Will be able to manufacture, supply 10 cr Covishield doses in June: Serum Institute to Centre

Singh also thanked Shah for his “valuable guidance and continuous support” at various stages of their endeavour to make India ‘aatmanirbhar’ (self-sufficient) in COVID-19 vaccines and making it available for the people of the country.

“Serum Institute of India has always been sincerely concerned about the protection of the citizens of our country and world at large from COVID-19. Under the leadership of our CEO, Adar C Poonawalla, our team have been working relentlessly shoulder to shoulder with our government to fight the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said in the letter.

“We assure you that with the support of the Government of India and under your kind guidance, we are trying our best by utilizing all of our resources to increase our production capacity of Covishield in the coming month also.”

In early May, SII had communicated to the Centre that production of Covishield would be ramped up to 6.5 crore in June, seven crore in July and 10 crore each in August and September.

India is currently using made-in-India vaccines — Covishield manufactured by SII and Covaxin of Bharat Biotech — in its COVID-19 immunisation programme.

The Russian Sputnik V is the third vaccine to get approval from the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) for emergency use and is being used in a few private hospitals.