Moneycontrol
HomeNewsBusinessCompaniesExclusive | SII, Bharat Biotech made additional 40-50 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine available in August
Trending Topics

Exclusive | SII, Bharat Biotech made additional 40-50 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine available in August

Increased vaccine supplies have helped the government to accelerate its inoculation drive

September 02, 2021 / 17:27 IST
Story continues below Advertisement

India achieved its highest daily vaccination and achieved the milestone of administering one core COVID-19 vaccine doses in one day for the first time on August 27. As many as 1,00,64,032 doses of coronavirus vaccine were administered on August 27 taking the total vaccine doses administered to 63.09 crore. [Representative image]

Supplies of Covishield and Covaxin, the main Covid-19 vaccines used in India, were ramped up by 40-50 million doses in August, helping the government to accelerate its nationwide vaccination drive and administer one dose to over one-third of the population.

Serum Institute of India, the manufacturer of Covishield, produced 150 million doses last month and is expected to maintain this level of output in September, people aware of the matter told Moneycontrol. The Pune-based company produced 110-120 million doses in July.

Story continues below Advertisement

At this production rate, Serum Institute’s output will cross a billion doses per annum by December, the people said.

With government officials hinting at a possible reduction in the gap between two doses of Covishield from 84 days in the days ahead, demand for Covishield is expected to jump.

COVID-19 Vaccine
Frequently Asked Questions

View more

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.
View more
+ Show