A swab sample is being taken at a BMC medical center for a rapid Covid-19 test in Mumbai. (Express Photo by Amit Chakravarty)
Meanwhile, Dr Suresh Jadhav, executive director of the Serum Institute of India, which is testing the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine candidate in the country, said that India could receive a Covid-19 vaccine by March 2021, as long as regulators give signs quickly, “as several manufacturers are working on it.”
He told The Indian Express that India is moving fast towards vaccine development as two manufacturers are already in phase 3 testing and one in phase 2, and more players are joining the race.
Stating that there are “ups and downs in any vaccine clinical trial,” Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, chief scientist at the World Health Organization, also said that a Covid-19 vaccine should be ready by the second quarter of next year. She told The Indian Express: “By January 2021 we should be able to see results, and by the second quarter of 2021 the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine should be ready.”
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