India’s drug regulator announced on Sunday Jan. 3 that it had approved the use of two anti-coronavirus (Covid-19) vaccines “in emergency situations,” one developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University and the other by India’s Bharat Biotech. India is the second worst country in the outbreak after the United States and is expected to receive mass vaccination.
India’s central drug director V.G. Somani told a news conference that the two vaccines “are approved for limited use in emergency situations.” According to AFP, India approved two vaccines today, one jointly developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford (AstraZeneca/Université d’Oxford) and the other made by India’s Bharat Biotech.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi sees this accelerated approval of the vaccine as a key turn to free India from the coronavirus, become a healthier nation and strengthen the fighting spirit.
India, with a population of 1.3 billion, is the second worst country in the world for the outbreak. More than 10 million people in India have been infected, and nearly 150,000 of them have died. In September of last year, more than 90,000 infections were measured in India each day.
India is about to begin mass vaccination efforts after Indian health authorities approved the two vaccines. Until then, 96,000 health care workers across India have been vaccinated against the coronavirus.
Speaking to reporters about the safety of the vaccines, India’s Central Drugs Director General Somani said regulators would never have approved them if there was any semblance of doubt about their safety. He assured that the vaccines are 100 percent safe, but said that, like other vaccines, there are side effects, including mild fever, pain and some allergic reactions.
The world’s largest vaccine producer, the Serum Institute of India, said it will produce 50-60 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine each month. The institute’s chief executive tweeted after authorities approved two vaccines, saying it was ready to distribute supplies in the next few weeks.
Also according to the Central News Agency, after India approved the two vaccines for emergency use, authorities hope to vaccinate about 300 million people in the first six to eight months of the year.
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