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‘No vaccine shortage, states have used only 54 of 80 million doses sent’
On an average, over the week, India has administered 2.3 million doses a day. At this rate, accounting for wastage of about 6.5% (as estimated by the government), the existing stock will last for around eight days.
States across the country have together used up 54 million of the roughly 80 million doses of coronavirus vaccines distributed till now, according to government figures as of 8pm on Thursday, as officials maintained that the country has adequate doses for now while more are expected to be shipped within the next week.
On average, over the week, India has administered 2.3 million doses a day. At this rate, accounting for wastage of about 6.5% (as estimated by the government), the existing stock will last for around eight days.
Last week, India placed orders for 120 million more doses. “We expect these shipments to begin over the weekend – almost certainly before the end of the month,” said a person aware of the vaccine logistics, asking not to be named.
Government officials have not shared details of stocks in different regions, and multiple states, including Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, West Bengal and Maharashtra, have in the past month raised concerns of looming shortages over the past month.
“India has enough supplies to vaccinate its vulnerable population,” Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan said on the sidelines of the ministry’s weekly media briefing on Covid-19 on Wednesday. “Centre has distributed 80,700,000 Covid-19 vaccine doses to all states and union territories so far, and has enough supplies to cater to country’s demands” he added.
“We are receiving the vaccine doses regularly, there is no problem with the supply. There is no shortage in the institute,” said Dr DK Sharma, medical superintendent, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi.
A senior Delhi government official, who asked not to be named, too said that there was no shortage in the state.
India’s vaccine stocks appear to be on a stronger footing, especially when compared to the European Union where low stocks have triggered police raids on warehouses and diplomatic disputes with other nations such as the UK and Australia.
The situation in the country is helped by the capacity of India’s pharma industry – Serum Institute of India, which is manufacturing Covishield (the dose developed as AZD1222 by Oxford-AstraZeneca), is the world’s largest vaccine maker by volume. SII CEO Adar Poonawalla has in the past said he expects production capacity to reach 100 million doses a month this year.
“In case of emergencies, we are equipped to ship large tranches at short notice to any part of the country,” the person quoted above added.
While India’s vaccination rate is the second highest in the world (behind US), it also has a large population it needs to target. With the country having entered its second wave of the pandemic, with cases accelerating at the fastest pace seen yet, experts are calling for people and the government to do more to quicken the vaccination campaign.
“Vaccine hesitancy is common whenever there is a new vaccine in market, and since it is one of the key measures to control the outbreak, the primary job of all stakeholders is to ensure concerns regarding vaccines are allayed. The government is making an effort in this direction,” said Dr GC Khilnani, former head, department of pulmonology, AIIMS, Delhi.
Government experts have reiterated on several occasions recently that both vaccines approved for use in India are safe, and there was no clotting reported related to Covishled in the country as was the case abroad due to which some European countries paused use of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.
The other vaccine in use is Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin.
“Covishield is safe and there is no signal of concern regarding it as of now,” said Dr VK Paul, member (health), Niti Aayog during the briefing on Wednesday.
India’s adverse effect monitoring mechanism did not find any concerns, he added.
ICMR director general Dr Balram Bhargava, at the same briefing, also said both doses were effective against the UK and the Brazilian variants of Sars-Cov-2. Research, however, is on to know whether the vaccines are effective against the South African variant.
