‘Covering all 300mn people could take 7-8 months’
NEW DELHI: It could take seven to eight months for all the 300 million people earmarked by the Union government for vaccination against the coronavirus disease in the first phase, NITI Aayog member Dr VK Paul said on Wednesday.
“We would have enough stockpile to cater to the 300 million people in seven to eight months,” he said during the National Grand Rounds – a virtual platform for doctors to share knowledge about Covid-19 organised by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).
Paul, who was the head of the department of paediatrics at AIIMS, was talking about the logistics of the large-scale vaccination drive India is set to initiate and how the priority groups were selected for the first phase.
India’s drug controller, on Sunday, cleared two vaccines -Oxford University-AstraZeneca manufactured by Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech’s indigenously developed candidate, Covaxin -- for restricted emergency use.
“I will take whatever (vaccine) is allotted to me by the health department of my state.
I will take absolutely without hesitation... And, if I was to exercise a choice… I have a preference for the vaccine that my institution AIIMS has tested,” said Dr Paul, referring to Covaxin. The critics questioned rushed approvals to the two vaccines, especially Covaxin. Bharat Biotech, however, said Covaxin is “200% safe”.
At the event, vaccine expert Dr Gagandeep Kang said: “The phase III data of Covaxin will likely be available by March or April of this year. T
he next vaccine to be approved will likely be the one developed by Gamaleya (Sputnik V)....
The full dataset will likely be available by April.”