8 Covid-19 vaccine candidates scheduled to be manufactured in India: Vardhan
- The health minister was digitally addressing the Inter-Ministerial meeting on Vaccination of South Asia against covid-19 by the World Bank on Thursday
- Pune-based SII is in a process to manufacture Covishield which undergoing phase 3 stage of the clinical trials
Day after a government panel of experts tasked with vetting coronavirus vaccines asked two pharma majors for more data on the safety and efficacy of their shots and deferred recommending them for emergency use, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan ensured “no compromise” on scientific and regulatory norms, stretching from safety of the trials to efficacy of the vaccines.
The health minister was digitally addressing the Inter-Ministerial meeting on Vaccination of South Asia against covid-19 by the World Bank on Thursday.
“It is expected that the vaccine will be available in the coming few weeks and the vaccination process will kickstart in India as soon as it is approved by the concerned regulatory agency. With stringent oversight, we are ensuring, that there is no compromise on scientific and regulatory norms, stretching from safety of the trials to efficacy of the vaccines,” said Harsh Vardhan.
“260 vaccine candidates are in different stages of development globally. Out of these, 8 are scheduled to be manufactured in India, including 3 indigenous ones. We have enthusiastically leveraged the support of international partners like Oxford University, UK, and Thomas Jefferson University, USA, for vaccine research with Indian entities, both public and private,” said the health minister.
The subject expert committee of the Central Drugs Standards Control Organisation on Wednesday asked Bharat Biotech International Ltd and Serum Institute of India for more data on the safety and efficacy of their vaccines.
Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) is in a process to manufacture Covishield which is developed by Oxford University and pharma giant AstraZeneca which is undergoing phase stage of the clinical trials.
Another coronavirus vaccine—Covaxin-- is being developed by Bharat Biotech in association with the country’s apex biomedical research body Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). India-made Covaxin began its phase-three human clinical trial at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) New Delhi.
The number of covid-19 cases continues to rise in the country. The total number of covid-19 cases ballooned to 97,68,643 and the toll climbed to 1,42,920 on Thursday. The new confirmed cases in the last 24 hours have however fallen below 27,000 (26,567) for the first time after nearly 5 months. The new cases were 26,506 last on 10th July, 2020.
The active cases have declined to 3.83 lakh. The total positive cases of the country are 3,83,866 and comprise (3.96%) of the total cases.
Ten States/UTs have contributed 72.50% of the new cases. Kerala has reported 3,272 cases in the last 24 hours. Maharashtra recorded 3,075 new cases while West Bengal has registered 2,214 new cases yesterday, the union health ministry.
75.58% of the 385 case fatalities that reported in the past 24 hours are from Ten States/UTs.
16.36% of new fatalities reported are from Delhi which reported 63 deaths. West Bengal also saw a fatality count of 48 while Maharashtra reported 40 new deaths, the union health ministry said.
Meanwhile, 39,045 new recoveries were registered during the last 24 hours. It has led to a net decline of 12,863 cases from the total Active Caseload in the last 24 hours.
New Recoveries outnumbering the daily New Cases has also improved the Recovery Rate to 94.59% today. The total recovered cases stand at 91,78,946 today.
At least 76.31% of the new recovered cases are contributed by ten States/UTs. With 7,345 persons recovering from covid-19, Maharashtra has recorded the maximum number of recoveries. Kerala has registered another 4,705 daily recoveries while Delhi has reported 3,818 new recoveries in the past 24 hours, the health ministry said.
“Effective planning and strategic management has enabled India to keep its cases per million at 7,078 against the global average of 8,883. The fatality rate is 1.45%, well below the global average of 2.29%,” said Harsh Vardhan.
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First Published:10 Dec 2020, 08:53 PM IST
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