Serum Institute of India (SII)’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Adar Poonawalla has said that his company would “keep more than enough” doses of the COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by the company for the Parsi community to which he belongs.
According to a report published in the Times of India, Adar Poonawalla’s father Cyrus Poonawalla is believed to have agreed for 60,000 vials to be kept aside for the Parsi community.
On Sunday, replying to enterpreneur Ronnie Screwvala, in which he had proposed to have a ‘special quota; for Parsis, Aadar tweeted: “Yes, @RonnieScrewvala, we will keep more than enough for the community. Our production capacity of just one day will be enough to cover every Parsi on the planet…given the size of our community!”
“On a lighter note Smiling face with smiling eyes-since Parsi’s are to be an Extinct race Smiling face with smiling eyes(though avg age of Parsi’s show otherwise) there is a lobby that as vaccine does come in there will be a special Quota under saving from extinction RaceSmiling face with smiling eyes-&why not if a Parsi is at the forefront of it @adarpoonawalla,” Screwvala had tweeted.
Earlier, a community newsletter reported that SII has agreed for the special quota following a request from former Bombay Parsi Panchayat (BPP) chairman Dinshaw Rusi Mehta.
“We are a micro minority and every Parsi is required to be saved and healthy..At present, we are only 60,000 in numbers and 40 Parsis have died of Covid,” Mehta reportedly said in a WhatsApp message to Poonawalla.
SII has tied-up with AstraZeneca to manufacture the Covid-19 vaccine candidate named Covishield being developed by Oxford University. The company is planning to manufacture as many as 1 billion doses of the vaccine for 60 countries.
