Apollo Hospitals ready to administer 1 million vaccines per day

The Apollo Hospitals is ready to administer the Covid-19 vaccine to one million people per day, according to Shobhana Kamineni, Executive Vice-Chairperson, Apollo Hospitals Group.

“We have 30 per cent of Indians living within a distance of 30 mts and 10,000 staffers ready to administer it with necessary infrastructure and precautions,’’ Kamineni said.

Out of 10,000 staff, 6,000 are nurses, 1,000 doctors and 3,000 are trainees. Apollo has over one lakh employees on its rolls.

Apollo has also built a cold storage chain to ensure safe reach of the vaccine within 30 minutes to 48 hours, depending on the distance, in association with its existing logistics support partners.

It has been investing in ramping up the cold chain and other infrastructure for the last four months but is not willing to disclose the quantum of investment made in this regard.

Apollo has been talking to the government on its willingness to partner. “It is also time for Apollo to say that the private sector will always work with the government in these times. This will be an effort in which the government will be involved from day one” she added.

Procurement

On the procurement of vaccines for distribution, she said Apollo had spoken to several manufacturers. “However, while the capacities are fully booked, the initial stage will be only through the government,” she said.

If the government clears the private sector to purchase the vaccine, Apollo will also be ready to buy it, apart from distributing it.

When asked about the cost of vaccine and administering it, Kamineni said: “We will wait for government to come out on this.”

Pre-clinical evaluation

Regarding the state of vaccine development and its availability, she said 151 are in pre-clinical evaluation while 42 are undergoing clinical evaluation. Ten candidates are in phase III trials, including three from Indian companies.

The phase III data from these candidates is likely to be available by November-December. – The Hindu BusinessLine