We are at the fag end of 2020, with just a couple of days remaining in the year. The better part or almost the entire year, was taken away from us by the COVID-19 Novel Corona Virus Pandemic, which has been wreaking havoc across the world. After being at the receiving end of the Virus, with no means to combat it, over 1.5 million lives have been lost worldwide. However, in recent days, humanity has been bolstered by the registering of a number of potent vaccines to fight against the Virus. Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna Inc. have stated that their vaccine candidates have shown 95% efficacy against the Virus and a couple of other vaccines like the Sputnik V and Covishield have also applied for Emergency Use Authorisation!

All these vaccines have also applied for emergency use in India and their applications are being processed by the authorities of the Indian government. The vaccine candidate which was developed jointly by the Oxford University and the British company AstraZeneca, has been named Covishield! This vaccine is being produced by the Pune-based Indian company - Serum Institute of India (SII), one of the largest vaccine manufacturers in the world. Now, Adar Poonawalla - the CEO of SII has revealed that his company already has a stockpile of about 40 to 50 million doses of Covishield, already.

Poonawalla went on to state that the government approval for vaccination is expected over the next few days and that the government has to decide how much it wants to take over which period of time. As a huge boost and a message of positivity, Adar Poonawalla has also stated that SII is planning to have 300 million doses of Covishield ready by July 2021! He stated, "India is a part of COVAX. We will keep giving 50% of everything we make to India and to COVAX at the same time. India has such a large population that we will probably end up giving the majority of the 50 million doses to India first." He also mentioned that there will be a global shortage of vaccines in the first 6 months of 2021 but that the demand would ease out around August-September, as other manufacturers would also be able to help with the supply! Stay tuned for updates...