The April 19 announcement of the roll out of vaccines in the third phase, India will dramatically expand its vaccination coverage from May 1st, including everyone aged 18 and older. Currently, the second phase is ongoing in which people above 45 years of age can get themselves immunised.

From May 1, the supply of vaccines from two vaccine manufacturers (serum institute and bharat biotech) will be divided into two baskets: 50% doses to the Union government, while the remaining doses will be made available to the state government.

The centre will allocate its 50% share to states based on the extent of infection (active cases) and performance of administration. Currently, states recieve vaccine doses according to the number of registrations and walk-in-vaccination. Now, low wastage will be incentivised.

The state distributed the stock to government vaccination centres, which administrated the vaccine free of cost, and  to private hospitals that charge the recipients ₹250 per dose.

The pace  of covid-19 vaccination in India dropped again in the latest 10 days of April compared to the first ten days. From over 3.6 million average daily doses adminstered  in the first ten days of April, vaccination levels dropped to 2.8 million in the next 10 days. If India is aiming to vaccinate all adults (940million*2 doses) by 2021, the average doses should increase to atleast 6.8 million per day, 2.5 times the current rate.

According to the recommendation by the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19. In  the first phase of vaccination drive in the country the COVID-19 vaccine will be first given to the most prioritised beneficiaries that includes 1 crore healthcare workers in both government and private hospitals and 2 crore frontline and municipal workers such as state and Central police department, armed forces, home guard, disaster management, prison staff, municipal workers and revenue officials engaged in COVID-19 surveillance and associated activities and also inoculate population above 50 years of age.

After first phase of vaccination India was all set to begin the second phase of COVID-19 vaccine drive that cover 10 crore people across the country. Vaccination was available from March 1 at 10,000 government health centres and around 12000 private centres peoples who are above the age of 45 with certain health conditions will be able to eligible for vaccination in this round.

At present Serum institute of India produces 70 million to 100 million doses of Covishield  per month while Bharat Biotech makes 12 million doses of Covaxin per month. Every week this gives new stock of only around 25 million vaccines.

At the current pace, India would be able to administer 421 million doses by July 31, around 21 million doses more than the target (lower bond) of 400 million, and 79 million fewer than the upper bound.

We all hoping for healthy and good days coming soon!