As more and more states flag shortage of Covid-19 vaccine doses, the Central government has pressed the accelerator to scale up vaccine production manifold in India.

Hopefully, India is likely to have five more Covid vaccines by October this year as the Centre is planning to scale up vaccinations amid a rapid surge in cases according to top government sources. "India currently has two Covid-19 vaccines being manufactured locally: Covishield and Covaxin, and we can expect five more vaccines by Q3 2021.

 These vaccines are Sputnik V vaccine (in collaboration with Dr. Reddy's), Johnson & Johnson vaccine (in collaboration with Biological E), Novavax vaccine (in collaboration with Serum India), Zydus Cadila's vaccine, and Bharat Biotech's Intranasal Vaccine," a source said. It added that safety and efficacy are the government's primary concerns while granting emergency use authorization (EUA) to any Covid-19 vaccine in the country. Russia's Sputnik V is likely to get emergency use approval within the next 10 days. Among the vaccines likely to get the nod, Sputnik V has the highest efficacy rate at 92%. Trial data for Zydus Cadila's vaccine and Bharat Biotech's Intranasal shot is not yet available.

India has so far administered over 10 crore doses of Covid vaccine, becoming the fastest country in the world to achieve this milestone. However, there have been reports of vaccine shortage in several states with India grappling with a severe second wave of infections.

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