India hoping to vaccinate 20 crores to 25 crore citizens by July next year. Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Dr Harsh Vardhan, during the fourth edition of his Samvaad, said that India is hoping to provide vaccine doses to 20-25 crore people by July 2021. While the government is also keeping a close watch on immunity data with regard to COVID-19, it has also prepared a plan for building capabilities in HR, training, supervision, on a massive scale to inject nearly 25 crores COVID vaccine by the middle of next year, the minister said.
The government is offering full support to Indian vaccine manufacturers and is committed to taking all measures to ensure equitable access to the vaccine,” he added. Dr Vardhan’s comment on vaccines (and access to them) comes as several candidate drugs enter the final phase of testing and trials. Three potential vaccines are being tested in India, including Covishield which was developed jointly by the University of Oxford and pharma giant AstraZeneca.
According to the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, India has exceeded 140 tests per day per million population as advised by the World Health Organisation by nearly 6 times. Several states/UTs have demonstrated better performance than the national average. India has set up committees to look into various aspects of the vaccine supply chain, including availability timelines for various vaccines, while obtaining commitments from manufacturers to ensure the maximum doses are available, Vardhan said.
A high-level committee under the chairmanship of Niti Aayog Member (Health) V K Paul is drawing up the entire process. The minister said committees are working on understanding the timelines of availability of various vaccines, obtaining commitments from vaccine manufacturers to make the available maximum number of doses for India and supply chain management, and on prioritisation of high-risk groups.
