1. A missing link between vaccine production and your arm

| May 23, 2021, 23:16 IST

India's actual vaccination rate doesn’t seem to catch up with even the stated supply by the vaccine makers, let alone the demand.

About 2.7 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines are produced a day on average, according to government declarations and data published by the vaccine manufacturers, Serum Institute of India and
Bharat Biotech
.
Yet only 1.62 million doses were administered a day on an average in the first three weeks of May.

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SII was producing 65 million doses of Covishield a month and Bharat Biotech was producing 20 million doses of Covaxin a month, the central government told the Supreme Court in an affidavit earlier this month.
Company statements were not much different. SII repeatedly said its production is 60-70 million doses a month. As per CMD
Krishna Ella
, Bharat Biotech was to produce 20 million doses in April and 30 million in May.
Even going by the lowest figure, that translates to 85 million doses of Covishield and Covaxin in May. Or 2.74 million doses a day on average (for a 31-day month). Remember, India is not exporting any doses at present.
Yet in the first 22 days of May, India administered a little under 36 million doses at an average of 1.62 million doses a day. At this rate, India will administer just 50 million doses this month.
Worse, in the last seven days (May 16 to 22), the actual vaccination rate has fallen steadily to 1.3 million doses a day.

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