Covid Vaccine: 1.93cr shots to expire by November

As many as 1.93 crore Covid-19 jabs, stored as the first and second doses, will expire by November, health officials said yesterday.

As a result, no first or second dose of the vaccine will be available after that, Shamsul Haque, member secretary of the Covid-19 Vaccine Management Taskforce, said.

The government has a target to inoculate around 13.29 crore people. Of them, 12.96 crore have taken their first doses, according to Shamsul.

In addition to the remaining 33 lakh people, around 94 lakh others were yet to take their second doses.

"In total, 1.27 crore people should take their first or second jabs immediately," Shamsul said.

So far, the government has collected 30.78 crore doses of Covid-19 vaccines. Of those, 28.85 crore shots have already been administered.

The five brands of vaccines being used are -- Covishield, Moderna, Sinopharm, Pfizer, and Sinovac -- which were either purchased by the government, or donated by different countries or organisations.

Besides, the government received some 3.36 lakh shots of the single-dose vaccine developed by Johnson & Johnson company as a gift from the United States government in January.

Shamsul said that the government will now import vaccines for the booster dose campaign.

He added that around 7.3 crore vaccine recipients are now eligible for the booster dose. "After November, only the booster dose campaigns will continue."

The vaccination campaign for children aged between five and 11 will begin in August.

"For this, the registration process has started. At least 4.20 crore children will get vaccines," he added.

Meanwhile, the health directorate yesterday reported 621 Covid-19 cases and four more deaths caused by the viral infection.

The positivity rate was 6.14 percent.

With the latest count, Covid-19 claimed 29,275 lives in the country so far.