The Union Health Ministry on Saturday told the Supreme Court that it would soon inoculate those of 12-18 age group with new Covid-19 vaccine developed by Indian pharmaceutical firm Zydus Cadila.
The Centre has filed an affidavit responding to the slew of questions raised by the Apex Court in its May 31 order while hearing the suo-motu case related to Covid management in the country.
Describing it as prima facie arbitrary and irrational, the bench of Justice D Y Chandrachud had criticised the Centre’s Covid vaccination policy allowing states and private hospitals to charge those in the 18-44 age group while the jabs were offered free for groups in the first two phases, and ordered its review.
The court had also asked the Central government to provide information including as to how Rs 35,000 crore, earmarked for vaccines, has been spent so far, and to place on record all relevant documents and file notings reflecting its thinking culminating in the policy.
In a 380-page affidavit, the Union government has stated that it expects to get around 188 crore vaccine doses from at least five manufacturers to vaccinate the entire adult population by the end of the year. Around 5-6 percent of India’s adult population has received the doses, it informed the Court.
The government said that a poor person and a multi-millionaire in the age group of 18 years and above are equally entitled to get the Covid vaccine free of cost and every effort is being made to ensure access to safe and effective ones at the earliest in the country.
The two vaccines, Covishield and Covaxin have been a part of the vaccination program since January 2021. Another coronavirus vaccine, Sputnik V developed by M/s Gamaleya Institute in Russia, has received Emergency Use Authorization by the DCGI, India in April 2021 and is now being administered in India, it said.
Further, the Centre mentioned indigenous vaccines available for the population. Some other domestic vaccines such as those from Biological E and Zydus Cadila are in the late stages of clinical trials and subject to regulatory approvals, which will further increase the availability of vaccines, it stated.
“In order to further increase vaccine availability and incentivizing the foreign manufacturers, the regulatory process for use of foreign vaccines within India has been accelerated and simplified. It is submitted that the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration of Covid-19 (NEGVAC), after comprehensive deliberations, recommended that vaccines for COVID-19, which have been developed and are being manufactured in foreign countries and which have been granted emergency approval for restricted use by the United States, European Union (EU), United Kingdom, Japan or which are listed in WHO (Emergency Use Listing) may be granted emergency use approval in India,” the government said.
The production capacity of the Covid vaccines is being ramped up and expected to further increase in the next few months. The vaccination policy has been reviewed dynamically since May this year. It has also been making the necessary arrangements for the required doses, affidavit said.
The government also provided the cost break-up of the vaccines. According to the document, approximately Rs 10,000 crore has been spent/allocated for vaccine procurement, so far.
“As per the projected midyear population for 2020, the total population of the country aged 18 years and above is approximately 93-94 crore. As such, administering two doses to these beneficiaries would require an estimated 186 to 188 crore vaccine doses. As shown in the table above, out of this requirement, 51.6 crore doses will be made available for administration by 31.07.2021 leaving a requirement of approximately 135 crore vaccine doses for complete vaccination to the eligible population”.
The government also gave the reasons behind the involvement of private hospitals in the process from the beginning of the vaccination programme. “As per the statistics available, approximately, 55 per cent of the population of the country seeks and gets medical care / health services from private hospitals and 45 per cent gets health care services from government hospitals. Private hospitals give wider reach to vaccination and lessen the stress on government facilities considering the very magnitude of the task ahead viz. vaccinating second largest country in the world.”