135 crore doses to be available between August and December, Rs 9,725 crore spent on vaccination: Govt tells Rahul Gandhi

Over 41 lakh extra vaccine doses extracted, expected that beneficiaries aged 18 years and above will be vaccinated by December 2021, no fixed timeline at present can be indicated for completion of vaccination exercise, the government said to a question posed by Congress MP Rahul Gandhi in Lok Sabha.

Aman Sharma

July 23, 2021 / 13:54 IST

Over 41 lakh extra Covid-19 vaccine doses were extracted by the states with Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Gujarat performing the best on this count but Bihar accounts for half of the 2.5 lakh doses wasted across the country.

These figures have been furnished by the government for the period between May 1 and July 13 by the Union Health Ministry. Tamil Nadu was able to extract 5.88 lakh extra doses, West Bengal could extract 4.87 lakh extra doses while Gujarat figure was at 4.62 lakh.

The maximum wastage of doses was in Bihar at 1.26 lakh doses, half of the national wastage of vaccines in the country. Each vial of the Covid-19 vaccine contains quantity enough for 10 doses but states were able to extract extra doses from a vial.

A total of Rs 9725.15 crore have been spent so far on the COVID-19 vaccination programme including procurement of vaccines (Rs 8071 crore) and operational cost for vaccination out of the total budget outlay of Rs 35,000 crore, the government said to a question posed by Congress MP Rahul Gandhi. The government has also said it has placed orders for supply of 100.6 crore doses up to December 2021. “Between August to December 2021, 135 crore doses are expected to be available,” the government said.

The government replied to Rahul Gandhi that it was expected that beneficiaries aged 18 years and above will be vaccinated by December 2021 but said no fixed timeline at present can be indicated for the completion of vaccination drive given the dynamic and evolving nature of the pandemic. “There has been no delay in entering into purchase agreements with the domestic vaccine manufacturers. Advance payments have been made to manufacturers for supply orders placed with them,” the government said.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

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.

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