Govt should move quickly to ramp up vaccine availability: Sangita Reddy

The government should move quickly to ramp up the availability of the Covid-19 vaccine in the country by enhancing domestic production, says Apollo Hospitals Joint MD Sangita Reddy

The government should move quickly to ramp up the availability of the COVID-19 vaccine in the country by enhancing domestic production as well as increasing procurement from abroad, Apollo Hospitals Joint MD Sangita Reddy said on Monday.

Reddy also urged the government to utilise all public and private hospitals at the district level for vaccination purposes.

"The challenge of India#vaccinationstrategy is not admin as much as supply. I urge R #govt to move quickly on ramping up domestic prod, enhance intl procure, seek Intl aid in the form of vaccine & establish a dist network of all Pub & Pvt hospitals 2 accelerate the pace of inoculation," Reddy said in a post on micro-blogging site Twitter.

Last week, Reddy had suggested the government to take decisive actions to ramp up the production of COVID vaccines and streamline the inoculation processes to include citizens who do not have access to the internet.

"I urge @PMOIndia 2 take Bold & decisive actions to ramp up #COVID #vaccines & streamline inoculation processes to include citizens who do not have access 2 #internet/ #cowin app Allowing #walkin regis at #vaccination centres will help #VaccinationDrive, " she had tweeted.

Reddy was reacting to a report that India's technocratic approach to vaccination is excluding the digitally-deprived.

The Union Health Ministry on Monday said more than two crore COVID-19 vaccine doses are still available with the states and Union territories, while nearly three lakh doses are in the pipeline and will be received by them within the next three days.

The Centre has so far provided over 20 crore (20,76,10,230) vaccine doses to the states and Union territories for free.

Of this, the total consumption, calculated based on average figures, up to May 16, including wastage, is 18,71,13,705 doses (according to data available at 8 am on Monday).