Centre readies deal for 6.6 cr Covid vaccine doses with Serum
Serum Institute chief executive Adar Poonawalla
New Delhi: The Union government has prepared contours of vaccine purchase agreement with the Serum Institute of India (SII) that is manufacturing Oxford University-AstraZeneca vaccine in India. Sources said the government will procure 6.6 crore doses to vaccinate three crore frontline and healthcare care workers at Rs 200 per dose.
The Serum Institute of India, the world's biggest manufacturer of vaccines, has said it is making between 50 and 60 million doses a month of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine. Serum Institute chief executive Adar Poonawalla tweeted following the approvals that the vaccine would be "ready to roll-out in the coming weeks".
The government has already held nationwide drills ahead of the mass vaccination drive and some 96,000 health workers have been trained to administer the shots. India has set an ambitious target of inoculating 300 million of its 1.3 billion people by mid-2021.
India is the world's second most infected nation with more than 10.3 million cases and almost 150,000 deaths, although its rate of infection has come down significantly from a mid-September peak of more than 90,000 cases daily.
India on Sunday authorised the emergency use of two coronavirus vaccines developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University and by local pharmaceutical firm Bharat Biotech, the country's drug regulator DCGI said, paving the way for one of the world's biggest inoculation drives.
The two vaccines "are being approved for restricted use in emergency situations," DCGI VG Somani said at a briefing. Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted that the fast-track approvals were "a decisive turning point to strengthen a spirited fight" that "accelerates the road to a healthier and Covid-free nation".
The approval came amid fear in India, as in other countries, about the safety of the shots. A recent survey of 18,000 people across India found that 69 percent were in no rush to get vaccinated.
"The vaccines are 100 percent safe," he said, adding that side effects such as "mild fever, pain and allergy are common for every vaccine," Somani said.