HYDERABAD: Municipal Administration and Industries minister KTR has urged the central government to set up a covid-19 vaccine testing facility in Hyderabad on a war foot.
“There is an urgent need to set up a second testing facility, and Hyderabad is an ideal location to host such a facility, as the city has a large number of vaccine manufacturers,” stated KTR in a letter to union health minister Harsh Vardhan.
Hyderabad has emerged as the vaccination capital of the world by producing one-third of the global vaccines. Covaxin is developed and being manufactured in the city.
The testing of each batch of vaccine produced in the country is being carried out only in the Central Drug Laboratory, Kasauli. And for the entire process of sending the vaccination batch from Hyderabad to Kasauli takes approximately 30-45 days, which is time-consuming, and cost-intensive,” said KTR.
Over the next few months, a significant number of covid-19 vaccines will be produced in Hyderabad and that the official reports and projections of Government of India state that almost 50% of the total Covid-19 vaccine supply between August and December 2021 will be from Hyderabad.
“For the projected capacity of a billion doses in Hyderabad between August to December 2021, having a testing centre in Hyderabad could result in accelerated throughput of about 8-10 crore additional vaccine doses per month in the country’s overall supply,” KTR said.
