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Vaccines have the power to save lives and accelerate the return to economic normalcy at the earliest, say experts.
The Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) had, on Sunday, approved two Covid-19 vaccines - Oxford-AstraZeneca's Covishield manufactured by Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech's Covaxin - for restricted emergency use in the country. The vaccines are likely to be rolled out by January 13, according to an announcement by the Union Health Ministry.
"We are prepared to roll out Covid-19 vaccines within 10 days of granting emergency use authorisation date, based on dry run feedback," Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said at a press conference on Tuesday, as quoted by IANS.
Notably, India approved two vaccines - Covishield and Covaxin - on January 3, paving way for mass vaccination drive in the country, which has the second highest number of infections in the world, after the US.
The government plans to vaccinate 30 crore people in India by July in the first phase. The first beneficiaries will include one crore healthcare workers, two crore frontline and essential workers and 27 crore elderly, mostly above the age of 50 years with co-morbidities.
As announced by Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, three crore Covid-19 warriors will get the vaccine for free.
Bharat Biotech's CMD Dr Krishna Ella said on Monday that the company has already sent the first batch of Covaxin to the Central Research Institute (CRI) in Kasauali, which is the nodal agency to tests the drugs and facilitate in the roll out to the northern part of the country.
While he did not disclose the quantity of vials sent to the government, Ella said Bharat Biotech has 20 million doses ready and will manufacture 80 million more by July.
Covaxin is the first made-in-India vaccine developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the with the Indian Council of Medical Research.
Serum Institute of India (SII) is the local maker of the coronavirus vaccine developed by Oxford University and pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca. Despite the emergency use approval from the DCGI, the company is yet to sign a formal supply deal with the government.
However, the company has been permitted to export the vaccine to all countries, its Chief Executive Officer Adar Poonawalla said on Tuesday
"I would like to clarify two matters; as there is confusion in the public domain, exports of vaccines are permitted to all countries and a joint public statement clearing up any recent miscommunication with regards to Bharat Biotech will be made," Poonawalla tweeted on Tuesday.
In a joint statement issued , Poonawalla and Bharat Biotech Chairman and Managing Director Krishna Ella also assured smooth roll out of their vaccines.
"Both companies respect the great work being carried out by each other and put behind us the miscommunication and misunderstanding caused during the past week. We are fully aware of the importance of vaccines for people and countries alike, we hereby communicate our joint pledge to provide global access for our Covid-19 vaccines," they said in a joint statement.
They noted that vaccines have the power to save lives and accelerate the return to economic normalcy at the earliest.
With inputs from IANS