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By Neha Arora and Krishna N. Das
NEW DELHI, May 20 (Reuters) - India's output of COVID-19
shots for August-December is likely to be lower than the
government's public estimate, according to internal projections
shared with Reuters by two sources.
Lower-than-expected production could delay India's plans to
vaccinate all its adults this year, amid fears the country will
face another surge of coronavirus infections in the winter.
India's ongoing second wave, the world's worst since the
pandemic began, has overwhelmed its health system.
The government last week publicly estimated 1.46 billion
doses of its three approved shots - AstraZeneca, Sputnik
V and Covaxin - would be made between August and December.
Production of the AstraZeneca vaccine, of which the Serum
Institute of India (SII) is the biggest maker in the world, is
expected to reach 100 million to 110 million doses a month from
July and stay at that level for the foreseeable future, a source
with knowledge of the matter said.
That would be at least 200 million doses less than the
government's public forecast of 750 million AstraZeneca doses
for the last five months of the year, a 27% shortfall.
An internal government projection for August and September
shared by a second source put the monthly number of AstraZeneca
doses at 100 million, out of 200 million for all the three
approved shots combined.
The sources declined to be named discussing a subject on
which Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has been
criticised due to a shortage of vaccines. Immunisations have
fallen https://dashboard.cowin.gov.in sharply since an April
peak.
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare did not respond to
queries from Reuters.
SII, which is facing raw material shortages for another
vaccine that the government is banking on, declined to comment.
A spokeswoman for Covaxin-maker Bharat Biotech said that
last month the company raised its annual production capacity to
more than 500 million doses, or about 42 million doses a month.
It has been producing about 10 million doses a month.
Dr. Reddy's Laboratories, the local distributor
for Russia's Sputnik V, did not respond to a request for
comment.
Apart from the approved vaccines, the government has also
forecast August-December production of 866 million doses of five
yet-to-be-approved vaccines. Overall, the government has pledged
to make 2.67 billion doses available this year.
SII has already halted exports until the end of the year to
meet domestic demand, in a major blow to dozens of poor
countries relying on it for supplies.
India has so far administered 187 million vaccine doses, the
most after China and the United States, but fully immunised only
about 3% of its 1.35 billion people.
(Reporting by Neha Arora and Krishna N. Das; editing by
Philippa Fletcher)
