Government of India has been supporting States and UTs in procuring drugs and diagnostics for COVID19 management through a “Whole of Government” approach. The States and UTs are proactively supported by the Union Government for ensuring adequate availability of various medicines, medical equipments, PPE kits, masks etc., since April 2020.

In the recent days, several States and UTs have reported an increasing number of patients suffering from COVID complications in the form of Mucormycosis, popularly known as Black Fungus. There is also a reported shortage of Amphotericin-B, an anti-fungal drug used for treatment of the Black Fungus disease.

Union Ministry of Health along with Dept. of Pharmaceuticals and Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) are making proactive efforts for significantly ramping up domestic production of Amphotericin-B drug. The Union Government has also made effective efforts in supplementing the domestic availability through securing supply from global manufacturers.

There are five existing manufacturers of Amphotericin-B in the country and one importer:

Bharat Serums & Vaccines Ltd

BDR Pharmaceuticals Ltd

Sun Pharma Ltd

Cipla Ltd

Life Care Innovations

Mylan Labs (importer)

The production capacity of these companies was extremely limited in the month of April 2021. As a result of the handholding by Government of India, these domestic manufactures will cumulatively produce 1,63,752 vials of Amphotericin-B in May 2021. This will be further ramped up to 2,55,114 vials in the month of June 2021.

Apart from this, efforts are being made for supplementing the domestic availability of this anti-fungal drug through import. In May 2021, 3,63,000 vials of Amphotericin-B will be imported, thereby resulting in total availability in the country (inclusive of the domestic production) of 5,26752 vials.

3,15,000 vials will be imported in June 2021. Hence, along with the domestic supply, the countrywide availability of Amphotericin-B will be enhanced to 5,70,114 vials in June 2021.

As a result of the proactive efforts by Union Ministry of Health, five more manufacturers have been given the license to produce the anti-fungal drug within the country. These are:

NATCO Pharmaceuticals, Hyderabad

Alembic Pharmaceuticals, Vadodara

Gufic Biosciences Ltd, Gujarat

Emcure Pharmaceuticals, Pune

Lyka, Gujarat

Cumulatively, these companies will start producing 1,11,000 vials of Amphotericin-B per month from July 2021. The Union Health Ministry and Deptt. of Pharmaceuticals are together trying to proactively facilitate these five manufacturers to prepone some of this production so that these additional supplies begin in June 2021.

Over and above this, Union Ministry of Health in collaboration with MEA is also actively exploring other global sources from where the Amphotericin-B drug can be imported. Union Health Ministry is also trying to procure other antifungal drugs which can be used in treatment of Black Fungus.

Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers Shri D.V Sadananda Gowda announced that after a detailed review of rising number of cases of Mucormycosis in various states, a total of 23680 additional vials of Amphotericin- B have been allocated to all States/UTs today.

He also informed that the allocation has been made based on total number of patients which is approximately 8848 across the country.

India has achieved a new milestone in its vaccination drive as the cumulative number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country has exceeded 19 Cr (19,18,79,503) today under the Phase-3 of the nationwide Vaccination Drive.

A total of 19,18,79,503 vaccine doses have been administered through 27,53,883 sessions, as per the provisional report till 7 am today. These include 97,24,339 HCWs who have taken the 1st dose and 66,80,968 HCWs who have taken the 2nddose, 1,47,91,600 FLWs (1stdose), 82,85,253 FLWs (2nddose), 86,04,498 beneficiaries under 18-44 age group (1stdose), 5,98,35,256 (1stdose) and 95,80,860 (2nd dose) beneficiaries aged 45 to 60 years.5,62,45,627 1stdose beneficiaries and 1,81,31,102 2nd dose beneficiaries of more than 60 years old.

Ten states account for 66.32% of the total doses given so far in the country.

More than 20.61 Lakh tests were conducted in the last 24 hours. With this achievement, India again set a new record of the highest ever tests conducted in a single day.

On another front, the daily positivity rate has declined to 12.59%.

India’s Daily Recoveries continue to outnumber the Daily New Cases for the eighth consecutive day. 3,57,295 recoveries were registered in the last 24 hours.

India’s cumulative recoveries have reached 2,27,12,735 today. The National Recovery Rate has grown further to touch 87.25%.

Ten states account for 74.55% of the new recoveries.

In another positive development, India has recorded less than 3 lakh new cases for five consecutive days now.

2,59,551 Daily New Cases were registered in the last 24 hours.

