Study shows India biggest buyer of Covid vaccine; health workers, armed forces, cops to get the first doses, decides govt

India has already purchased 500 million doses of the Oxford University-AstraZeneca, 100 million doses of the Sputnik V candidate from Russia's Gamaleya Research Institute, one billion from the US company Novavax.

Reportedly, 'Launch and Scale Speedometer', a study update twice a month, showed that India has purchased 1.6 billion doses as of November 30.

The decision, as to who would be vaccinated as soon as the vaccine hits the shelves, was taken in an all party meeting on Friday in Delhi. The meeting was chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and attended by some 12 representatives of leading political parties.

While India has purchased doses of three vaccine candidates, US and European Union has purchased doses of six vaccine candidates.

European Union is the second largest buyer at 1.58 billion doses after India. However, the United States, which is the worst affected by Covid-19 has confirmed a little more than 1 billion doses, shows the report.

Countries like India and Brazil, which have huge manufacturing capacity have been able to negotiate large doses of leading vaccine candidates, researchers at Duke University have noted.

According to experts, noted in a media report, the 1.6 billion doses will be enough to develop herd immunity.