The Centre is preparing to start vaccinating people below 45 years, Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers D. V. Sadananda Gowda said on Wednesday, adding that there is enough stock of both Covishield and Covaxin vaccines in the country.
Nearly 22 crore doses of COVID-19 vaccine were produced and 12 crore people have already been vaccinated in India, Gowda said in Bengaluru.
Gowda, who received the second dose of the vaccine at K.C. General Hospital, said the vaccine has been made available free of cost to people above 45 years and urged every eligible citizen to get vaccinated.
"I have taken the second dose today and I have had no issues. The vaccine is totally safe and more and more people should get vaccinated," he said.
Elaborating on the government's plan to speed up and expand the vaccination drive, Gowda said, "India has provided around six crore doses of vaccine to 90 countries that sought help. We have also decided to import Sputnik-V vaccine from Russia."
'Production of Remdesivir to be ramped up'
Admitting that the surge in COVID-19 cases had lead to increase in demand for Remdesivir, an injectible anti-viral drug used to treat COVID-19 patients, Gowda said, "We banned the export of Remdesivir as it is crucial for COVID-19 treatment. Seven Indian companies have the licence to produce Remdesivir. These companies had cut down their production as there was a slump in the domestic demand. They were also exporting their stock as Remdesivir cannot be stored beyond three months. But now, with the surge in COVID-19 cases in the country, the government has directed these companies to scale up their production."