Written By: Longjam Dineshwori | Updated : October 19, 2020 11:21 AM IST
hen a coronavirus vaccine comes to the market, it would be given to around 30 crore Indians in the initial phase.
A few Covid-19 vaccine candidates, including the one by developed by Oxford University, are expected to be ready by the end of this year but mass vaccination is unlikely to happen this year. Serum Institute of India (SII) has also revealed its latest updates on the ongoing trial of the Astrazeneca-Oxford vaccine 'Covishield'. According to the institute, India will get 60-70 million doses of the vaccine by December but it will not come to the market until March 2021. This is because it will take about three months to get the required licensing, said Dr Suresh Jadav, executive director of SII. He said it at the India Vaccine Accessibility e-Summit organised by HEAL Foundation in association with ICCIDD.
Currently, the Pune-based drug maker is conducting phase 2 and 3 trials of the vaccine at various centers across the country. It had signed a deal with British-Swedish company AstraZeneca to manufacture the COVID-19 vaccine candidate. Once things are streamlined, SII can produce 700-800 million vaccine dosages every year, Dr Jadav said.
The serum also signed an agreement with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and GAVI vaccines alliance in August to produce 100 million COVID-19 vaccine doses for poorer countries, including India, next year. Now, the funding has been doubled to $300 million to enable SII to manufacture up to 200 million doses, the company said.
When the vaccine is available in the market, it will be first given to healthcare workers, followed by people over 60 years of age with comorbidities and then the rest of the populace, according to Dr. Jadav. This means healthy people are unlikely to get the shot in the first quarter of 2021.
The Centre had held various meetings with officials to ensure speedy delivery of vaccines, once registered. State governments had been asked to prioritise populations who should receive the vaccine first.
When a coronavirus vaccine comes to the market, it would be given to around 30 crore Indians in the initial phase. Work on identifying the beneficiaries has reportedly started and these people include high-risk population and first-responders including healthcare workers, police, sanitation workers, people who are over 50 years of age and those with comorbidities such as diabetes, lung disease, kidney failure, and cancer. The list of beneficiaries is expected to be finalised by October-end or early-November.
As per the draft plan, the beneficiary list may include around 50-70 lakh healthcare professionals, over 2 crore frontline workers and armed forces, around 26 crore people who are over 50 years of age and those below 50 years of age but with comorbidities.
This would require an estimated 60 crore vaccine doses as the shots planned for the initial phase would include a booster dose as well.
According to reports, the government is targeting to vaccinate approximately 25 crore people by July 2021. These may include vaccines that are presently under trial in India -- AstraZeneca-Oxford University, Bharat Biotech and Zydus Cadila. India may also get vaccines under other agreements, like WHO's COVAX, Dr Reddy's agreement with Russia for Sputnik V.
