New Delhi: The Government Union Government has placed a purchase order with the Indian Serum Institute (SII) for 66 doses of Crore Covishield to be supplied by December, the official source said on Thursday.
Development came after Prakash Kumar Singh, Director, Government and Regulatory Affairs in SII, told the Ministry of Health that the company would be able to supply 20.29 covishied crore doses in September.
Pune-based companies have increased the covishield production capacity to more than 20 doses of crore per month.
His ministry in July placed Bharat Biotech for supply of 28.50 doses of Covaxin Crore, but the company has not been able to start their supply, the official source said.
Bharat Biotech approaches completing the supply of five doses of Crore Covaxin where the Ministry of Health has been booking on March 12, the source said.
The source added that the ministry has ordered 37.50 crore doses of covishield between August and December and SII will complete this supply in mid-September.
On August 31, when the cumulative covid-19 vaccine dose given in the country crossed Mark 65 Crore, Singh in his communication to Niti Aayog Member (Health) from VK Paul and Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan had mentioned that SII had been supplied.
More than 60 crore doses of 60 crore doses, 2.1 crore provided in January, 2.5 crore in February, more than 4.73 crores in March, more than 6.25 crores in April, more than 9 68 Crore In June, more than 9.68 crore in June, more than 12.37 crore in July and more than 16.92 crore in August, he said.
In May, Singh had written a letter to the Minister of Home Union Amit Shah said that his employees had worked all the time despite various challenges due to pandemics.
“We are pleased to inform you that in June we will be able to produce and supply two to 10 doses of our covishield crore vaccine into the country compared to our production capacity of 6.5 crore doses in May,” he said.
“Serum Institute of India is always worried about the protection of citizens and our world in general from Covid-19.
Under the leadership of our CEO, Adar C Poonawalla, our team has worked relentlessly to shoulder with us the government to fight Pandemic Covid-19,” he said.