India's First Covid 19 Vaccine Covaxin To Be Available By The End Of 2020, Says Dr Harsh Vardhan

Union Health Minister said that the Coronavirus vaccine will be available to the country by the end of the year 2020.

Coronavirus Vaccine: Union Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan said that India is going well in the race of COVID 19 vaccine and Indians might get a vaccine by the end of the year 2020. Dr. Harsh Vardhan said that "test, track, treat" was the government's strategy to move forward. Also Read|Second Russian Covid-19 Vaccine Candidate Shows Promising Results In Early Trials: Report The Union Minister said that India's first Covid 19 vaccine Covaxin will be made available to the country as soon as possible and the work is going in the right direction. Though the Health Minister did not provide any particular release date for the Coronavirus vaccine Covaxin. Apart from the COVAXIN jointly developed by Bharat Biotech and ICMR, the Zydus Cadila’ ZyCoV-D vaccine and Oxford-AstraZeneca’s candidate being produced by the Serum Institute of India are being tested across the country. According to the report, the government is considering an initial order of about 50 lakh doses of coronavirus vaccine for certain groups of people such as frontline workers and army personnel. Asked about when a vaccine would be ready for use in India, Vardhan said that vaccine trials against Covid-19 were being fast-tracked globally. Also Read|Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 Vaccine Trials Show Positive Response, Likely To Get Regulatory Approval By October He said the efficacy of India-made vaccines would be known by the year-end, upon completion of trials. Adding that the Oxford vaccine produced by Serum Institute of India was already being produced on a parallel end, he said this would reduce the time needed to market it. The Health Minister said that the other two vaccines would require at least a month extra for production, and phased introduction in the market. He pointed out that if the vaccine trial results were successful, it could be "ready to use" by the first quarter of 2021. Developed by Hyderabad-based pharmaceutical firm Bharat Biotech, the human trials of 'COVAXIN' had started two weeks back and could be available by the end of 2020, Vardhan said. He told that the Serum Institute of India had informed that it was ready to begin human trials in India this month and was hoping to have the AstraZeneca vaccine available by the year-end. The ZyCoV-D from Zydus Cadila could complete its clinical trials in a few months too, he added. Also Watch|India can expect Covid vaccine by end of 2020: Dr Harsh Vardhan