With the motive to combat the second wave of Coronavirus in India, the Modi government had put on hold the export of its Covid-19 vaccines. However, on Monday, after vaccinating more than 81 crore Indians, India stepped in with a decision to resume its flagship Vaccine Maitri initiative from October to reduce supply inequity in poorer nations. With this decision to export vaccines, leftists’ campaign against vaccination has fallen on its feet again.
India’s record-breaking vaccine manufacturing
Indian vaccine manufacturers like the Serum Institute of India (SII) were supplying coronavirus vaccine doses to developing countries before the second wave of pandemic hit the nation.
On January 20, India had started external supplies under Vaccine Maitri in the form of grant-in-aid and commercial sales, and through COVAX, the multilateral initiative aimed at global access to Covid vaccines, which is led by Gavi, Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and WHO. Through this initiative, more than 6.63 crore doses were exported.
Recently, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said India’s vaccine manufacturers are expected to produce more than 30 crore doses in October for the domestic drive, and that surplus supply will be used to fulfill the country’s commitment towards the global fight against Covid, as per the reports of The Indian Express. He also added that the Government is receiving 26 crore doses from domestic manufacturers this month.
“Looking ahead, we expect more doses as production increases. Biological E and other companies will also arrive with their vaccines in the market. Keeping this in view, in the next quarter, after fulfilling our domestic requirements and by further increasing vaccine production, we will take forward Vaccine Maitri,” Mandaviya said.
Thus, it can be said that India’s burgeoning capacity of production will be good enough to fulfil its own demands and export as well.
India vaccinated 81 crore Indians
Earlier this month, India achieved a feat by vaccinating approximately 25 million individuals in a single day. Adding to that, as reported by Times of India, India’s Covid-19 vaccination coverage has exceeded 81.85 crores (81,85,13,827) till Tuesday. The ministry informed that this has been achieved through 80,35,135 sessions. According to the health ministry, 33,12,97,757 vaccine doses were administered as the first dose and 6,26,66,347 vaccine and 6,26,66,347 vaccine doses were given as the second dose in the age group 18-44 years.
Read more: Frustrated by India’s COVID-19 vaccine success, Chinese hackers try to steal important info
BBC’s propaganda to raise questions about vaccines
In an article titled “India vaccination: Does it have enough doses for all adults?” published by the left media portal BBC News, the media house raised questions against India’s vaccination. The article questioned the Indian Government whether it has enough doses to vaccinate the entire adult population of India, as promised by them.
Despite the claim by the government and Serum Institute of India itself that the company’s July monthly production capacity for Covishield is between 110 and 120 million doses, the media portal went on to criticize the government.
Moreover, it claimed that India is one of those countries that will benefit from donations of vaccines by the US and other G7 members in the month of June. The article also read, “Nearly 11% of the eligible population is fully vaccinated with two doses.That means around 285 million doses per month will be needed over the next five months to vaccinate all remaining adults by the end of 2021.”
However, it is quite clear that left media portals find it difficult to resist India’s achievements. The government has successfully covered the vaccination of around more than half of the population of the nation. India’s ‘Vaccine Maitri’ mission to export vaccines to the developing nations is a superhit, under which the country has been supplying Covid-19 vaccines to multiple countries across the world free of cost at first, and then, at highly affordable prices.
