Covid-19 Vaccine: India marks major milestone, Will this help fend off the third wave?

New Delhi, June 22: India reached a crucial milestone in its fight against Covid-19, with over 80 lakh beneficiaries vaccinated against SARS-CoV2 in a single day. The record vaccination comes in the backdrop of the Union government's revised vaccination guidelines that kicked off on Monday.

How did the numbers suddenly go up?

The vaccination drive has been ramped up through the availability of more vaccines, advance visibility of vaccine availability to states and UTs for enabling better planning by them, and streamlining the vaccine supply chain.

Under the new vaccination policy, the Centre allocated jabs free of cost to states and UTs based on criteria such as population, disease burden and the progress of vaccination, to vaccinate all above the age of 18. The private hospitals will be permitted to procure the rest 25 per cent, with am cap on maximum price.

The young population in the 18-44 age group, paved the way for the milestone as three of four Persons getting jab. 72 per cent of the nearly 86 lakh jabs that were admisitered on Monday were between the age group of 18 to 44.

Can India sustain the numbers?

As we witness, the decline of the deadly second wave of Covid-19, the Centre has assured to get 12 crore doses of vaccine that will be ramped up to 20 to 25 crore doses by July end. But the question is, can India sustain the numbers.

Yes, it is possible. As the government plans to increase the production of ndigenously developed Covid-19 vaccine Covaxin to six to seven crore doses in July-August. 75 crore doses of Covishield is expected in the five-month period, while India likely to get about 15.6 crore doses of Russia's Sputnik V.

Apart from Covaxin and Covishield, the centre has pinned hopes on five other COVID-19 vaccines.

Indian pharmaceutical major Zydus Cadila is likely to apply to the central drugs regulator seeking emergency use authorisation for its Covid-19 vaccine ZyCoV-D next week.

If approved, it will be the world's first DNA vaccine against coronavirus and the fourth to become available in the country. The company is expected to provide 5 crore doses by year-end.

The Pune-based Gennova Biopharmaceuticals is expected to provide 6 crore doses.

The government also hoping for SII's launch of its Novavax version, named Covovax, in September this year.