against 35 million in September.

India will resume exports of surplus Covid vaccines

Earlier on Monday, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said that the country will resume export of surplus Covid-19 vaccines in the fourth quarter of 2021 under the 'Vaccine Maitri' programme and to meet its commitment to the COVAX global pool, but vaccinating its own citizens remains the topmost priority of the government.

Talking about the expected production and supply trends in the coming months, the minister said the Centre will receive over 30 crore doses of Covid-19 vaccines in October and more than 100 crore doses in the coming quarter from October-December. 

The cumulative doses administered in the country so far under the countrywide Covid-19 vaccination drive has crossed 82 crore.

Of all the vaccine doses administered, around 88.45% are Covishield, around 11.44% are Bharat Biotech's Covaxin and less than 1% are Sputnik V.

India on September 17 administered a record number of over 2.50 crore Covid-19 vaccine doses on the occasion of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 71st birthday.

The daily Covid-19 vaccination in the country was over 1 crore on September 6, August 31 and August 27.

India took 85 days to touch the 10-crore vaccination mark, 45 more days to cross the 20-crore mark and 29 more days to reach the 30-crore mark, according to the ministry.

The country took 24 days to reach 40 crore from 30 crore doses and then 20 more days to cross the 50-crore vaccination mark on August 6, it said.

It took 19 more days to go past the 60-crore mark and took only 13 days to reach 70 crore from 60 crore on September 7.

It then took just 11 days to reach 80 crore from 70 crore. 

According to reports, more than 22% of the country's adult population have received both doses of coronavirus vaccine and around 65% have got at least one dose.

With agency inputs