By Krishna N. Das

NEW DELHI, Sept 21 (Reuters) - Only months ago, India ran soshort of COVID-19 vaccines that computer experts wrote softwarecode https://www.reuters.com/world/india/high-tech-hunt-scarce-covid-19-vaccines-india-raises-fear-fairness-2021-05-05 to help people snag scarce immunisation slots and the thenhealth minister had to constantly battle opposition criticism onsocial media.

The minister later quit and in came a little-known buthands-on politician, Mansukh Mandaviya, who, according to aperson close to him, communicates with vaccine producers on anear daily basis and tries to resolve their problems promptly.

Vaccine supplies have surged.

Government officials say they are confident of fullyimmunizing nearly all adults by December, giving it theconfidence to announce a gradual restart of vaccine exports inthe October quarter, for the first time since April when asecond surge in infections overwhelmed hospitals. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2QM0I8

That will help the sputtering global COVAX vaccine-sharingprogramme, which is far behind its pledge to deliver 2 billiondoses this year following supply problems and India's exportcurbs.

The GAVI vaccine alliance, which sponsors the programmealong with the World Health Organization, UNICEF and the CEPI,this month cut COVAX's supply target by nearly 30% to 1.425billion doses. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2QA16A

"This could have an immense positive impact on both healthsecurity within India as well as globally," a GAVI spokespersontold Reuters about the export announcement on Monday.

"Our priority right now is to engage with the government ofIndia and Serum Institute of India (SII) to understand theimpact this will have on our supply schedule."

The turnaround is chiefly thanks to the SII, which iscranking up more doses of AstraZeneca's AZN.L COVID-19 shotthan the government's most optimistic projection.

SII would supply 200 million doses of the vaccine, brandedCovishield, to the government this month, compared with about150 million the previous month, said a government source whodeclined to be identified. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2QJ1I0

NEW PRODUCTION LINES

The government said in May that Covishield output couldreach 750 million doses between August and December, but theactual output could be more than 900 million, said two othersources with direct knowledge of the matter.

"The company added new lines, got quick approvals to diverta line meant for some other vaccine," said one of the sources.

It now has five production lines making Covishield, up fromjust two in April, according to the source. The person saidSII's monthly output could go as high as 215 million doses.

The health ministry and SII did not immediately respond to arequest for comment.

Bharat Biotech, the producer of India's first domesticallydeveloped shot, Covaxin, told Reuters its monthly output wouldnearly treble to 100 million doses by the end of the year.

SII also received funding and diplomatic help from thegovernment that ensured supplies of raw material https://www.reuters.com/world/india/us-provide-vaccine-components-medical-supplies-india-2021-04-25 from the United States following a plea https://www.reuters.com/world/india/indian-vaccine-giant-sii-warns-supply-hit-us-raw-materials-export-ban-2021-03-05 on social media and elsewhere.

That enabled India, which has reported the most number ofinfections in the world after the United States, to ramp up itsvaccination campaign, giving at least one dose to 65% of its 944million adults and the necessary two doses to 22%.

Health Minister Mandaviya told reporters on Monday that heexpected overall domestic vaccine production to exceed 1 billiondoses in the October-December quarter, which would be more thanenough to meet domestic demand.

India is the world's biggest vaccine maker and its companiesincluding SII, Bharat Biotech and Biological E, which doesbottling work for Johnson & Johnson's JNJ.N COVID-19 shot,have trebled their capacity to make nearly 3 billion doses ayear, much of which could be available for overseas sale fromnext year.

"We will keep producing more to meet our needs and alsoexport," Mandaviya said.

(Reporting by Krishna N. Das; Additional reporting by NehaArora; Editing by Miyoung Kim, Robert Birsel) ((Krishna.Das@tr.com; https://twitter.com/krishnadas56 ;))