Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Jan 1: The New Year 2021 has started with good news for the Corona-harassed people of India. The country’s drug regulator is learnt to have finally approved on the new year day a Coronavirus vaccine Covishield developed by the Oxford University and AstraZeneca and manufactured under license by the Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) for emergency use.
Though an official announcement by the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) is still awaited, official sources confirmed that the experts panel of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) has recommended a conditional approval of the coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University for emergency use and the parent body gave its final nod on Friday.
The Subject Expert Committee (SEC) on Covid-19 had on Wednesday deliberated and analysed the additional data and information submitted by the SII and Bharat Biotech. The SII, Bharat Biotech and Pfizer have applied to the DCGI seeking emergency use authorisation for their Covid-19 vaccine candidates and are awaiting approval.
The emergency use approval by the dug regulator will pave the way for roll out of the massive immunization programme in India where the people are anxiously waiting for a shield to protect them against the threat from Corona that shadowed their normal life almost throughout 2020 like in most other countries in the world. The world’s second most populous country after China, India was also the world’s second worst-Corona-hit country after the United States.
More than 5 crore doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine have already been stockpiled by SII and sources in the company said transfer of the vaccine shots from the cold storage to all the states and union territories could start as early as Saturday itself.
The SII Chief Executive Adar Poonawalla has also given an outline of the likely price structure of the Covishield vaccine if approved quickly by the drug regulator. “For the Government of India, Covishield (Oxford vaccine) will cost about USD 3 per dose, so USD 6 [Rs 440] per person, but for the private market, it will cost around Rs 700-800,” Poonawalla had said on Friday.
The experts panel of the CDSCO is also expected to give approval for emergency use of the indigenous vaccine Covaxin being developed by the Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech, the official sources said.
Britain and Argentina have already authorised the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine for urgent public use.
Dr VK Paul, head of the National Covid-19 Task Force has already given an outline of India’s mass immunization programme to be taken up on as massive a scale as the general elections. According to Dr Paul in the first phase, India proposed to pitch for about 300 million individuals. “The immediate phase starts with a nationwide vaccination of healthcare workers. There will be 31 vaccine hubs supplying vaccines to all states. These 31 hubs will supply vaccines to 29,000 vaccination points in last-mile delivery,” he said.
Dr Paul also clarified that the Government t has stated that financial resources would not be a constraint to vaccinate people.
Meanwhile, with the detection of four more people having infected by the mutated UK strain of the virus, the total number of such positive cases has gone up to 29 in India. the union health ministry said on Friday. Among them, 20 people were found positive on Tuesday and Wednesday. Five were tested positive on Thursday and four on Friday.
Among these 29 cases, eight have been detected in NCDC, New Delhi, two in IGIB New Delhi, five in NIV Pune, three in CCMB Hyderabad, 10 in NIMHANS Bengaluru and one in NIBMG Kalyani, the ministry said.
The new strain, first detected in the UK in December, has spread fresh concerns across the world with most of the countries shutting their airspace to countries where the new strain has been found. India too has stopped flights from the UK till January 7. The new strain, which is believed to be more contagious and is potent to infect young people with no other health complications, forced several states to reimpose fresh restrictions.
Apart from India, countries which have reported the new variant include Denmark, the Netherlands, Australia, Italy, Sweden, France, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Canada, Japan, Lebanon and Singapore.