Vax supply to ramp up soon: Rajiv Kumar, NITI | Economic Times

Rajiv Kumar, NITI Aayog shares his take on the Covid situation, vaccine scene and the decision to open up vaccination for all above 18. Edited excerpts:ET Now: Share your thoughts on the move to open up vaccination for all above 18.Rajiv Kumar: This is a very big step forward. It was needed given the situation, and also given the fact that the government has now arranged more than adequate supplies of the vaccines by allowing imports, by getting extra capacity for Sputnik and also giving grants to the domestic producers to more than quadruple their capacities.It is imperative that we vaccinate as large a population as quickly as can be. We have more than 44,000 vaccination stations in the country. If they all work at full capacity I am sure we can make a huge dent in the trend and we will soon be able to overcome the pandemic.Like National Health Authority Chairman Ram Sewak Sharma said, the technical backbone is now in place. So we can take on the load of the extra vaccination going forward.How much will the money being provided to Serum Institute and Bharat Bio help in ramping up our vaccine capabilities?I am not fully conversant with the timeframe. But money will not be a problem. I think it is more a matter of weeks rather than months that we can have extra production coming on line.I had heard that it will be about two months or two to three months that Bharat Biotech would really ramp up its capacity in a big way. Serum Institute also would be able to do that. So I think in the next eight to 12 weeks we should see extra supplies from domestic producers coming through.In the meantime, given the approval to import of vaccines, I think we will see a very quick ramping up of vaccine supply.There is the need to get vaccines to everyone, even to those who cannot pay. There is also the need to ensure producers, who have taken huge risks, do not incur losses. How do you strike a balance between the two?There is no clear-cut answer at the moment, but we have to balance the two needs. The government has now given the flexibility. I think it is a big change and a big step forward. Let us look forward to how this is arranged or achieved.There are some details that we need to look into. We will be working with other agencies and ministries to come up with some solutions.