After two successful ‘dry runs’ of vaccination, the center decided to embark on the nationwide vaccination process on January 16 after upcoming festivities, including Lohri, Makar Sankranti, Pongal, Magh Bihu, etc., government sources said on Saturday. The decision comes after the Prime Minister held a high-level review meeting with the Cabinet Secretary, Secretary-General of the Prime Minister, Health Secretary and other senior officials to review the status of COVID-19 in the country, together with the readiness of the state / UT’s. for COVID vaccination. The prime minister will enter into talks with all CMs on Monday about the same.
The army arrests Chinese soldiers after crossing into the Indian side of LAC
Vaccine blast on 16 January
The health workers and the frontline workers, who are estimated to number around 3 million, are being given priority, which is currently registered on the government’s CO-Win app – 75 lakh beneficiaries already registered. Followed by those older than 50 years and the population among 50-year-olds with co-morbidities of about 27 crores will be vaccinated by July. More than 61,000 program managers, 2 lakh vaccinators and 3.7 lakh other vaccination team members have so far been trained as part of State, District and Block level training. The government has yet to place another official order with the COVISHIELD manufacturer – Serum Institute of India (SII), which has filled 50 million doses for India.
Vaccination dry runs
As COVID-19 in India hits 1,04,31,639 cases and active cases fall to 2,24,190, the country kept its vaccine dry on January 8 in 700 districts in all states / UTs in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. during the previous vaccination strip, a total of 286 session centers spread across 125 districts were held on 2 January. Both dry runs were successful and aimed to ensure effective planning and management for vaccine delivery in all states and Union territories, with Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan reviewing the drought in Chennai earlier in the day.
PM Modi chairs the meeting of all CMs on January 11 to discuss COVID-19 vaccines
DCGI gives a nod to COVISHIELD & COVAXIN
VG Somani, Drug Control General of India (DCGI), announced on Sunday that the vaccines from Serum Institue of India (Covishield) and Bharat Biotech (Covaxin) have been approved for limited use in an emergency. Covishield – a recombinant chimpanzee adenovirus vaccine vaccine – has an efficacy of 70.42%, with interim safety and immunogenicity data from Phase II / III trials submitted to the SEC. 50 million doses have been stored.
Meanwhile, Covaxin – a vaccine for the entire virion-inactivated coronavirus – found 22,500 participants vaccinated in phase III trials to be safe according to the data available so far. Bharat Biotech (BBL) said on Thursday that the company had completed its Phase 3 clinical trials of 25,800 participants. As reported by the ICMR, BBL has already administered 24,000 volunteers with the first ingestion of its vaccine, and 5,000 were administered with the second dose – without any adverse events. There are 20 million doses in stock and Phase 3 trials of both vaccines continue.
MP CM explains ten days after COVAXIN trial on human death and calls it a ‘misconception’
COVAXIN completes 25,800 volunteer enrollment for Phase 3 trials before ‘dry run’