CITY POPULATION ....

capacity to vaccinate 150,000 citizens per day. Depending on the availability of vaccine doses, the BMC administers above 30,000 shots per day.

According to latest figures from August 18, a total of 6,159,896 beneficiaries have been vaccinated with their first dose. Vaccination drive was suspended in the city on August 19 and 20.

However, civic authorities say it is not possible to commit to any timeline. A senior civic official said, “We cannot commit to any timeline, as we often face a shortage of doses. Mathematical calculations regarding when we will complete vaccinating the entire target population prove futile. Currently, we have the capacity to vaccinate about 150,000 beneficiaries per day. If Mumbai gets enough doses, we can even scale up this capacity.”

Within the past 10 days, Mumbai has faced a shortage of vaccine doses twice. Vaccination at public centres in the city was suspended last Thursday and Friday (August 12 and 13), and again this Thursday and Friday (August 19 and 20). Vaccination will resume in the city on Saturday, as Mumbai received 130,000 doses on Thursday night.

In the days immediately following the arrival of fresh vaccine stock in the city, a higher number of beneficiaries are vaccinated in the city, BMC data shows. Vaccine centres had operated at full capacity last Saturday (August 14), and over 150,000 beneficiaries were vaccinated at public vaccine centres in the city, as the BMC had freshly received 170,000 doses.

Data shows that over 2,840,000 citizens are yet to receive their first dose, and a total of over 6,916,000 the second dose. While Covaxin requires a gap of 28 days between two doses, Covishield requires a gap of at least 84 days.

Dr Rahul Pandit, a member of Maharashtra government’s Covid-19 task force, said, “It is a mathematically logical calculation that Mumbai should be able to vaccinate its remaining citizens by the end of the year or a little later. However, we are not vaccinating enough. Recently, vaccine numbers have gone up comparatively, but we need to increase the pace, especially with the city opening up.” applicator and added that it plans to seek approval for a twodose regimen of the vaccine. “The main advantage of DNA vaccines is their ability to stimulate both the humoral and cellular arms of the adaptive immune system. They are a valuable form of antigen-specific immunotherapy, as they are safe, stable and can be easily produced,” the company said.

An official, who asked not to be named, said the expert panel sought more data to allow the company’s existing request to approve it as a two-dose shot.

A second government official, who asked not to be named, said final approval to roll-out the vaccine to children above the age of 12 will be taken by government’s expert committees on vaccination. “The emergency use approval has come for the Zydus vaccine for use in 12 year olds and above but it will be the call of the experts on panels such as NTAGI (National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation) and NEGVAC (National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19), who decide on Covid-19 vaccinerelated matters, whether to allow Covid-19 vaccination in children; and when. Even if the experts allow it, orders will have to be placed -- there is an entire procurement process that needs to be followed. Regulatory approval is just a part of the process,” this person said.

ZyCoV-D was developed in partnership with the government’s Department of Biotechnology under the ‘Mission COVID Suraksha’, which involved the pooling of resources by several Indian research institutions for development and clinical trials.

The vaccine works by instructing cells to produce the spike protein of the Sars-CoV-2 virus, which elicits an immune response, the ministry of science and technology said in a statement on Friday.

“It is a matter of great pride that today we have the EUA for the world’s first DNA COVID-19 vaccine ZyCoV-D by Zydus developed in partnership with the Department of Biotechnology and supported through Mission COVID Suraksha. The Indian Vaccine Mission COVID Suraksha was launched under the Atma Nirbhar Bharat package 3.0 being implemented by BIRAC, is aimed at the development of safe and efficacious COVID-19 vaccines for public health,” said Dr Renu Swarup, secretary, department of biotechnology, and chairperson,

Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council.

“We are confident that this will be an important vaccine for both India and the world. This is an important milestone in our indigenous vaccine development mission and positions India on the global map for novel vaccine development,” she added.

There are two vaccine candidates that have been tested among children in India: Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin and Zydus Cadila’s ZyCoV-D. The two are also the only ones of the six now approved in India to be developed indigenously.

The Covaxin trial data in children is still not out, while Zydus Cadila submitted the data to the national drugs regulator along with data from trials held in adult participants on July 1.

The safety and tolerability data of children that was submitted to the regulator for scrutiny showed the tolerability profile was similar to that seen in the adult population, said the company’s managing director, Sharvil Patel, in a press briefing last month.

Patel, last month announced that the company should have a production capacity of about 10-12 million doses per month.

He added that the plug and play technology on which the plasmid DNA platform is based is ideally suited for dealing with Covid-19 as it can be easily adapted to deal with mutations in the virus, such as those already occurring.

The pricing was not discussed as yet but Patel said it would be decided once the regulatory approvals came in as it would depend on doses, technology etc.

“We are extremely happy that our efforts to put out a safe, well tolerated and efficacious vaccine to fight COVID-19 has become a reality with ZyCoV-D. To create the world’s first DNA vaccine at such a crucial juncture and despite all the challenges, is a tribute to the Indian research scientists and their spirit of innovation,” said Pankaj R Patel, chairman, Zydus group.

ZyCoV-D is now the sixth vaccine approved in India for emergency use after Serum Institute of India’s Covishield, Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin, Russian-made Sputnik V, and the American vaccines— Moderna and Johnson and Johnson (J&J).

Meanwhile, American pharma giant Johnson & Johnson

(J&J) has sought approval from India’s drugs regulator to conduct clinical trials of its Covid-19 vaccine for the people in the 12-17 age group.

“On 17 August 2021, we submitted an application to the CDSCO to conduct a study of the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine in India in adolescents aged 12-17 years,” said a J&J India spokesperson. duced a letter it said had been written to one alleged collaborator who was taken from his Kabul apartment this week and detained for questioning over his role as a counter-terrorism official in the previous government. Reuters could not independently verify its authenticity.