It will take at least three to four months to complete the Covid-19 inoculation effort for frontline workers and people in India over 60, said the executive director of the India Serum Institute of India.
In January, the South Asian country launched the world’s largest vaccination campaign for nearly 300 million people out of its vast 1.3 billion population. As of Wednesday evening, more than 36 million people have been inoculated, according to data from the Indian Ministry of Health.
“The dose required in India is huge,” Jadhav said in CNBC’s “Capital Connection”. “The vaccination program is a huge task that is impossible to run in the short term.
“At a rate of about 500 (million) to 60 million doses per month, the program will continue and they will cover this population of 300 million over a period of about three to four months.”
Jadhav attended the Asian Development Bank’s Southeast Asia Development Symposium 2021 this week.
The Pune-based serum institute has emerged as a pivotal player in covid vaccination efforts both in India and globally. It is the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer by volume and is producing the Covid-19 vaccine, developed locally by British-Swedish pharma giants AstraZeneca and Oxford University, known locally as Covishield.
Millions of doses have been supplied to the Government of India as well as Kovacs by a global vaccination initiative led by the World Health Organization and others to ensure proper distribution of shots in less wealthy countries.
Exterior view of Serum Institute India F India Pvt. Ltd. Which manufactures the Covid-19 vaccine at Hadapsar on November 23, 2020 in Pune, India.
First Gokhale | Hindustan Times | Getty Images
Responding to the growing demand for its covid vaccine, Serum Institute CEO Adar Poonawala last month urged foreign governments to be patient and, without further ado, asked the company to meet domestic demand first.
Jadhav explained that the serum institute is capable of fulfilling the order of the present government which has been put in place by the Government of India and said that it has already supplied about 59 million doses to Kovox. He added that the Serum Institute is planning to increase its capacity by the end of April or early May, while increasing its production to a further 40 million to 50 million doses.
Currently, the Serum Institute can produce 70 million doses a month.
Last week, the United States, Japan and Australia pledged to help Indian companies increase their covid vaccine production capacity and provide more doses to the global supply pool.
India is also using a locally developed vaccine from India Biotech which was developed in collaboration with the state-run Indian Medical Research Council.
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