NEW DELHI:
India hopes to receive up to 500 million doses of coronavirus vaccine by July to inoculate about 250 million people, health minister Harsh Vardhan said on Sunday, as infections in the world’s second-worst affected country continue to surge.
India’s has recorded some 6.55 million infections, with 75,829 in the past 24 hours, while COVID-19-related deaths have totalled 101,782, health ministry data showed.
“There is a high-level expert body going into all aspects of vaccines,” Vardhan wrote on Twitter. “Our rough estimate and the target would be to receive and utilise 400 to 500 million doses covering (200 million-250 million) people by July 2021.”
Serum Institute of India and private companies have been teaming up with organizations from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to U.S. drug developer Novavax Inc in a scramble to secure vaccines for the country of 1.3 billion people.
India has set up committees to look into various aspects of the vaccine supply chain, including availability timelines for various vaccines, while obtaining commitments from manufacturers to ensure the maximum doses are available, Vardhan said.
He said the federal government is committed to taking all measures to ensure “fair and equitable” distribution of vaccines once they are ready.
The South Asian nation, second only to the United States in caseload, has scope for higher infections as a large chunk of the population remains unexposed to the virus, a survey showed on Tuesday.
To prioritise the distribution of coronavirus vaccines, the health ministry aims to prepare a list of key personnel, such as frontline health workers, by the end of the month.
Meanwhile,for the 13th day in an "unbroken string", India has maintained its steady trend of clocking less than 10 lakh active cases of COVID-19, the Union Health Ministry said on Sunday.
It also said that an average of 11.5 lakh tests for detection of coronavirus infection were done on a daily basis during the past ten days.
From merely one in January 2020, India's total tests for detection of COVID-19 have crossed 7.89 crore so far. There has been a commensurate dip in the COVID-19 positivity rate, it said.
"With progressively falling positivity rate, testing has worked as a highly effective tool to limit the spread of COVID-19 infection," the ministry highlighted.
There are 9,37,625 active cases of COVID-19 as on date, which is 7,371 cases less than Saturday.
India has posted high daily testing numbers on Thursday, Friday and Saturday with 10,97,947, 11,32,675 and 11,42,131 tests being conducted respectively.
"There has been an exponential rise in India's daily testing capacities. More than 15 lakhs tests can be conducted every day.
"An average of 11.5 lakh tests were done on a daily basis during the past ten days," the ministry said.
Very high levels of testing lead to early identification, prompt isolation and effective treatment of COVID-19 cases. These have eventually resulted in a sustained low fatality rate which has dropped to 1.55 per cent.
India's steady trend of posting high level of daily recoveries also continues with 82,260 recoveries being registered in a span of 24 hours in the country. In contrast, 75,829 new cases of COVID-19 have been reported.
The new recoveries have exceeded the new cases in the recent days.
India's total recoveries crossed 55 lakh (55,09,966) on Sunday. Higher number of single-day recoveries is reflected in the continuous increase in the national recovery rate, which is at present 84.13 per cent.
The ministry said 75.44 per cent of the newly recovered cases are recorded in 10 states and UTs.
Being the leading state with highest number of active cases, Maharashtra has also contributed the highest number to the newly recovered cases followed by Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
Further 10 states and UTs account for 77.11 per cent of the active cases in the country. As on date, the percent contribution of active cases to the COVID-19 caseload of the country has reduced to only 14.32 per cent, the ministry underlined.