In order to control the corona epidemic in the country, people are being rapidly vaccinated. Currently, only Covishield and Covaxin are available at the vaccination center. The Russian Sputnik-V vaccine will also soon be available at government immunization centers.
Dr. NK Arora, President, Covid-19 Working Group informed that the Sputnik-V vaccine will be made available free of cost at the vaccination centers. “As of now, Sputnik-V is available only in private hospitals. We want to make it available under our free vaccination programme, but it will depend on the supply of the vaccine.
Russia’s corona vaccine Sputnik-V has to be stored at -18 °C temperature. Arora said the cold chain facilities used to store the polio vaccine would be used to store Sputnik-V. This will also ensure that the vaccine reaches the rural areas of the country.
50 crore doses will be taken by the end of July: Dr. Arora
Dr. Arora said that due to polio vaccination, the pace of Kovid vaccination has slowed down in some areas. The Covid vaccination program will be streamlined in the coming week. Times of India quoted Dr. Arora as saying that 34 crore doses have been administered so far. Dr. Arora expressed the possibility of taking 12 to 16 crore more doses by the end of July. In January, the Center had said that around 50 crore doses would be administered by the end of July to cover priority groups.
Target of one crore vaccines daily
Dr. NK Arora said that the major part of the supply of vaccines is from Covishield and Covaxin. In addition to increasing the production of these two vaccines, the arrival of the Sputnik V vaccine, and the rollout of the new vaccines from Moderna and Zydus Cadila, the daily coverage can be increased from 50 lakhs to 8 million, even 10 million, in the coming weeks. It is too early to link the third wave with Delta Plus. The
government aims to vaccinate every person above the age of 18 (about 93 crores) by the end of this year. Dr. Arora said that a recent ICMR report is predicting the third wave by February or March next year, so the country is about 8 months away. He said it was too early to link the possibility of a third wave to the delta plus variant. So far 52 cases of this variant have been reported in India.
