The Government of India has fast-tracked emergency approvals for foreign produced COVID-19 vaccines that have been in use in other nations. The plan is to expand the basket of vaccines for domestic use and increase the pace and coverage of vaccination amid a raging second wave of COVID.
Earlier today, Russian-made COVID vaccine Sputnik V was cleared for emergency use by the Drugs Controller General of India.
Five more vaccines are expected to get approval this year — the list includes Johnson and Johnson (Bio E), Zydus Cadila, Serum’s Novavax and a nasal vaccine from Bharat Biotech.
Since last week, several states have been flagging their dwindling vaccine stocks. The list includes Maharashtra — where COVID has struck the hardest — Punjab, Delhi, Telangana and Rajasthan.
There has been a call to expedite the approvals and availability of the vaccines already in use abroad from the Congress. This topped the wishlist of party chief Sonia Gandhi, who wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday.
The country is also trying to step up vaccination with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for a four-day “Tika Utsav”.
India had started the world’s largest vaccination programme on January 16 and so far, more than 10 crore doses have been administered.
Over the last 24 hours, the country logged 1,61,736 new COVID cases — slightly lower than yesterday but still above the 1.5 lakh mark for the third consecutive day, pushing the country’s caseload to over 1.36 crore.
The total number of reported cases drops on Mondays and Tuesdays because of the weekend effect.
The resurgence led to 879 new fatalities, taking the total death count to 1,71,058.