Ten States reported 76.66% of thenew cases in last 24 hours. Tamil Nadu has reported the highest daily new cases at 35,579, followed by Kerala with 30,491new cases.

On the other hand, India’s total Active Caseload has decreased to 30,27,925 today.

A net decline of 1,01,953is witnessed in the last 24 hours. It now comprises 11.63% of the country's total Positive Cases. 8 States cumulatively account for 69.47% of India’s total Active Cases.

Vaccination is an integral pillar of the comprehensive strategy of Government of India for containment and management of the pandemic, along with Test, Track, Treat and COVID Appropriate Behaviour. As part of the nationwide vaccination drive, Government of India has been supporting the States and UTs by providing them COVID Vaccines free of cost.

Govt. of India has also been facilitating direct procurement of vaccines by the States/UTs.

Implementation of the Liberalized and Accelerated Phase 3 Strategy of Covid-19 Vaccination has started from 1st May 2021. Under the Strategy, in every month 50% of the total Central Drugs Laboratory (CDL) cleared vaccine doses of any manufacturer would be procured by Govt. of India. It would continue to make these doses available to the State Govts totally free of cost as was being done earlier.

Government of India has so far provided, both through the free of cost category and through direct state procurement category, more than 21 crore vaccine doses (21,07,31,130) to States/UTs. Of this, the total consumption (including wastages) is 19,09,60,575 doses (as per data available at 8 AM today).

Nearly 2.00 crore (1,97,70,555) COVID Vaccine doses are still available with the States/UTs to be administered.

Furthermore, nearly 26 lakh (25,98,760) vaccine doses are in the pipeline and will be received by the States/UTs within the next 3 days.

Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilisers Shri Mansukh Mandaviya today announced that shortage of Amphotericin-B to be resolved soon. Amphotericin-B is used for the treatment of Mucormycosis.

The Minister informed that within three days, 5 more Pharma companies have got new Drug Approval for producing it in India, in addition to the existing 6 pharma companies. The existing pharma companies have already started ramping up the production, he added.

He further informed that Indian Companies have also placed orders for importing 6 lakh vials of Amphotericin- B.

Shri Mandaviya said that Government is leaving no stone unturned to smoothen the situation.

India’s Daily Recoveries continue to outnumber the Daily New Cases for the seventh consecutive day. 3,69,077 recoveries were registered in the last 24 hours.

India’s cumulative recoveries have reached 2,23,55,440 today. The National Recovery Rate has grown further to touch 86.74%.

Ten states account for 75.11% of the new recoveries.

In another positive development, India records less than 3 lakh new cases for four consecutive days now.

2,76,110 Daily New Cases were registered in the last 24 hours.

Ten States reported 77.17% of the new cases in last 24 hours. Tamil Nadu has reported the highest daily new cases at 34,875, followed by Karnataka with 34,281 new cases.

On the other front, India’s total Active Caseload has decreased to 31,29,878 today.

A net decline of 96,841 is witnessed in the last 24 hours.

It now comprises 12.14% of the country's total Positive Cases.

8 States cumulatively account for 69.23% of India’s total Active Cases.

The graph below highlights the change in active cases for states in the last 24 hours.

More than 20.55 Lakh tests were conducted in the last 24 hours (the highest ever conducted in a single day in India). With this achievement, India broke its own record which it had set yesterday.

The daily positivity rate stands at 13.44%.

Cumulatively, 20,55,010 tests conducted in the last 24 hours in the country.

The National Mortality Rate currently stands at 1.11%.

3,874 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours.

Ten States account for 72.25% of the new deaths. Maharashtra saw the maximum casualties (594). Karnataka follows with 468 daily deaths.

The cumulative number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country has reached 18.70 Cr today under the Phase-3 of the nationwide Vaccination Drive.

A total of 18,70,09,792vaccine doses have been administered through 27,31,435sessions, as per the provisional report till 7 am today. These include 96,85,934 HCWs who have taken the 1st dose and 66,67,394 HCWs who have taken the 2nddose, 1,46,36,501 FLWs (1stdose), 82,56,381 FLWs (2nddose), 70,17,189 beneficiaries under 18-44 age group (1stdose), 5,83,47,950 (1stdose) and 94,36,168 (2nd dose) beneficiaries aged 45 to 60 years. 5,49,36,096 1stdose beneficiaries and 1,80,26,179 2nd dose beneficiaries of more than 60 years old.

Ten states account for 66.61% of the total doses given so far in the country.