PM Narendra Modi in an interview to a prominent English business daily has assured all Indian citizens of vaccination against Covid19. This really comes as a huge relief amidst concerns of Corona cases having crossed the 80,00,000 mark on Thursday with 49,881 fresh cases being registered. The PM also said that a National Expert Group has been set up to decide the course of vaccine administration pan India.
“I would like to assure the nation that, as and when a vaccine becomes available, everyone will be vaccinated. None will be left behind. Of course, initially, we may focus on protecting the most vulnerable and the frontline workers. We should also realize that vaccine development is still work in progress. Trials are on. Experts can’ say what the vaccine will be, its dosage per person, periodicity or how it’s to be administered etc. All this, when finalized by experts, will also guide our approach on taking the vaccine to citizens,” PM Modi said.
He added that around 28,000 cold chain points will have the capacity to store the vaccines, as logistic arrangements are being made to distribute the vaccine to even the remote parts of the nation. A full-fledged digital platform is also being created in a bid to track and register the beneficiaries.
In India, three vaccines (Covaxin-Bharat Biotech/ICMR, ZyCov-D: Zydus Cadila and Oxford-AstraZeneca) in partnership with Serum Institute of India, are currently being developed with two in phase II and one in phase III of the advanced stages. Scientists in India are also partnering with their counterparts from Afghanistan, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Maldives, Mauritius, Nepal and Sri Lanka regarding vaccine research.
