COVID-19 Vaccination Latest News in India: India administered more than 20 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses as on May 25, 2021, till 7 PM. As many as 20,04,94,911 vaccine jabs have been administered as of May 25, 2021, as per an ANI report. In this situation, the launch of Moderna and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines in the country is going to be an added advantage in fighting the coronavirus pandemic.

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Next year, Moderna is expecting to launch a single-dose COVID-19 vaccine in India and is in talks with Cipla among other Indian firms, while another US giant Pfizer is ready to offer 5 crore shots in 2021 itself but it wants significant regulatory relaxations including indemnification, sources said on Tuesday, as per a PTI report.

The COVID-19 vaccination drive in the country was launched in the month of January this year. At present, the Covaxin and Covishield vaccines are being used to administer the vaccination doses, also, recently a third vaccine, Russian-made Sputnik V has been approved by the government and is being used at a smaller scale.

Last week, two rounds of high-level meetings chaired by the Cabinet Secretary were on the availability of vaccines in the global as well as domestic markets as the urgent need to procure vaccines was felt since the country is reeling under an unprecedented second wave of COVID-19. 

In the high-level meeting, officials from the Ministry of External Affairs, NITI Aayog, Department of Biotechnology, Law Ministry and Health Ministry were present.

In this regard, Moderna has conveyed to Indian authorities that it does not have surplus vaccines to share in 2021 and the company plans to launch its single dose vaccine for the Indian market only in 2022. Also, there are limited prospects of Johnson & Johnson exporting its jabs from the US to other countries soon, the sources privy to discussions added.

On the other hand, Pfizer indicated availability of 5 crore vaccine doses, one crore in July, one crore in August, one crore in September and one crore in October, for supply to India in 2021. It has also stated that the company will deal only with the Government of India and payment for vaccines will have to be made by the central government to Pfizer India. The central government will make its own arrangement for further channelization of procured vaccines in the domestic market.