Amid the growing shortage of Covid-19 vaccines, the executive director of the Serum Institute of India Suresh Jadhav on Friday alleged that the Central government for widening the vaccination net in the country without thinking about the availability of vaccines stock in the country.
Speaking at an e-summit organised by Heal Health, a health advocacy and awareness platform he said that India should have abide by the WHO guidelines and vaccinated on prirortised basis.
Mr Jadhav told that initially it was planned to completely vaccinate 300 million people for whom 600 million doses were acquired, “but before we reached the target, the government opened vaccination for all above 45 years followed by those aged 18 and above despite knowing well that so much vaccine is not available”, he said.
“That is the greatest lesson we learnt. We must take into account the availability of the product and then use it judiciously,” Jadhav further said. The executive director also stressed that getting vaccinated is very important but even after getting vaccinated people are still susceptible to the coronavirus infection.
“Therefore, be cautious and follow COVID preventive guidelines. Although the double mutant of Indian variants are neutralised, yet variants can create problems in vaccination,” he said.
“As far as the selection of vaccine is concerned, as per CDC and NIH data, whatever vaccine is available can be taken provided it is licensed by the regulatory body. And it is too early to say which vaccine is efficacious and which is not,” he further said.
In the mean time, the Union Health Ministry on Friday uncovered that the total number of COVID-19 vaccine shots administered in the nation have crossed 19.32 crore. The Union Health Ministry said 6,63,353 recipients in the age gathering of 18-44 years got their first jab on Friday, and in total 92,73,550 across 37 states and UTs since the beginning of the third phase of the COVID-19 vaccination drive.
