New Delhi: The Apollo Hospitals Group, one of the largest vaccinators in the private sector, will start administering the Russian COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik V from the second week of June, it said a statement issued on Friday.
The group, which took three weeks to cross the milestone, said in June it will do 10 lakh vaccinations every week and double that in July. “Apollo Hospitals Group has completed 1 million vaccines (vaccinations) across 80 locations in India. We have prioritized frontline workers, high-risk population and corporate employees across the country,” Apollo Group of Hospitals Executive Vice-Chairperson Shobana Kamineni said in a statement.
She further said, “As the largest vaccinator in the private sector, we will continue to support the union and state governments in the fight against this pandemic. We will further ramp up our immunisation programme.”
Elaborating on the group’s road map for vaccination, Kamineni said, “We took three weeks to do the first million, in June we will do a million every week and double that in July. We are on track to complete 20 million jabs by September 2021.”
While thanking the Centre, state governments vaccine manufacturers of Covishield and Covaxin for their support, she said, “Sputnik, the third vaccine approved in India, will be available through the Apollo system from the 2nd week of June. We believe that no one is safe till everyone is vaccinated.”
According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, total vaccinations in India stood at 20,26,95,874 as of 8 am, Thursday. India is currently using mainly two ‘made-in India’ jabs Covishield manufactured by the Serum Institute and Covaxin of Bharat Biotech and Russian-made Sputnik V at a smaller scale to inoculate its population, all of which are approved only for those aged 18 years and above.
Apollo Hospitals will start administering Russian COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik V from the second week of June, the group said today.
In a statement, Executive Vice-chairperson Shobana Kamineni of the Apollo Group of Hospitals said that the group has completed administering one million vaccine doses across 80 locations in India, prioritising frontline workers, high-risk population, and corporate employees.
Giving details about ramping up their immunisation programme, she said: “In June, we will do a million every week and double that in July. We are on track to complete 20 million jabs by September this year.”
As the largest vaccinator in the private sector, the group said that they will continue to support the Union and State Governments in the fight against this pandemic.
“We would like to thank the Union and State governments and the vaccine manufacturers of Covishield and Covaxin for their support,” Ms Kamineni said, adding that that no one is safe till everyone is vaccinated.
The statement comes days after it was reported that the local production of Sputnik V vaccine will begin in August, and that India and Russia are looking at manufacturing between 3.5 crore to 4 crore vaccines every month from August-September.
