Bharat Biotech on Friday said it has committed to supply over 500 million doses of its Covid-19 vaccine Covaxin to the Centre under the countrywide immunisation programme.

Speaking at a virtual conference organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry, Suchitra Ella, joint Managing Director of the city-based vaccine maker, said the company's facilities in four cities - Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Pune and Ankaleshwar - are currently producing Covaxin.

"In a nutshell if I have to tell you, this is the journey of Covaxin from April 2020 until June 2021.

And it is still ongoing as we continue to manufacture, taking a commitment of more than 50 crore (500 million) of doses to be submitted to the government of India for its immunisation programme," she said narrating the journey of Covaxin.

Minister of State for Health Bharati Pravin Pawar had said in Parliament on Tuesday that from January to July 16, 5.45 crore (54.5 million) doses of Covaxin by Bharat Biotech and 36.01 (360 million) crore doses of Covishield have been supplied by the Serum Institute of India to the Centre.

Suchitra Ella said the data of Phase 3 trials has been submitted to the Drug Controller General of India for its perusal and efficacy of the vaccine against many of the coronavirus variants was also tested.

Covaxin demonstrated 77.8 per cent effectiveness against symptomatic Covid-19 and 65.2per cent protection against the B.1.617.2 Delta variant, Bharat Biotech said recently, while announcing the final analysis of the jab.

It had said the Efficacy Analysis demonstrates Covaxin to be 93.4 per cent effective against severe symptomatic Covid-19 cases.

The MD further said that when it comes to vaccines not only for Covid-19, India, when compared to some other countries, has more capacity to produce vaccines in large numbers.

The current average monthly production capacity of Covishield by Serum Institute of India is 11 crore doses and of Covaxin by Bharat Biotech is 2.5 crore doses, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation, which is currently reviewing Bharat Biotech's application for an Emergency Use Listing (EUL) of Covaxin, has said it is assessing the data of the jab.

In an update on its website, the WHO, which began rolling data on July 6, said the date for a decision on the jab is yet "to be confirmed".

Rolling data allows the WHO to start its review right away, as information continues to come in, to accelerate the overall review process.

India, on the other hand, recorded 35,342 Covid-19 cases on Friday, as the tally climbed to 3,12,93,062. As many as

483 more fatalities pushed the death toll due to the viral disease to 4,19,470, according to the Union Health Ministry.

The number of active cases has declined to 4,05,513, accounting for 1.3 per cent of the total caseload and the national Covid-19 recovery rate was recorded at 97.36 per cent, the ministry's data updated at 8 am showed.

A decline of 3,881 cases was recorded in the active Covid-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.

Also, 16,68,561 tests to detect the infection were carried out on Thursday, taking the total number of such tests conducted so far in the country to 45,29,39,545, while the daily positivity rate was recorded at 2.12 per cent. It has been less than three per cent for 32 consecutive days, the ministry said.

The weekly positivity rate was recorded at 2.14 per cent.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease has surged to 3,04,68,079, while the case fatality rate stands at 1.34 per cent, the data stated.