By Aminul Islam Mirja
NEW DELHI, Dec 31, 2020 (BSS) – India may get coronavirus vaccine in the New Year as the government has asked all states and union territories (UTs) to ensure effective preparedness for the vaccine roll out.
Drug Controller General of India (DCGI), VG Somani during a webinar on the science behind the vaccine development on Thursday said, “We will have a Happy New Year with something in hand, that’s all I can hint at.”
The subject expert committee (SEC) under the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) will meet on January 1 to consider the emergency-use authorisation application of three companies-Pfizer, Serum Institute of India that is to manufacture the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine, and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin.
Serum Institute of India (SII) has stockpiled 75 million doses of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine so far. It will have another one million doses by the first week of January, SII sources said.
Meanwhile, a dry run for the vaccine against coronavirus disease will be held at selected places in each state on Saturday (January 2) to assess operational feasibility in the use of Co-WIN application in field environment prior to actual implementation.
This will be the second dry run being conducted in the country — the first was held on December 28 and 29 in four states (Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat, Punjab) and had gone off without a hitch, the health ministry statement said here today.
It added that the two two-day mock drill showed India is ready to start vaccination as all the four participating states are satisfied with systems put in place for COVID-19 vaccination process.
“An important focus of the dry run will be on management of any possible adverse events following immunisation (AEFI). In addition, adherence and management of infection control practices at the session site, to prevent disease transmission,” health ministry sources said.
India has already trained around 96,000 vaccinators as they will play a crucial role in the process.
According to data provided by the Indian health ministry, the countryhas recorded five new cases of mutated coronavirus disease pushing the total cases count to 25.
The new variant of coronavirus, which is significantly more transmissible than previous circulating variants, was first identified in Britain in September.
Out of the five fresh cases, four have been traced by National Institute of Virology in Pune and CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology in Delhi. The infected individuals, who have been detected in India after genome sequencing, have been kept in physical isolation at state health facilities.
The India government earlier suspended its flight operation to and from the United Kingdom till January 7 in the wake of fresh cases of coronavirus mutant strain.