Serum Institute restarts manufacturing of Covishield vaccine as Covid cases surge

Serum Institute of India (SII) has restarted manufacturing of the Covishield vaccine, the corporate’s CEO Adar Poonawalla stated on Wednesday. Serum Institute, the world’s largest vaccine producer by variety of doses produced and offered globally, had stopped producing the coronavirus vaccine as a result of an absence of demand.

In the previous couple of weeks, Covid instances have surged throughout the nation, prompting the authorities to advise folks to take booster doses. Amid the spike in Covid instances, the requirement for vaccine doses could improve.    

Poonawalla stated the corporate will make 6-7 million doses obtainable within the subsequent 90 days. This comes only a day after he suggested all of the elders to take the Covovax booster dose. Covovax is manufactured by Serum Institute in partnership with Novavax, a biotechnology firm primarily based in the US.

In a tweet on Tuesday, SII CEO stated: “As COVID instances have been rising once more with Omicron XBB & its variants, it may be extreme for the aged. I’d recommend for the aged, masks up & take the Covovax booster which is now obtainable on the COWIN app. It’s wonderful towards all variants & is authorised within the US & Europe.”

At this time, he stated six million booster doses of the Covovax vaccine can be found.

Earlier this month, the Serum Institute wrote a letter to the Union Well being Ministry looking for the inclusion of Covovax on the CoWIN portal as a heterologous booster dose for adults. Information company PTI on Monday reported that the Well being Ministry had authorised the inclusion of Covovax on the CoWIN portal as a heterologous booster dose for adults and it was prone to be obtainable at a value of Rs 225 per dose plus relevant GST.

Covovax might be administered to those that have already been vaccinated with Covishield or Covaxin. Final month, the Covid Working Group headed by Dr N Ok Arora additionally really useful to the Well being Ministry for the inclusion of the vaccine on the portal as a heterologous booster dose for adults who’ve been vaccinated with two doses of both Covishield or Covaxin.

The Serum Institute was among the many first two vaccine producers who rolled out Covid vaccines in India. Pune-based Serum produced Covishield in partnership with UK’s AstraZeneca whereas Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech rolled out Covaxin.