The health minister of India has stated that the country will meet its target of supplying over half a billion COVID-19 vaccine doses to states by the end of this month, Reuters news agency reported on Tuesday.

However, not all doses may be administered by then.

The government had told Indias Supreme Court last month that 516 million doses COVID-19 vaccine doses would be made available by end-July 2021, an important milestone for its goal of inoculating all of Indias estimated adult population of 944 million this year.

Daily vaccinations in India touched a national record of 9.2 million doses on 21 June 2021 but have fallen since.

The Indian health ministry stated: "The facts are that a total of more than 516 million vaccine doses will indeed be supplied from Jan 2021 to 31st July 2021. Vaccines are supplied in various schedules throughout a month. Therefore, availability of 516 million doses till end of a particular month does not mean that every dose supplied till that month is going to be consumed/ administered."

The ministry added that 457 million vaccine doses had been dispatched already and 60.3 million more were expected to be sent before the end of this month.