Adar Poonawalla, chief executive officer, Serum Institute of India (SII) the world’s biggest vaccine manufacturer has said India may face shortages of vaccines for the next few months, adding that the capacity will increase to 100 million doses only by July from the existing 60-70 million a month.

He said the company had not increased capacity earlier due to lack of orders, highlighting that severe vaccine shortage would continue through July.

Last month, the government gave SII Rs 3,000 crore advance for orders in an earnest attempt to ramp up supplies ahead of the opening of vaccination to all citizens over 18 years of age.

Poonawala stated that, ‘We have just done this right now to address the ridiculous shortage that the nation and obviously now the world even’.

At present, India is witnessing the deadly second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic with 3,70,188 fresh cases on Sunday, the second successive day of falling numbers after a tally of 3.92 lakh on Saturday.

Pune based SII has collaborated with AstraZeneca and Oxford University for manufacturing the coronavirus vaccine that is locally distributed under the brand name Covishield. The Centre has so far bought its entire production, but starting this month the vaccine major can sell to states and private hospitals too.

Earlier, the government had liberalised the vaccination drive to allow states and private hospitals to buy doses directly from manufacturers. Furthermore, it has allowed everyone above 18 years of age to get vaccinated against the deadly virus from May 1. It is worth noting that just 18 lakh inoculations happened on May 1, one of the lowest in many days as several states and private hospitals did not get adequate doses.