Health Minister Mandaviya launches 1st commercial batch of Bharat Biotech's COVAXIN manufactured in Ankleshwar

Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Mansukh Mandaviya on Sunday launched the first commercial batch of Bharat Biotech's COVAXIN manufactured in Gujarat's Ankleshwar.

Union Minister said in the event that India is focused on slowing the spread of COVID-19 in the country, and the key to achieving this lies in the swift and efficient administration of vaccines.

"We want to ensure equitable access of the vaccine to every Indian citizen, and the expansion of COVAXIN production facilities by Bharat Biotech will take us closer to this goal," Mandaviya further added.

Bharat Biotech has already deployed multiple production lines at its Hyderabad, Malur, Bengaluru, and Pune campuses, and the addition of Chiron Behring, Ankleshwar will further augment its COVAXIN production capacity.

"We want to ensure that Bharat Biotech can ably meet the demand for COVAXIN such that individuals across the country, and the globe, have access to the vaccine and can secure their health and safety. Our goal to develop a vaccine with global safety and efficacy standards has now been achieved, we are now marching towards the goal of the annualized capacity of one billion doses," said Dr Krishna Ella, Chairman & Managing Director, Bharat Biotech.

Dr Krishna Ella, Chairman and Managing Director, Bharat Biotech and Suchitra Ella, Joint Managing Director, Bharat Biotech were also present at the launch.

Meanwhile, Mandaviya took his Twitter account to express his joy.

"Vaccination is the most important thing to strengthen the country in the fight against Corona. Today at Ankleshwar, Gujarat @BharatBiotech from the plant #COVAXIN released the first commercial batch. This will increase the supply of vaccine in the country and will help in reaching the vaccine to every Indian," Union Minister tweeted.

"A comprehensive plan is in place for COVID19 vaccination in the country. Two days ago, record 10 million vaccine doses were administered in a day," Mandaviya later told ANI.

India has administered over 63 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses so far, said the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare today.

As many as 73,85,866 COVID vaccine doses have been administered in the last 24 hours. With this, the country's COVID-19 vaccination coverage reached 63,09,17,927, as per provisional reports till 7 am today. This has been achieved through 67,80,301 sessions.

( With inputs from ANI )