Can India vaccinate 50 crore people in 60 days? Azim Premji explains how

New Delhi, Feb 22: Can India vaccinate 50 crore people in 60 days? Wipro founder Azim Premji has an idea. The philanthropist has urged Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to engage the private sector and speed up the country's Covid-19 vaccination effort.

He advocated that the private sector may help the country cover 50 crore vaccinations against Covid in just two months.

"There is a possibility that we can get the Serum Institute to supply vaccines at about Rs 300 a shot and hospitals and private nursing homes can administer this at a cost of Rs 100 per shot. So with a Rs 400 a shot, it is possible to do mass vaccination of the population," Premji said.

According to him, if the government engages the private sector, it can rest assured that the country can achieve a coverage of 500 million people within 60 days.

While the target in the first phase is to cover 3 crore people (1 crore healthcare and 2 crore frontline workers) with two doses, it took 34 days to reach one crore dose of vaccination. The Government is yet to finalise a strategy for vaccinating 27 crore elderly in India in the next phase.