Serum Institute Says It Will Be Able To Manufacture And Supply 100 Million Covishield Doses in June

The Serum Institute of India (SII) has said it will be able to manufacture and supply 90 to 100 million doses of Covishield, the vaccine against the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), next month, news agency PTI reported on Sunday citing a letter by a senior company official.

As of May 29, India has administered 210 million total doses including 187 million doses of Covishield and 22.8 million doses of indigenously developed Covaxin.

In a recent letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, SII said its employees have been working round the clock in spite of various challenges because of the pandemic.

"We are pleased to inform that in the month of June we will be able to manufacture and supply nine to 10 crore doses of our Covishield vaccine to the country as compared to our production capacity of 6.5 crore doses in May," Prakash Kumar Singh, the Director of Government and Regulatory Affairs at SII, said in the letter.

The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Sunday (May 30) said that the Central Government will provide over 120 million doses for the national COVID-19 vaccination programme in the month of June.

"For the month of June 2021, 60 million (6,09,60,000) doses of COVID vaccines will be supplied to the States and UTs for vaccination of priority group of Health Care Workers (HCWs), Front-Line Workers (FLWs) and person aged 45 years + and above as free supply from Government of India. In addition, more than 58.6 million (5,86,10,000) doses will be available for direct procurement by the state/UTs and Private Hospitals. Therefore, in June 2021 close to 120 million (11,95,70,000) doses will be available for the national COVID vaccination programme." the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said in a statement.