India Will Administer 51.6 Crore Vaccines By July-August: Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan

Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan, on Saturday, said that the vaccine production would be ramped up so as to administrate 51.6 crore vaccines by the end of July.

"Production of vaccines is being ramped up to cater to increased demand while vaccines that are being produced now continue to be equitably apportioned and swiftly sent to States/Union Territories," the minister said during his discussion with the health ministers of Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh.

He said that the country would have an additional 51.6 crore vaccines along with the 18 crore vaccines already administered to the eligible beneficiaries. This availability would be due to the approval of the new Sputnik, reported The Print.

The new vaccine, along with the approval of the vaccines from Zydus Cadila, and Novavax, Bharat Biotech's nasal vaccine and the Genova mRNA vaccine, will increase the availability of the vaccines to 216 crore by the August-December period.

The minister also highlighted the challenges faced by the various states, such as Gujarat who had seen an increase in cases since April, and the recovery rate stands at 76 per cent, lower than the national average. Andhra Pradesh's increase in the positivity rate since early April and the weekly growth rate 30.3 per cent high.

Uttar Pradesh had seen a growth in cases in a six weeks, with Lucknow and Meerut districts having more than 14,000 active cases, with 10 districts having more than 20 per cent positivity with over one lakh cases.

Vardhan had also said that the present decline in cases should not lead to complacency but rather to expand, improve and ramp up the state infrastructure.

The Director of the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr Sujeet Singh had presented an analysis of the trajectory of the COVID cases in the states and provided the following suggestions:

• Continue the health infrastructure in small cities as people from villages would rush to the city hospitals in case of a surge.

• The variants of COVID must be monitored through the INSACOG consortium.

• States must utilise the available vaccines for the 45+ age-group/healthcare workers/frontline workers and conduct awareness campaigns to take both doses.

• Focus on vaccine wastage as it would be factored later for subsequent allocation of vaccines for the state.

• Constitute a 2/3 member team to coordinate with vaccine manufacturers for the timely supply of vaccines.