'Good News' Around Coronavirus Vaccine Expected Soon, Says Serum Institute CEO Adar Poonawalla

Adar Poonawalla, CEO of Serum Institute of India and the local maker of the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine said the British and Indian governments may approve shots for emergency use within a few days.

A resident of the nursing home 'Haus an der Linde' is given a Pfizer-Biontech Covid-19 corona virus vaccine in Lichtentanne, eastern Germany, on December 27, 2020. - The European Union began a vaccine rollout, even as countries in the bloc were forced back into lockdown by a new strain of the virus, believed to be more infectious, that continues to spread from Britain. The pandemic has claimed more than 1.7 million lives and is still running rampant in much of the world, but the recent launching of innoculation campaigns has boosted hopes that 2021 could bring a respite. (Photo by Robert Michael / POOL / AFP)

Delhi: With panic gripping all over the globe as new mutated strands of Coronavirus are being discovered, Serum Institute of India (SII) on Monday said that some "good news" is expected soon in terms of vaccination in India. Adar Poonawalla, CEO of SII and the local maker of coronavirus vaccine Oxford-AstraZeneca, said the British and Indian governments may approve shots for emergency use within a few days. "You will hear good news from the UK soon, UK regulator may approve by end of this December or by early January, then we may get an approval in India too,” Poonawalla said during a launch event of the Pneumococcal Conjugate vaccine. At the event he also said,  Oxford-AstraZeneca has stockpiled 40-50 million doses of the “Covishield” for India. He added once the vaccine gets the approval, it will be on the government on how fast the inoculation process can be expedited. “We have 40-50 million doses of Covishield stockpiled. Once we get regulatory approvals in a few days, it'll be down to the Govt to decide how much they can take and how fast. We will be producing around 300 million doses by July 2021”, said SII CEO. READ | AstraZeneca CEO Claims His Vaccine Gives 100% Protection Against Coronavirus As India in the next six to eight months, wants to deliver 600 million vaccine shots of Covid-19, it may also consider giving approvals to Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine and another developed by India's Bharat Biotech. As a vaccine is likely to get approved by India's top drug regulator, the country is getting ready for the mass immunization programme against the Covid-19 disease. In the last 24-hours the country witnessed 20,021 new Covid-19 cases, 21,131 recoveries, and 279 deaths. India currently stands at second position with 1,02,07,871 total number of cases.