In the month of August, the average daily vaccinations were at 52.16 lakh doses which was an increase from 43.41 lakh and 39.38 lakh in July and June respectively. There has been no complaint of vaccine shortage recently, making the supply of vaccines satisfactory, the government has said.
“In last three weeks, balanced unutilised vaccine doses count in the country has never gone below 2.5 crore,” health secretary Rajesh Bhushan said. Every morning, the Centre takes stock of the supply and availability of vaccines from states and union territories, he added.
He also said the Centre has asked states to ramp up vaccination, especially that of the second dose, as there is better availability now. He said the real concern remains the high incidence of the disease in states like Kerala which give rise to fears that a ready host of vulnerable persons may see the emergence of new mutant strain.
Out of 94 crore people (the adult population), just 14.6 per cent is completely vaccinated, 83 per cent of healthcare workers and 79 per cent of frontline workers have been fully vaccinated, an official said.
After the approval of another vaccine, ZyCoV-D, vaccine supplies will likely improve. The company Zydus Cadila has indicated to the government that the jab will be available from the first week of October. However, Bhushan has said that the government is still in talks with the company regarding terms and price of procurement.
The Zydus Cadila vaccine has been given emergency approval by the government for adults. However, for those below the age of 12 the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation still has to submit their recommendations to the health ministry.
Lately, India has seen an uptick in the number of Covid cases. Since the past three days, India has been reporting upwards of 40,000 new infections daily. In the past 24 hours, the country has recorded 44,658 new infections, taking the total number of cases to 3,26,03,188. Kerala and Maharashtra have been seeing a significant rise in Covid cases, and the government is considering night curfews to curb the same.
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