Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat on Sunday claimed that every Indian citizen will be inoculated against Covid-19 by December this year.
The Jal Shakti mission minister asserted that India has been working fast to increase the production of COVID-19 vaccines and dismissed allegations of the opposition stating it has only tried to politicize matters even during a global crisis.
"We have been constantly working on increasing the production and availability of vaccines, and will have each Indian vaccinated by December, which will be a huge record," Shekhawat was quoted as saying in a PTI report.
"It is for the first time in history that India developed its own vaccines for any virus parallel to the rest of the world. Earlier, it took years for vaccines of any virus to reach India," he said while addressing the media.
Shekhawat said that about the opposition, "They acted with their vested political interests and blemished the image of the country. But now the same persons have been queuing up for a vaccine shot," and added that the opposition should apologise.
Referring to medicines like Remdesivir, used in Covid treatment, and amphotericin-B for black fungus treatment, Shekhawat said the country has already reached a surplus state with production of 1.5 crore vials of Remdesivir per month and efforts are on to meet the growing requirement of amphotericine vials now.
"We are sourcing (amphotericine) vials from foreign countries. Three lakh vials have already reached and three lakh more are expected to come in the next three days," he said.
Six companies have been producing amphotericine vials in the country and five more companies have been given permission, the minister said.
"Considering a 30 days gestation period of the (amphotericine) vial before it is finally ready for administration, we will have adequate vials after 30 days," he added.