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New Delhi: The Centre, which has been working consistently and proactively to secure and enhance the availability of Covid-19 vaccines, on Thursday said India will have enough doses to inoculate all citizens by December.
Asserting “there should be no doubt that vaccines will be available for all as we move forward”, Niti Aayog Member (Health) Dr Vinod Kumar Paul said 216 crore vaccine doses would become available between August and December.
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“Overall, 216 crore doses of vaccines will be manufactured in India between August and December, for India and for Indians,” he told a media briefing accompanied by Union Health Ministry Joint Secretary Luv Agarwal.
He mentioned eight vaccines and the number of doses for each that are likely to be available in the country by December end.
The vaccination drive began in the country on January 16 with Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin and Oxford-AstraZeneca’s Covishield.
However, amid vaccine shortage in view of the surge in cases in the second wave of the pandemic, the expert panel of country’s drug regulator last month approved Russia’s Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine for emergency used in India.
“Sputnik vaccine has arrived in India. I am happy to say that we are hopeful that it will be available in the market next week. We are hopeful that the sale of the limited supply that has come from there (Russia) will begin next week,” said Dr Paul.
Moreover, the government’s new “Liberalized Pricing and Accelerated National Covid-19 Vaccination Strategy” aims at liberalized vaccine pricing and scaling up of vaccine coverage to incentivize vaccine manufacturers to rapidly augment their production and to attract new vaccine manufacturers. It would make pricing, procurement and administration of vaccines more flexible and ensure increased vaccine production as well as wider availability of vaccines in the country.
The government is also engaged in proactive dialogue with Bharat Biotech and some other PSUs, as well as private companies to execute technology transfer agreements. This would further enhance and augment the production of Covaxin in the country.
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Under the new policy, 100 percent doses of imported and ready to use foreign vaccine will be available for other than Government of India channel comprising state governments, private hospitals and hospitals of industrial establishments.
The new ‘Liberalized Pricing and Accelerated National Covid-19 Vaccination Strategy’ also incentivizes in terms of prices to attract private manufacturers including offshore vaccine manufacturers to enter the country.
The government is proactively engaging with foreign vaccine manufacturers like Moderna, Pfizer etc. to apply for emergency use authorization in India so that these vaccines can be easily imported and made available in India.
Simultaneously, the government along with other like-minded countries is also stressing on IPR waiver for the Covid-19 vaccines. These two interventions, taken in conjunction, will ensure easy availability of Covid -19 vaccines not only in India but globally too.
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