External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar met US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington last night. In a tweet, Dr Jaishankar said, there was productive discussion on various aspects of the bilateral cooperation as well as regional and global issues. Both leaders discussed Indo Pacific and the Quad, Afghanistan, Myanmar, UNSC matters and other international organizations. He said, discussion also focused on Indo-US vaccine partnership aimed at expanding access and ensuring supply. Dr Jaishankar appreciated the strong solidarity expressed by the US at this time. He said, the talks have further solidified our strategic partnership and enlarged our agenda of cooperation.

Mr Blinken said, United States and India are working together on so many of the most important challenges of our time and ones that are having a profound impact on the lives of our citizens. He said, US and India are united in confronting COVID-19 together, united in dealing with the challenge posed by climate change, and both countries partnered together directly through the Quad and other institutions at the United Nations in dealing with many of the challenges that we face in the region and around the world. Mr Blinken said, the partnership between the United States and India is vital, it’s strong and it’s increasingly productive. The US Secretary of State said, we remember in the earlier days of COVID, India was there for the United States, something we will never forget and now we want to make sure that we are there for and with India.

Centre has said that the current production capacity of indigenously developed Covaxin will be doubled by next month. The Health Ministry said, the production will then be increased to nearly 6-7 fold by July and August. Thus, it’s production will be increased  from one crore vaccine doses in April, 2021 to 6 to 7 crore vaccine doses in the month of July and August. The Ministry added that the production of the vaccine is expected to reach nearly 10 crore doses per month by September this year. This capacity augmentation of Covaxin carried out under Atmanirbhar Bharat 3.0 Mission COVID Suraksha was announced by the Government of India and implemented by the Department of Biotechnology Govt of India to accelerate the development and production of Indigenous COVID Vaccines.

The Ministry also said that there have been some unfound media reports on unaccounted vaccine doses of Bharat Biotech and these reports are incorrect and not supported by full information on the matter.

The claims of Bharat Biotech having 6 Crore doses is an error of comprehension among some quarters reporting the matter.

The Ministry said, so far, Bharat Biotech has supplied 2 crore 76 lakh 66 thousand 860 vaccine doses to the Central Government. Out of them, 2 crore 20 lakh 89 thousand 880 doses including wastage, have been consumed by all the States and UTs in the ongoing COVID-19 Vaccination drive. With this, the balance available doses of vaccines with States and UTs are over 55 lakh 76 thousand doses. The Health Ministry said, Private hospitals have also received 13 lakh 65 thousand 760 doses of Covaxin in the same month over and above what has been supplied to the Centre and the states. It said, in the month of May, 2021 additional 21 lakh 54 thousand 440 doses of Covaxin are to be supplied. This takes the total vaccine supplied and in pipeline till date to over 3 crore 11 lakh doses. Almost 90 lakh doses are committed for the month of June by the Manufacturer.

The Ministry added that Vaccine being a biological product of medical importance takes time for harvesting and quality testing.

The Union Health Ministry has said that the government of India is doing regular interaction with national and international vaccine manufacturers like Pfizer and Moderna to make more COVID-19 vaccines available in the country. The Health Ministry said that the  concrete actions are a stern indication that the Government is making all efforts to increase the vaccine production in the country as well as attracting the foreign vaccine manufacturers to supply the required vaccine doses for the national covid vaccination programme. It said, as of date, India is using three vaccines against COVID-19 in its immunization drive. It includes two made in India vaccines – Serum Institute of India’s Covishield and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin who have supplied about 7.92 crore vaccine doses in the month of May 2021.

The Russian Sputnik V is the third vaccine to get approval from the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) for restricted use in emergency situations and is being used in a few private hospitals which are expected to be increased over the coming days.

It said, despite the constraints of availability, India has fared well in covering 20 crore people in only 130 days which is the third largest coverage in the world.

The Ministry further added that the manufacturing capacities have been ramped up and vaccines being a biological product takes time for harvesting and quality testing. This cannot be done overnight to ensure a safe product. Thus, the increase in capacity of manufacturing too needs to be a guided process.

It said, National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19 (NEGVAC) was already established in August 2020 to provide guidance on all aspects of vaccine introduction including prioritization of beneficiaries, procurement, vaccine selection and its delivery.

The Central Government has been supporting the efforts of States and Union Territories for effective management of COVID patients in vaccination, under the ‘Whole of Government” approach since January this year.