Two coronavirus vaccines, which got emergency use approval from India's drug regulator last week, are on the verge of being available in the country, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said on Thursday, 7 January.
"The COVID-19 vaccines, 'Covishield' and 'Covaxin', are on the verge of being available in the country. Our efforts are to ensure seamless last mile delivery of the vaccine," Vardhan was quoted as saying by news agency ANI during a meeting with health ministers of states and union territories.
His remarks come a day before another dry run in preparation for the COVID-19 vaccine rollout in India is conducted across India.
"We have to ensure that no misinformation campaign on the vaccine is successful... Some priority groups have been decided for vaccination as advised by the experts' group formed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi," he added.
While the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is being manufactured by the Serum Institute of India under the name 'Covishield', 'Covaxin' is being manufactured by Bharat Biotech.
The health minister, according to ANI, also said:
Further, government sources have reportedly informed ANI that the transportation of COVID-19 vaccine will begin by ‘today or tomorrow’.
According to ANI, government sources have also said that for northern India, Delhi and Karnal will be mini hubs; in eastern region Kolkata will a hub as well as the nodal point for northeast; and in south Chennai and Hyderabad will be the designated points.
Earlier, on 2 January, a dry run was organised in 125 districts across the country to check whether India was prepared to administer COVID-19 vaccine to nearly 30 crore people in the first priority group.
The government had earlier announced that pan-India inoculation will begin once emergency-use authorisation was granted, and recently, Serum Institute of India and Oxford-AstraZeneca's Covishield as well as Bharat Biotech's Covaxin were approved.
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