Bharat Biotech fails to ramp up production

After eight months into the vaccination drive in India, only one in 11 Indians receive the first indigenous vaccine. Bharat Biotech, which manufactures it, has failed to ramp up production at the pace it had thought it would. The Hyderabad-based company has repeatedly fallen short of the target it had set for itself. In between, it also saw a batch of its vaccines face quality issues. Its CMD Krishna Ella recently said the company would supply 5.5 crore doses from October, from the existing 3.5 crore doses, substantially lower than the initially expected 10 crore.

Meanwhile, Rajasthan’s 30 out of 33 districts reported zero Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, as per a report from the state’s Health Department on Tuesday. These districts include Udaipur, Sirohi, Sikar, Tonk and Nagaur. As per the government data, four new Covid19 cases and zero covid deaths were reported in the entire state in the last 24 hours. However, the capital city, Jaipur, reported zero cases. As many as eight people recovered from the infection in the same period.

According to provisional data, more than 53 lakh vaccine doses were administered on Tuesday, taking the cumulative number to 87.59 crore. With Tuesday’s vaccinations, 68% of the estimated adult population has received their first dose and 24.61% are fully vaccinated.

Almost a quarter of the adult population being fully vaccinated has significant public health implications. Data shows that vaccine effectiveness in preventing death enhances after the second dose, offering near-total protection (97.5%) against severity and death. News18