India will have 300 crore vaccine doses by December: G Kishan Reddy

Says in 3 months, the country will leave behind US, China to become world number one in vaccinating its citizens
Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy. (File Photo)
Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy. (File Photo)

HYDERABAD: India will have 300 crore vaccine doses by December, said Union Minister of State for Home Affairs G Kishan Reddy. He added that India would push the US and China behind and would secure the world number one ranking in vaccinating its citizens in the next three months by developing as well as importing the required number of doses.

Addressing a press conference from Delhi on Saturday, the Union Minister spoke on whether the Telangana State government could call for global tenders or not. He said that the Centre had authorised States to procure Covid-19 relief material from anywhere in the world. Kishan said that vaccine manufacturers were facing several technical challenges as they have to follow various norms of patent rights.

Stating that the Centre had been sanctioning permissions related to Covid-19 relief activities within 24 hours of receiving applications, the Union Minister added that the Centre had roped in paramilitary forces, Railways, Airforce, and Navy, to fight the pandemic and overcome the logistical challenges involved in providing vaccines to citizens.

He said that the Centre was striving to import Remdesivir injections. Claiming that the Centre has improved medical infrastructure, Kishan said that the medical oxygen production capacity had increased from 519 metric tonnes to 9,446 metric tonnes, and, ventilator manufacturing capacity from 2,000 to 51,000 ventilators.

Responding to allegations about faulty ventilators, he said that the authorities at Telangana Institute of Medical Sciences (TIMS), Gachibowli, had not even opened the seal of 100 ventilators out of the totally 200 sanctioned ones. He said that the Centre had sanctioned Pressure Swing Absorption (PSA) to TIMS, ESI, and Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Hospital, Warangal.

Asking the States not to downplay the cases and deaths, Kishan said that the Centre had allotted 4,960 ventilators to Andhra Pradesh (AP) and 1,400 ventilators to Telangana State (TS), and, 75 lakh vaccine doses to AP and 57 lakh doses to TS.

‘CENTRE STEPPING UP THE ANTE TO FIGHT COVID’

Stating that the Centre had been sanctioning permissions related to Covid-19 relief activities within 24 hours of receiving applications, Kishan Reddy said that the Centre had roped in paramilitary forces, Railways, Airforce, and Navy, to fight the pandemic and overcome the logistical challenges involved in providing vaccines to citizens.

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