Serum Institute awaits govt’s nod for vaccine roll out as it sits on 55 million Covishield doses

According to the sources, the Serum Institute of India, Pune, is awaiting central government’s nod for over 55 million doses of Covishield vaccine and has temporarily halted production of more. This contradicts the government’s own goal of administering 3.33 million doses per day.

Though the company has refused to comment on this matter, sources say the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) is furiously lobbying the government to pick up the unused Covishield stock and put it to better use.

“Instead of controlling all the issues of vaccination, the government should first address all the problems of the immunization campaign” the CII sourse said. He added, “The government is messing up the vaccine roll, just as they delayed testing at the start of the pandemic by insisting no private labs could conduct tests”.

Despite of SII being in Pune, the Maharashtra government is reported to not have enough vaccines. The state government was earlier expected to get more Covishield doses.

On January 3, 2021, the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) Dr V.G. Somani approved two vaccine candidates, Covaxin and Covishield, for “restricted use” in “emergency” conditions.