India aims to procure 20-25 crore COVID-19 vaccine by July end: Report

New Delhi: Amid continuous efforts to accelerate the vaccination process in the country, the Centre on Sunday (May 30, 2021) said that it targets to procure 20-25 crore coronavirus vaccine doses by July-end, and 30 crore doses in August-September.

News agency ANI quoted government sources as saying that the Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) will provide 10 crore doses of the Covishield vaccine to the Govt next month (June) and 10-12 crore doses by the month of July. 

The SII officials in a recent letter addressed to Home Minister Amit Shah said that their employees have been working round the clock in spite of the challenges that the pandemic presents. 

“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.

The Government of India also targets to inoculate 1 crore people on a daily basis, sources said. According to the Union Health Ministry, a total of 21,20,66,614 vaccine doses have been administered through 30,07,831 sessions, as per the provisional report till 7 am today. More than 30.35 Lakh (30,35,749) vaccine doses have been given in the last 24 hours.

"For the month of May, a total quantum of more than 4.03 crore (4,03,49,830) vaccine doses has been made available by the Union Government to States, free of cost. In addition, a total quantum of more than 3.90 crore (3,90,55,370) doses was also available for direct procurement by the States as well as private hospitals in the month of May 2021. Therefore, in May 2021 a total number of 7,94,05,200 doses were available for the national COVID vaccination programme," the ministry informed. 

India is currently using made-in-India vaccines -- Covishield manufactured by SII and Covaxin of Bharat Biotech -- for its COVID-19 vaccination programme. Russian Sputnik V is the third vaccine to get approval from the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) for emergency use. 

Meanwhile, India on Monday (May 31, 2021) reported 1,52,734 new COVID-19 cases, the lowest daily rise in cases in the past 50 days. The country also reported 3,128 deaths and 2,38,022 discharges in the past 24 hours.

(With Agency inputs)

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