135 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses to be available between Aug to Dec: Centre informs SC

In a major development, the Centre has informed the Supreme Court that a total of 135 crore COVID-19 vaccines will be available in India between August to December 2021. The Central Government informed the apex court about the projected availability of COVID-19 vaccines in an affidavit filed in the suo motu case on COVID-19 management. 

Out of the 135 crore vaccines, the estimated availability of Covishield doses is 50 crores, while Covaxin doses are 40 crores, according to the affidavit. It also stated that Russia's Sputnik V vaccine's estimated availability is 10 crores doses. The Central government's affidavit further informed that the Bio E Sub-unit vaccine's 30 crore doses will be available while the Zydus Cadila DNA vaccine's 5 crore doses will be available. 

Meanwhile, on the 78th episode of the monthly radio show 'Mann Ki Baat', Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday spoke about India’s new phase of the largest COVID-19 vaccination drive in the world, in which vaccine is being made available for free across the States and Union territories. It also came amid preparations for the anticipated third wave of the coronavirus.

COVID Vaccination Drive

India administered 64.25 lakh vaccine doses in a day, taking the cumulative number of jabs given so far under the nationwide inoculation drive to 32.17 crores, according to immunization data published at 7 am. Also, 17,45,809 tests were conducted on Saturday for the detection of COVID-19, taking the total number of tests conducted so far in the country to 40,18,11,892.

 A single-day rise of 50,040 fresh COVID-19 infections took India's tally to 3,02,33,183, while the number of active cases dipped to 5,86,403, according to the Union Health Ministry data on Sunday. The death toll climbed to 3,95,751 with 1,258 more people succumbing to the viral disease in a day. Recoveries outnumbered daily new cases of COVID-19 for the 45th consecutive day with the number of people who have recuperated from the disease surging to 2,92,51,029. The case fatality rate stood at 1.31 percent. While the national COVID-19 recovery rate has improved to 96.75 percent, the weekly case positivity rate has come down to 2.91 percent.

(With Agency Inputs)