Supply of Covid-19 Shots: Serum urges nations to be patient

Adar Poonawalla, CEO of Serum Institute of India, yesterday urged countries to be patient for supplies of Covid-19 vaccine Covishield as the company has been directed to prioritise the "huge needs" of India.

Apart from making efforts to meet the requirements of India, the company is also trying its best to balance the needs of the rest of the world, he tweeted yesterday morning.

"Dear countries and governments, as you await #COVISHIELD supplies, I humbly request you to please be patient, @SerumInstIndia has been directed to prioritise the huge needs of India and along with that balance the needs of the rest of the world. We are trying our best," Poonawalla said in the tweet.

On February 15, the World Health Organization (WHO) listed two versions of the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use, giving the green signal for these vaccines to be rolled out globally through Covax, the global vaccine alliance.

The vaccines are produced by AstraZeneca-SKBio (Republic of Korea) and the Serum Institute of India, reports our New Delhi correspondent.

Bangladesh purchased three crore doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine from SII. The first consignment of 50 lakh arrived on January 25, with 50 lakh doses supposed to arrive each month.

Bangladesh also received 20 lakh doses of the Oxford vaccine produced in SII as gift from the Indian government on January 21.

NEW INDIAN STRAINS

Herd immunity for coronavirus is a "myth" in India because at least 80 percent people need to have antibodies for the whole of the population to be protected, Indian AIIMS chief Randeep Guleria told NDTV on Saturday.

This, he said, would be difficult if one takes into account the new Indian strains found in Maharashtra -- which could be highly transmissible and dangerous. The new variant, he said, can even cause re-infections in people who have developed antibodies to the virus.

At least 240 new strains of the virus have surfaced across India, which are behind the fresh surge of infections the state has been witnessing since last week, Dr Shahshank Joshi, member of Maharashtra's Covid Task Force has told NDTV.

Besides Maharashtra, four more states -- Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Punjab -- have been witnessing a spike in numbers.

The government's vaccination plan depends on creating herd immunity by immunising a critical mass of people. In the first phase of vaccination, the government plans to immunise 3 crore health workers and frontline workers.

After that it will be the turn of 27 crore people who are above the age of 50 years or have co-morbidities.

Explaining why herd immunity is not achievable, Dr Guleria said mutations or variants in the virus have "immune escape mechanism". They can threaten the immunity achieved by a person through vaccinations or the disease and cause reinfection.

Under the circumstances, he said it is imperative to maintain "Covid-appropriate behaviour".

"India needs to go back to aggressive measures of testing, contact tracing and isolating infections," he added.

Asked if the Covid-19 vaccines in India be effective against the new strain, Dr Guleria said the vaccines will be effective, but their efficacy might be less. For example, people might not be able to avoid getting the disease, but they will have a mild version of it.

He, however, underscored that getting the vaccine is a must.