135 Cr Vaccines Would Be Available Between Aug-Dec: Centre To Parliamentary Committee

The Modi government has decided to vaccinate all adults by the end of this year. The government told the parliamentary committee that 135 crore vaccines would be available by December.

New Delhi: The Modi government has set a target of getting all adult populations vaccinated by the end of this year. However, many opposition parties, including Congress, are questioning the success of the government's announcement. They are apprehensive about the availability of the vaccine, which is currently said to be inadequate as per demand. 

The government has informed the Standing Committee of Parliament about the road map consisting of the target of giving vaccines to all. In a meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee relating to the Ministry of Home Affairs held on Monday, the Union Home Secretary, the Union Health Secretary, and other officials gave a presentation giving full details. According to them, the supply of vaccines across the country will increase tremendously from August. According to officials, between August and December, there will be a supply of about 135 crore vaccine doses, which is enough to vaccinate every adult. 

Above all, they do not include vaccines from companies like Pfizer, Moderna, or Johnson & Johnson, whose availability in India is not yet clear. Companies that are likely to provide vaccines include 50 crore doses of Covishield, 40 crore doses of Covaxin, 30 crore doses of Bio E's Covovax, 10 crore doses of Sputnik V, and 5 crore doses of Zydus Cadila's ZyCoV- D. 

So far, at least one dose of the corona vaccine has been given to more than 33 crore people in the country. Of these, there are about 5.60 crore people who have been given both doses. Since the introduction of the new policy of the vaccine program on June 21, an average increase of about 100 percent has been registered in the vaccination campaign. In the meeting of the committee, when the members asked the officials present about the efficacy of these vaccines on different variants of Coronavirus, they said that all the vaccines are more or less effective against these variants. 

Officials informed that cases are definitely decreasing in the second wave but are not completely over yet. So there is a need to maintain caution. Expressing their inability to tell the probable timing of the third wave, they said that the government is making all possible preparations to deal with the third wave. Officials did say that the cases of Delta Plus, which is said to be a 'virus of concern', are on the rise.