Covid vaccine: India needs to order 1 billion jabs to cover 60% of population, says IMF

Mumbai - It proposed a three-pronged $50 billion plan to tackle the pandemic in India.

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By Web Report

Published: Sat 22 May 2021, 9:14 AM

India will have to order a billion Covid vaccine doses to inoculate a majority of the population, according to a discussion note by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

“To get to 60 per cent coverage, India will need to immediately place sufficient vaccine orders of about 1 billion doses through contracts that incentivise investment in additional capacity and augmentation of the supply chain,” according to a discussion note, co-authored by IMF’s chief economist Gita Gopinath and economist Ruchir Agarwal.

A report in the Economic Times, which had access to the discussion note, said that it urged India to centralise vaccine purchase. It proposed a three-pronged $50 billion plan to tackle the pandemic in India.

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“Efforts should be made to ensure that the projected production capacity will materialise without delay, including through securing the supply chain for raw materials – supported by international efforts to eliminate export restrictions on all critical inputs,” it added.

The paper estimated that additional funding needed by the Indian government to cover the 18-44 age group was 0.25 per cent of GDP. “That is not such a big fiscal cost,” it said. “It is a small amount, and that is something to keep in mind when the cou

Web Report

Published: Sat 22 May 2021, 9:14 AM

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