On May 1, India opened up their vaccine drive to get another 450 million or so jabs by July 31, making a total of 600 million. The goal is to vaccinate 300 million people, representing the frontline medical personnel and the most vulnerable. However, the shortage of specific components that feed their vaccine industry has crippled the drive, and several states are so short of vaccines, they will have delays for at least several days.
The Russians flew two planes into Hyderabad yesterday that included 150,000 doses of the Sputnik V vaccine. They plan to send in 3 million doses in May. They have also set up production arrangements in India for a lot more. The Sputnik V Twitter account read: “First batch of Sputnik V vaccine arrives in Hyderabad, India! That’s the same day the country starts mass COVID vaccination drive covering its entire adult population. Let’s jointly defeat this pandemic. Together we are stronger.” This happened on a day when India passed the 400,000 mark in new official cases.
