Some more vaccines under trial in India

Amidst acute shortage of Covid vaccines in India and several other countries, Dr Randeep Guleria, Director, AIIMS in New Delhi, says the Pfizer vaccine was supposed to be kept at -70 degree Celsius. There was no way that this vaccine could be ‘’rolled out in our country with the type of infra we have’’, Dr Randeep Guleria was speaking to  Times-News. A source claims that Pfizer along with Moderna and Johnson and Johnson, all made in America, are undergoing bridge study in India where the concerned authorities have allowed Covishield, Covaxin and Sputnik V for emergency use for vaccination against the dreaded Covid-19 virus. J & J is under trial at a private hospital in West Bengal as Covaxin made in Hyderabad based Bharat Biotech appreciated by Lancet has submitted all details to the Geneva headquartered World Health Organisation for Emergency Use Listing (EUL) . The company has submitted 90 percent of the documents required for Emergency Use Listing by WHO. The remaining documents are expected to be submitted next month. The company is awaiting for a pre-submission meeting to be held in May-June. Following the pre-submission meeting, it will be required to go through 2 more stages, the acceptance of the dossier for review and the final status of assessment before its application is accepted. On February 15, WHO gave emergency use approval to the Covishield vaccine produced by the Serum Institute of India. Seven vaccines have been given approval by WHO for EUL as of now. Russia’s Sputnik vaccine has also applied for emergency approval. Meanwhile,  India’s health ministry claims the cumulative number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country exceeded 19.84 till yesterday. On the 129th of the vaccination drive, over 23 lakh 65 thousand vaccine doses were given. It said, over 12 lakh 52 thousand beneficiaries of the age group 18 to 44 years received their first dose of COVID vaccine yesterday. Till now, over 1 crore 18 lakh beneficiaries in the age group have received vaccine doses across 37 States and UTs since the start of Phase-3 of the vaccination drive as several states claim vaccine shortage and people are queuing up at vaccine centres for jabs. The three approved vaccine makers have ramped up production with Union Heal Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan making public that all people in the country will be vaccinated by the end of 2021. Edited by PKC. Image courtesy to The Indian Express.