India can inoculate some 30 million million people in the next 6 to 7 months, the minister said.
New Delhi:
India may start vaccinating people against COVID-19 in January, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said, adding that the government’s priority has been the safety and efficacy of the vaccine.
“Personally, I think it may be in January at any stage or any week, there may be a time when we can be in a position to administer the first Covid vaccine to the people of India,” Harsh Vardhan told the ANI news agency in an interview.
The minister said that the vaccines that have requested authorization for emergency use are being analyzed by the drug regulator.
“India is no less than any other country when it comes to COVID-19 research and vaccine. Our priority has been the safety and efficacy of the vaccine. We do not want any compromise on this. Our regulators are taking them seriously.” , said. said.
The minister had said on Saturday that the country’s scientists and health experts have worked on an indigenous vaccine and in the next six to seven months, India will have the capacity to inoculate some 30 million people.
“Our scientists and health experts have worked on the development of a vaccine by sequencing the genome and isolating the coronavirus and have developed a native vaccine. In 6-7 months, we will have the capacity to inoculate about 30 million people.” , had said. , addressing a meeting of ministers on COVID-19.
There are six COVID-19 vaccine candidates in different stages of clinical trials in India, including Covishield, Covaxin, ZyCoV-D, Sputnik V, NVX-CoV2373, and a recombinant protein antigen-based vaccine.
In addition to this, three COVID-19 vaccine candidates are in the preclinical stage of which one is in the pre-development stage, said Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan.
Earlier this month, the UK became the first country in the world to authorize the use of Pfizer and BioNTech for emergency purposes.
(With contributions from ANI)
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