The much-awaited Covid vaccine ‘Covishield’ which is being manufactured indigenously by the Serum Institute of India has been cleared by a panel of experts appointed by the government. It is known that the vaccine (ChAdOx1 nCoV-19) has been developed by the Oxford University and AstraZeneca. On the other hand, Covaxin is being manufactured by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). While American pharmaceutical Pfizer has requested additional time to present its vaccine data for clearance by the government panel.
“The preparations are like general elections, where even the booth-level preparations are made. The purpose of the dry run is to be ready for the actual rollout… Potential recipients of the vaccine will be informed via SMS. Frontline workers are the priority. After inoculation, a digital certificate will also be provided,” Harsh Vardhan, the Union Health Minister said, adding that the Centre looks to administer the shots to 30 crore people pan India within a time frame of 6 – 8 months, following the final approval by DCGI.
India is the second most affected nation after the United States of America to fight the deadly pandemic. Adar Poonawalla, the CEO of Serum Institute of India stated that fifty million doses of the vaccine are ready to be delivered and the next target is to manufacture a hundred million shots by March.
