India to administer 51.6 crore COVID vaccine doses by July: Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan

NEW DELHI: The number of vaccine doses administered in India will reach 51.6 crore by the end of July, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said on Saturday.

India has so far administered over 18 crore jabs to eligible beneficiaries.

Vardhan, during his discussion with the health ministers of Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh, said vaccine production was being ramped up to cater to the increased demand.

“Production of vaccines is being steadily ramped up to cater to increased demand while vaccines that are being produced now continue to be equitably apportioned and swiftly sent to States/Union Territories.

“We will have 51.6 crore vaccine doses by the end of July including the 18 crore doses already administered. Sputnik has been approved.

This along with the slated approval of the new vaccine of Zydus Cadila, Serum Institute of India- Novavax vaccine, Bharat Biotech’s nasal vaccine, and the Genova mRNA vaccine will push the availability of COVID vaccines to 216 crore doses in the August-December period,” he said.

During his interaction with the state health ministers and principal secretaries/additional chief secretaries of the four states in the presence of Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Vardhan highlighted the challenges faced by the states.

He said that Gujarat has displayed a gradual increase in the positivity rate since April and the recovery rate stands at 79 per cent, which is lower than the national average.

He noted that nearly 100 per cent ICU beds in Ahmedabad, Vadodara and Mehsana and 97 per cent and 96 per cent of oxygen beds in Ahmedabad and Vadodara, respectively, stood occupied indicating saturation.

Andhra Pradesh has had an increasing positivity rate since early April and the weekly growth rate was as high as 30.3 per cent, he said, adding that Chittoor, East Godavari, Guntur, Srikakulam, Visakhapatnam were flagged as districts of concern in the state.

Uttar Pradesh saw an exponential growth in cases in a six-week period (5,500 to 31,000 cases and two per cent to 14 per cent positivity rate) with Lucknow and Meerut having more than 14,000 active cases with all categories of bed showing more than 90 per cent occupancy.

In Madhya Pradesh, 10 districts have more than 20 per cent positivity with over one lakh active cases all over the state.

Indore, Bhopal, Gwalior and Jabalpur were flagged as districts of concern, the minister said.