Govt trashes reports on missing target of administering 50 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses by July-end

The health ministry issued a statement referring to recent media reports alleging that the country will miss the target of administering half-a-billion (50 crore) doses of the COVID-19 vaccine by July-end, while pointing out that the government had stated in May that it would make 516 million (51.60 crore) vaccine shots available by the end of this month.

PTI

July 27, 2021 / 14:48 IST

The government on Tuesday dismissed media reports that claimed that India will miss the end-July target of administering 50 crore Covid vaccine doses as "ill-informed and misrepresenting" and asserted that over 51.60 crore vaccine doses will be supplied from January to July 31.

The health ministry issued a statement referring to recent media reports alleging that the country will miss the target of administering half-a-billion (50 crore) doses of the COVID-19 vaccine by July-end, while pointing out that the government had stated in May that it would make 516 million (51.60 crore) vaccine shots available by the end of this month.

"These reports are ill-informed and have clearly misrepresented the facts," the statement said.

The figures of 516 million vaccine doses might have been picked up from various sources which informed about the likely availability of the vaccine doses from January to July-end, it added.

"The facts are that a total of more than 516 million vaccine doses will indeed be supplied from January 2021 to 31st July, 2021," the ministry 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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