Russia is rushing another 150,000 doses of Sputnik V vaccines in the next two days to help strategic partner India combat the second Covid-19 wave, and a bigger consignment of three million doses will be landing in Hyderabad by the end of this month with Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, according to a report in the Hindustan Times.
Moscow has decided to ramp up the supply of Sputnik V doses to India to more than five million next month and more than 10 million shots in July.
According to diplomats based in New Delhi and Moscow, Russia is also flying in four medium oxygen generating trucks, which can feed a 200-bed hospital after being plugged into the power supply. These trucks produce 70 kilograms of oxygen per hour and 50,000 litres per day so that there is no paucity of oxygen at the hospital to which they are attached. “We have already procured four such trucks and are getting more so that oxygen paucity is reduced. These trucks will be landing by Russian IL-76 aircraft by the end of this week,” the Hindustan Times cited a diplomat as saying.
The first batch of 150,000 doses of Sputnik V had arrived in India on May 1, the day when India opened its third phase of vaccination to people between the age group of 18 to 44 years. Sputnik V, based on human adenoviral vectors, has an efficacy of over 90 per cent against the coronavirus infection. It was given approval for use in India on April 12.
The Russian has already sent two plane-loads medical equipment such as ventilators, oxygen concentrators, bed monitors and medicines earlier.
