On Sunday (January 3), the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI), the national drug regulator of the country, announced that the Central Standard Drug Control Organization (CDSCO) had agreed to adopt the recommendations of its Subject Expert Committee (SEC) and approved both the Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech Covid-19 vaccines for restricted use in the country.
The Indian officials prepare the biggest vaccine campaign in the history of the nation to build a “realistic” roadmap for the delivery of Covid-19 vaccines.
Here’s What You Need To Know About The Vaccine Processes In India:
- Covishield, Covaxin approved
Covishield, the Indian version of the AZD1222 vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca, was manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII) and has already stockpiled around 80 million doses. The deployment should, as such, start fairly quickly.
It could take a few days or weeks for the other vaccine with emergency use authorization, Covaxin, manufactured by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech in partnership with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), to be available.
- How the process of vaccination will start?
In the United States and the United Kingdom, the first shots were administered within 1-2 days of the regulatory approval of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines. In India, too, the process is likely to be very rapid. While no clear dates have been released, it can fairly be expected that the mass vaccination campaign will begin within a week—perhaps by the coming weekend.
- Who will get the vaccine first?
The vaccination drive will be voluntary in its entirety. The government has already declared that 30 million (3 crores) workers will be at the forefront of India’s fight against the novel coronavirus, including 1 crore health workers and 2 crore frontline workers.
Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan declared on Saturday (January 2) that they would get the vaccine free of charge. The third priority group – consisting of some 27 crore persons over 50 years of age and persons under 50 years of age, but with associated comorbidities – will also be getting the vaccine in the first process.
- Timelines for the rest of the population
By August 2021, the government plans to complete the first step of vaccinations. Timelines for the remainder of the population are not yet understood. It is not, though, as if the majority of the population will have to wait for the end of the first step of vaccination. After several weeks or months, other classes will start being inoculated concurrently.
The vaccination rate and availability of the necessary doses will be crucial here. SII has said it is increasing production at its facilities. A whole host of other vaccines are also likely to be licensed for use in India in the coming weeks, apart from Covishield and Covaxin. That includes the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, the Russian Sputnik-V, and the ZyCoV-D candidate from Zydus-Cadila.
- Preparations for the vaccination
Preparations for what will be India’s widest and most ambitious vaccination drive ever have been on for weeks. There have already been two rounds of mock drills, the first on December 28-29 in four states, and the second on January 2, covering 285 session locations in 125 districts in all states across the country.
Some 96,000 vaccinators have been trained in 719 districts, including 2,360 in the national training of trainers, and over 57,000 in district training. More than 75 lakh recipients have been registered on the Co-WIN website to provide real-time information on the stocks of vaccines, their storage temperature, and the individual recipients of the shots, Dr. Harsh Vardhan said on Saturday.
To ensure last-mile delivery, the country’s cold chain infrastructure has been adequately upgraded and adequate supplies of syringes and other logistics have been arranged, he said.
- How to register for the COVID-19 vaccine?
Currently, data collected by beneficiaries from government and private health facilities are being fed into CoWIN, a digital platform for the implementation and scale-up of the vaccination campaign.
In the later phases of the implementation, however, the self-registration module will be made available.
