Health Minister: Covid-19 vaccine anticipated for early 2021

Photo Credits: PTI

The Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan declared in a meeting with the Group of Ministers on Tuesday that India will be expecting a vaccine against Covid-19 by early 2021, as per the information given by news agency ANI.

Harsh Vardhan stated to ANI, “We’re expecting that early next year we should have vaccine in the country from maybe more than one source. Our expert groups are formulating strategies to plan on how to roll out the distribution of the vaccine in the country.”

Soumya Swaminathan, the chief scientist at the World Health Organization (WHO) also iterated the availability of a vaccine by the end of 2020 or early 2021 at the earliest. Soumya told, “As you know, we have about 40 vaccine candidates now in some stage of clinical trials, and 10 of them are in the phase three trials, which are the late-stage clinical trials, which will tell us about both the efficacy and the safety.”

The health minister had earlier mentioned about the collaboration of the government with the state governments for data collection to ensure fair and equitable distribution of vaccines after ready. “Our utmost priority is how to ensure a vaccine for each and everybody in the country,” he quoted

Given the population size of the country, India may have to tie up with more than one vaccine manufacturer to ensure that its accessibility throughout the country, said Dr. Harsh Vardhan. “All Covid-19 vaccines currently in India are in the phases 1, 2 or 3 of trials with results awaited. Adequate safety and efficacy data is required for emergency use authorization vaccine approval for ensuring patient safety. Further course of action will be based on data generated,” he further added.