Covid vaccination in India 57% less than production, Centre's affidavit in Kerala HC

New Delhi: With the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi making its official that the production of vaccine is more than its daily consumption, it seems there is a "huge gap" in the vaccine supply chain or the policy paralysis that is resulting in the creation of an 'artificial shortage' of COVID-19 vaccine across the country.

In an affidavit submitted to the Kerala High Court, the Centre on Monday said that India is producing over 8.5 crore vaccine doses a month. On a daily basis, the production of the vaccine is around 28.33 lakh, while the average number of vaccines administered across the country in a day is around 12 to 13 lakh, which means 57 per cent of the production is not being delivered to the people.

Explaining about the procedures of vaccine availability, Lav Agarwal, joint secretary (health), said, "All the vaccines produced in a day cannot be immediately made available for the inoculation as there is a process involved in it that takes about 7-8 days for making vaccines available at the vaccination centres. Soon after the production of the vaccine, stability and sterility study is being conducted at the factory premises and it's a week-long procedure."

"As vaccine arrive in batches, so it's been sent for testing that takes a day. Then after, it moves through the supply chain that also takes some time," he said.

The Kerala HC also asked the Centre why the vaccines are not provided for free to the citizens. Highlighting that this was not the time to look into matters of federalism, the Kerala HC further pointed out that even though free vaccination would cost Rs 34,000 crore, the Centre has with it Rs 54,000 crore by way of dividend from the Reserve Bank of India.

However, on its vaccination policy, the Centre told the Kerala High Court, in the affidavit, that there is "no fixed target for dispensation of vaccines to the states and Union Territories".

Giving details of vaccine production, the Centre said that currently, the Pune-based Serum Institute of India is producing 6.5 crore doses of Covishield a month and Covaxin manufacturer Bharat Biotech is producing 2 crore doses a month.

Many states, including Delhi and Maharashtra, have shut down their vaccination drive due to inadequate supply of vaccine from the Centre. The states also failed to procure vaccines directly from global manufactures as makers of COVID-19 vaccines like Moderna and Pfizer have denied the requests of the states. The Centre, however, asserted that the Serum Institute and Bharat Biotech would increase the production within June. The production of Sputnik V, a COVID-19 vaccine produced in Russia and included in the vaccination drive, is also expected to increase production from 30 lakh doses to 1.2 crore doses by the next month.

"The Serum Institute has ramped up its production from 5 crore doses a month to 6.5 crore doses a month and a further boost is expected by July. Bharat Biotech has increased production from 90 lakh doses a month to 2 crore doses a month and a boost by July is expected there too as the firm is expected to produce 5.5 crore doses a month," the Centre claimed in its affidavit.

On the subject of vaccine pricing, the Centre also told the court that tightly controlling the price of vaccines may cause difficulty in securing adequate and/or multiple vaccine supplies, especially from offshore manufacturers. The counsel representing the Centre pointed out that since being a policy issue, he needs some more time to respond and the Court agreed to that while posting the matter for another day.