Please try another search
By Neha Arora and Krishna N. Das
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's output of COVID-19 shots for August-December is likely to be lower than the government's public estimate, according to internal projections shared with Reuters by two sources.
Lower-than-expected production could delay India's plans to vaccinate all its adults this year, amid fears the country will face another surge of coronavirus infections in the winter. India's ongoing second wave, the world's worst since the pandemic began, has overwhelmed its health system.
The government last week publicly estimated 1.46 billion doses of its three approved shots - AstraZeneca (NASDAQ:AZN), Sputnik V and Covaxin - would be made between August and December.
Production of the AstraZeneca vaccine, of which the Serum Institute of India (SII) is the biggest maker in the world, is expected to reach 100 million to 110 million doses a month from July and stay at that level for the foreseeable future, a source with knowledge of the matter said.
That would be at least 200 million doses less than the government's public forecast of 750 million AstraZeneca doses for the last five months of the year, a 27% shortfall.
An internal government projection for August and September shared by a second source put the monthly number of AstraZeneca doses at 100 million, out of 200 million for all the three approved shots combined.
The sources declined to be named discussing a subject on which Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has been criticised due to a shortage of vaccines. Immunisations have fallen https://dashboard.cowin.gov.in sharply since an April peak.
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare did not respond to queries from Reuters.
SII, which is facing raw material shortages for another vaccine that the government is banking on, declined to comment.
A spokeswoman for Covaxin-maker Bharat Biotech said that last month the company raised its annual production capacity to more than 500 million doses, or about 42 million doses a month. It has been producing about 10 million doses a month.
Dr. Reddy's Laboratories, the local distributor for Russia's Sputnik V, did not respond to a request for comment.
Apart from the approved vaccines, the government has also forecast August-December production of 866 million doses of five yet-to-be-approved vaccines. Overall, the government has pledged to make 2.67 billion doses available this year.
SII has already halted exports until the end of the year to meet domestic demand, in a major blow to dozens of poor countries relying on it for supplies.
India has so far administered 187 million vaccine doses, the most after China and the United States, but fully immunised only about 3% of its 1.35 billion people.
Are you sure you want to block %USER_NAME%?
By doing so, you and %USER_NAME% will not be able to see any of each other's Investing.com's posts.
%USER_NAME% was successfully added to your Block List
Since you’ve just unblocked this person, you must wait 48 hours before renewing the block.
I feel that this comment is:
Thank You!
Your report has been sent to our moderators for review
Add a Comment
We encourage you to use comments to engage with other users, share your perspective and ask questions of authors and each other. However, in order to maintain the high level of discourse we’ve all come to value and expect, please keep the following criteria in mind:
Enrich the conversation, don’t trash it.
Stay focused and on track. Only post material that’s relevant to the topic being discussed.
Be respectful. Even negative opinions can be framed positively and diplomatically. Avoid profanity, slander or personal attacks directed at an author or another user. Racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination will not be tolerated.
Perpetrators of spam or abuse will be deleted from the site and prohibited from future registration at Investing.com’s discretion.