In a bid to get a control on the rising COVID-19 infections, MoHFW announced that it would fast-track emergency approvals for International COVID-19 vaccines.

The move comes a day after it was reported that India will be approving 5 new vaccines from additional manufacturers. Later the same day, it was announced that India has cleared Sputnik V for restricted usage.

The new news comes at a time when the nation’s healthcare infrastructure is overwhelmed by a surge of new COVID-19 infections.

Background:

According to the press release issued by the MoHFW, the issue of accelerating the vaccination drive along with identifying the vaccines available was discussed on 11th April. The matter was discussed in the NEGVAC’s (National Expert Group of Vaccine Administration for COVID-19) 23rd meeting that was chaired by Niti Aayog’s Dr. V.K. Paul.

Details:

According to the Health Ministry’s statement, after careful consideration, the National Expert Group of Vaccine Administration for COVID-19 recommended that the COVID-19 vaccine that are developed and manufactured by foreign manufacturers may be granted emergency usage approval in India.

The Ministry also added that the vaccines that will be taken under consideration will have to be approved for emergency usage by USFDA, EMA, UK, MHRA, PMDA Japan.

Additionally, vaccines that are listed in the WHO emergency usage list can also be considered for emergency usage approval in India.

The Ministry’s statement also read that the vaccines must require the clinical trials as per the provisions under the Second Schedule of the New Drugs & Clinical Trial Rules 2019.

Quote:

“The first 100 beneficiaries of such foreign vaccines shall be assessed for seven days for safety outcomes before it is rolled out for further immunisation programme within the country.”

“Vaccination is one of the critical pillars of COVID control and management strategy adopted by the Centre. Presently two vaccines i.e. Covaxin by Bharat Biotech International Limited (BBIL) and Covishield by Serum Institute of India (SII), have received Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) from the National Regulator (Drugs Controller General of India).”

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In related news:

On Monday, April 12, 2021, India’s panel of experts approved Sputnik V for restricted usage in emergency.

The Sputnik V will be manufactured by Hyderabad based pharmaceutical giant Dr. Reddy’s. The Sputnik V has the highest efficacy after Moderna and Pfizer vaccines – 91.6%.

Around 850 million doses of the Sputnik V vaccine will be manufactured by 5 different pharmaceutical manufacturing companies (including Dr. Reddy’s).

Indians could expect limited doses of the vaccine being made available by the end of April.

Outbreak:

The country is seeing continues rise in the ongoing second wave of the COVID-19 virus. On Tuesday morning, the nation reported a total of 1,36,89,453 cases with the death toll amassing 1,71,058 deaths. On the brighter side, 1,22,53,697 people have recovered so far.

On Monday, India added another 1,61,736 fresh COVID-19 cases with fatalities reaching the 879 mark. This was the highest single-day spike registered by the country. India has now surpassed Brazil and is now second-worst hit COVID-19 country. It is only trailing behind USA, which has reported 3,19,93,263 with 5,76,339 people losing their lives.

Vaccination drive

India’s vaccination drive, which was flagged of by PM Modi on January 16, is in its second phase.

The first phase saw people above the age of 60-years inoculated, the second phase saw people above the age of 45 years with comorbidities getting vaccinated.

Now in the third phase, any one with their age above 45 years can get vaccinated. Currently, the Indian citizens are getting jabs from 2 vaccines: Covishield (developed by Astrazeneca/Oxford University and manufactured by Serum Institute of India) and Covaxin (developed by Indian Council of Medical Research and manufactured by Bharat Biotech)

So far, a total of 10,85,33,085 doses have been administered across the nation.