Rahul Gandhi said that 23 lakh people in the world have already received the Covid vaccine.
Highlight
- Rahul Gandhi said 23 lakhs around the world have already received the vaccine.
- PM had said that Covid vaccines “will probably be ready in a few weeks”
- Only Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin is in a phase III trial in India
New Delhi:
Congressional Rahul Gandhi mocked Prime Minister Narendra Modi today, noting that various nations are beginning inoculation for Covid and implying that India’s journey towards a vaccine is slow. Four countries (the US, UK, China and Russia) go ahead with vaccination as a new, more infectious mutation of the virus has paralyzed life in the UK. In India, the only candidate vaccine in the phase III trial is Covaxin from Bharat Biotech.
“23 lakh people in the world have already received Covid vaccines. China, the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia have started … India ka number kab ayegaa, Modi ji? (When will India’s turn),” it read Gandhi’s tweet.
Earlier this month, Prime Minister Modi had assured that COVID vaccines “are likely to be ready in a few weeks” and that the government is “fully prepared for launch.”
Five vaccines, three of them indigenous, are already in the final stages of testing. Of these, only Covaxin is in a phase III trial and has crossed the middle of the road: 13,000 people have received the vaccine.
However, not enough people have signed up to volunteer for the vaccine. Only 200 participants have enrolled in the Indian Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi. Other test centers are also having trouble meeting the target.
Manufactured in collaboration with the Indian Council for Medical Research and the National Institute of Virology, Covaxin has an excellent safety record, the company said.
The country aims to inoculate a critical mass of people who would break the chain of transmission of the virus. Professor Randeep Guleria, the head of AIIMS in Delhi, has said it would take at least six months.
Meanwhile, two states, Karnataka and Maharashtra, reimposed the night curfew and states such as Maharashtra announced new quarantine rules for arrivals from Europe and the Middle East, in view of the new strain of coronavirus, which is 70% more infectious.
The Center has announced a ban on all flights from the UK until December 31.
Vaccine manufacturers have added that the injections should work against the new strain as 99 percent of the protein remains the same. “However, the BioNTech co-founder said he could also tailor the vaccine if necessary within six weeks. .
During the last 24 hours, the country has registered 23,950 new cases of coronavirus and 333 deaths. The number of daily cases was 22% higher than yesterday. With this, the total count of Covid cases has crossed 1 crore and 99 thousand with 1.46 lakh of deaths, shows data from the Union Ministry of Health.
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