India’s biggest vaccine shortage has been reported to last for months
The director general of the Indian Serum Institute, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, has warned that the shortage of property will last for months after the Narendra Modi government prepares a second devastating wave of coronavirus.
Adar Poonawall told the Financial Times that the severe shortage of vaccines in India will continue through July as production is expected to rise to a dose of around 60m-70m per month to around 100m.
Poonawall said the government took it “quietly” in January when new cases of coronavirus were rejected. “Everyone felt that India was really starting to turn around in the pandemic,” he said.
3:37 a.m. ET, April 29, 2021
More than 13 million people in India applied for Covid-19 vaccines after minimum age lowered to 18
From CNN s Manveena Suri in New Delhi
Syringes filled with COVISHIELD vaccine for COVID-19 lie on ice box at a primary health center in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, on April 28. Dar Yasin/AP
About 13.3 million people applied for Covid-19 vaccinations in India on Thursday, the first day the vaccine was made available to everyone between the ages 18 and 44, according to the government s dedicated vaccination website, CoWIN.
India is administering two vaccines domestically: the Oxford-AstraZeneca shot, also known as Covishield, and its homegrown Covaxin, developed jointly by Bharat Biotech and the government-run Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
47 min ago
India is one of the world s top 10 buyers of Covid vaccines, but it still needs more
From CNN s Laura Smith-spark
A health worker inoculates a man with a dose of the Covishield vaccine for Covid-19 at the Railway Hospital in Prayagraj, India, on April 28 Rajesh Kumar Singh/AP
India has the world s biggest vaccine producing capacity but is suffering a devastating second wave of coronavirus infections just as supplies of Covid-19 vaccines for its huge population are running low.
The government has purchased at least 205.5 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines, according to data from the Duke Global Health Innovation Center, placing India in the top 10 vaccine buyers in the world. But those shots would only cover 8% of its 1.4 billion population.
After adding 1 million Covid-19 cases in 3 days, India tops 18 million cumulative cases
From CNN s Manveena Suri in New Delhi
India recorded 1 million Covid-19 cases over the last three days, pushing the total number of cases in the country to more than 18 million since the pandemic began, according to figures released today by the country’s Health Ministry.
Authorities reported 379,257 new coronavirus cases and 3,645 on Thursday, both new single-day records for India. It was the eight day in a row total cases topped 300,000
To date, India has seen 18,376,524 Covid-19 cases. At least 204,832 people have died as a result of the pandemic.