Mumbai's Haffkine To Produce Covaxin After Centre Gives Nod, Maha CM Uddhav Thackrey Thanks PM

Covaxin is currently being produced by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech.

Mumbai: The Centre has allowed Maharashtra government-owned Haffkine Institute to manufacture Bharat Biotech's Covaxin, an anti-coronavirus vaccine. The Maharashtra government  had earlier requested the Centre to allow Haffkine Institute to produce the vaccine. 

"The Dept of Science and Technology, Government of India, has granted approval to Haffkine Institute to produce Bharat Biotech's Covaxin vaccine on a transfer of technology basis," the Maharashtra Chief Minister's Office tweeted.

It further read, "CM Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray has thanked Prime Minister for approving this request."

According to PTI, Renu Swarup, secretary of the Union Science and Technology Department sent the approval letter to the Maharashtra chief secretary Sitaram Kunte, an official from the chief minister's office (CMO) said.

He was quoted as saying "Swarup informed the state government that the Centre has approved its request of using infrastructure of Haffkine Bio-pharmaceutical Corporation Limited for Covaxin production." He further said that it was done after approval given by the experts. 

The state have been given one year to produce the vaccine by the Centre. The CMO official said, the chief minister has asked Kunte to appoint a senior officer to monitor and carry out the production in the given time.

According to ANI, over 26.02 lakh COVID-19 vaccine doses administered till 8 pm on Thursday whih brings the total to 11.74 crores.

On Thursday, Maharashtra reported 61,695 new COVID-19 cases and 349 deaths in the last 24 hours.

As per the state health department, the total number of positive cases in the state now stands at 36,39,855, including 29,59,056 recoveries and 59,153 deaths.