Covid-19 vaccine Sputnik V from Russia will be available in India from the second week of June. The Apollo Hospitals Group will start administering the vaccine. The group has so far completed 1 million vaccinations across 80 locations in India. It has prioritised frontline workers, high-risk population and corporate employees across the country.
Executive Vice Chairperson of the Apollo Group of Hospitals, Shobana Kamineni stated that “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.”
The group plans to complete 20 million jabs by September this year. Sputnik is the third vaccine approved in India in addition to Covishield and Covaxin.
According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, total vaccinations in India stood at 20,26,95,874.
It has been reported that 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 every month from August. In the meantime, Russia will lend around 18 million Sputnik doses before allowing transfer of technology for production in India.
