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NEW DELHI – With all eyes on its efforts to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, India, the second most affected country in the world with more than 9.8 million cases, is preparing a large vaccination campaign, with the aim to inoculate around 300 million people by August 2021.
Among the groups identified for the first shots are 10 million healthcare providers in the government and private sectors and another 20 million front-line workers, such as the police and military.
Another 270 million people over the age of 50, along with anyone with associated comorbidities, are next in line.
“All Indians who need to be vaccinated will be vaccinated,” Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said this week.
Of the nine vaccines that are currently in different stages of development in the country, six are in the clinical trial phase. These include Covishield from the University of Oxford and American pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, for which the Serum Institute of India is a manufacturing partner, and Covaxin, India’s first homegrown COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by Bharat Biotech, based in Hyderabad, in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research. Trials of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine have also started in the country.
Most vaccines are two to three doses given up to four weeks apart. “Some of them may be licensed in the next few weeks,” Bhushan said, without giving an exact date. His comments followed efforts by Pfizer, the Serum Institute, and Bharat to obtain approval for the emergency use of their vaccines.
Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said separately that the COVID-19 vaccine could be rolled out in the first two to four months of next year. “By July or August, we plan to have vaccinated 250 to 300 million people,” he said.
The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine “is more suited to Indian conditions,” Ghanshyam Pangtey, a professor in the department of medicine at Lady Hardinge Medical College in New Delhi, told Nikkei Asia. “It is quite affordable and should be stored in [just] 2 C to 8 C, “he said of the vaccine, the two doses of which will cost a maximum of 1,000 rupees ($ 13.56). Pfizer, on the other hand, will be more expensive at around 3,000 rupees for two doses and will need to be stored at temperatures below 70 C.
“The launch in India will happen as soon as the authorities approve a vaccine. I wouldn’t be surprised if the approval comes in a week or two,” said Pangtey, pointing to the reservations already made by India for its vaccines. According to the Launch and Scale Speedometer from Duke’s Center for Global Health Innovation, India led other nations with 1.6 billion “confirmed doses” of vaccine for orders placed through Nov. 30.
In terms of readiness, the government of India established a vaccine working group in April to provide guidance on vaccine research. This was followed by the national group of experts on vaccine administration, which was created in August to prioritize population groups for vaccination and provide guidance on procurement, inventory management and delivery, among other tasks.
“The central government is carrying out preparations for the launch of a COVID-19 vaccine in collaboration with the country’s states and union territories,” Bhushan said, adding that India is also working to strengthen its storage infrastructure. cold for the handling of vaccines.
The government says current cold storage facilities can contain enough COVID-19 vaccine for the first 30 million frontline workers.
India already has the world’s largest universal immunization program, targeting 26.7 million infants and 29 million pregnant women every year. Each year around nine million vaccination campaigns are carried out. The country has also developed a mobile application called Co-WIN to monitor the delivery of the vaccine.
“People will be able to register on this mobile application for vaccination,” Bhushan said, noting that “there will be no commitment to existing health services, especially national programs and primary health care programs.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently said that the world is looking to India to provide a safe and affordable vaccine, one that should be available in the coming weeks. “As soon as we get the green light from scientists, we will start vaccination in India,” he said.
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