States battle vaccine shortage: Eye on producing 10 million vaccine doses per day

National

If India has to defeat Covid-19, it has to vaccinate each and every citizen of the country. With the shortage of vaccine doses around the country, what we need at the moment is an action plan that can steer the country in the right direction. As several states across the country report repleting vaccine stocks coupled with shutting down of several vaccine centres, NewsX has come up with an action plan that can potentially resolve the problem.

One of the first task is to set the target of producing atleast 10 million vaccines per day. This can only be done by ramping up production significantly. This should be coupled with compulsory licensing, more exports, IPR waivers, obtaining excess from other countries, expedite Covaxin production and smooth Centre-State coordination.

Some immediate steps taken by the Centre to ramp up the vaccine supply include- Zydus Cadila is likely to begin supply in June, Sputnik will be available from next week, Indian institute of science has begin developing vaccine, Bharat Biotech will share Covaxin code. 2 PSUs are already in talks to enter pact to increase Covaxin’s production. The Centre, on the other hand, has increased the gap between 2 Covishield doses to 12-16 weeks.

India has reported 3,26,098 new Covid-19 cases, 3,53,299 discharges and 3,890 deaths in the last 24 hours. The total cases of Covid-19 has now reached 2,43,72,907, with 2,04,32,898 discharges. Meanwhile, the death toll has jumped up to 2,66,207. The total number of active Covid-19 cases now stand at 36,73,802.