61 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine have already been administered in India, while the country has given 64 million doses to 84 nations under various programmes, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said yesterday.
Participating in a virtual panel discussion on vaccine production and distribution across Asia at the 'World Immunisation and Logistics Summit', Vardhan detailed how the infrastructure of India's universal immunisation programme provided a pivot for its Covid-19 vaccination drive.
“There was this moral responsibility of striking a balance between what we do for our own countrymen and what we do for the rest of the world. Under the leadership of our Prime Minister, we could overcome this challenge. We have struck a good quality balance between needs of the world and India,” said Dr Harsh Vardhan.
Over 1,000 attendees from across the Indo-Pacific region and world participated in the virtual conference to discuss key issues of global supply chains as the world faces the largest and most complex logistical operation in history in an effort to deliver life-saving vaccines worldwide, the health ministry said in a statement.
It said the panel was informed how India is scaling up production of Covid-19 vaccines and how the government was working with local and international partners to ensure timely distribution of the same.
The Union health minister said that half a dozen vaccines are under clinical trials and around one dozen are in pre-clinical trials which are being monitored by an expert group for vaccine NEGVAC.