Centre to distribute 192 lakh COVID-19 vaccine doses to states between May 15-30

As India's COVID vaccination drive progresses slowly, the Centre on Friday said that it will release 192 lakh vaccine doses to states in the fortnight of 16th-31st May 2021. Issuing a statement, the Centre detailed that this will comprise of 162.5 lakh Covishield doses and 29.49 Covaxin doses. Apart from this, a total of 4.39 crore doses was available for direct procurement by states and private hospitals in May, stated Centre.

Centre: 192 lakh vaccine doses to states in next 2 weeks

India to manufacture 216 crore doses in Aug-Dec

On Thursday, the Union Health Ministry announced that the nation would manufacture 216 crore doses of COVID vaccines in India for the Indians between August to December 2021. The 216 crore doses include 75 crore doses of Covishield, 55 crore doses of Covaxin, 30 crore doses of Bio E Sub Vaccine, 20 crore doses of SII's Novavax, 15.6 crore doses of Russia's Sputnik amongst others. With this addition, India would have over 2 billion doses of COVID vaccines available in the coming months. The government is in touch with Pfizer, Moderna, and J&J manufacturers asking them if they wanted to supply vaccines to India. A reply from them would be sought by the third quarter of 2021, as per the official.

Amid vaccine shortage, on Thursday, on the recommendation of the National Immunization Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (NTAGI), the Centre has increased the gap between two doses of Covishield to 12-16 weeks and no change for Covaxin dosage interval. In March, NTAGI had revised the interval between doses from 4-6 weeks to 4-8 weeks, based on 'emerging scientific evidence'. Moreover, NTAGI has also recommended deferring vaccination of those testing positive for COVID-19 by atleast six months after recovery. The panel has also stated that pregnant women may be offered a choice to take any COVID-19 vaccine and that lactating women were eligible for jabs any time after delivery.

India's 2nd wave

Currently, India is grappling with a second wave of COVID-19, with the infection hitting rural India too. The biggest issue has been the acute oxygen supply with Delhi being hit the worst - several hospitals have moved the High Court seeking oxygen supply. While the Centre and Delhi govt have blamed each other for the ongoing oxygen crisis in the national capital, Railways has started 'Oxygen Express'  to transport liquid oxygen to the states via green corridors. Delhi, which has increased its demand to 900 MT oxygen per day has been allotted only 480 MT by Centre. SC has ordered the Centre to maintain a daily supply of 700 MT to Delhi and constituted a 12-member National Task Force of oxygen distribution. Meanwhile, India's vaccination drive has hit a roadblock due to shortage of supplies. Centre has approved an advance payment of Rs 4,567.50 crores to Serum Institute of India (SII) & Bharat Biotech (BBL) to ramp up vaccine production. Soon enough, most state governments placed lakhs of orders with the two vaccine manufacturers, but are yet to receive their orders.