Looming syringe shortage spells trouble for 'world's largest vaccination drive': Report

India is inching towards a syringe shortage that would bear serious consequences on the Covid vaccination drive

The Covid-19 pandemic has being testing India ever since its initial outbreak in 2020.

After reeling under a shortage of hospital beds, medical oxygen, and more recently, a crisis of cremation spaces running out earlier this year, there is a new dearth - of syringes.

India is inching towards a syringe shortage that would bear serious consequences on the vaccination drive against the virus.

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The Directorate General of Foreign Trade curbed syringe export this Monday after anticipating the same, reported Business Standard.

Around 300 million syringes are need every month to carry on India's vaccination drive, according to the publication, roughly the same number required by the country to vaccinate children every year.

"Vaccine availability in India surpasses the production rate of auto-disable (AD) syringes, and buffer stocks were inadequately created,", Rajiv Nath, chairman and managing director of Hindustan Syringes and Medical Devices (HMD) told Business Standard.

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Serum Institute of India (SII) is aiming to manufacture 20 crore doses of Covishield every month, but HMD is supplying only 9 crore AD syringes monthly.

Since AD syringes are not meant for reuse, and are used for governmental and non-profit vaccine campaigns, the shortage of needles compared to vaccines produced would be notable.

The shortage is reportedly a result of the Centre not communicating the need to the syringe makers in advance.

Th Centre's latest order with HMD has been for 7.5 crore AD syringes, Nath told Business Standard. This is nowhere near enough for the supply to meet the demand.

“We need more clarity if we need to allocate 30 crore or 50 crore AD syringes for next year. If not India, then we need to find international buyers", he was quoted telling the publication.

What adds to the problem is an increased demand for syringes for non-Covid use as well. Unless the supply and demand match, the anticipated syringe shortage issue is very likely to disrupt what the Centre has dubbed 'the world's largest vaccination drive".

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