While addressing a digital press conference, Guleria also said that he is hopeful of a coronavirus vaccine by the end of this month or by early January 2021. "Hopeful that by the end of this month or early next month we should get emergency use authorisation from Indian regulatory authorities to start giving vaccine to public," he said.
The AIIMS Director also said that there are good data available that the vaccines are very safe. "Safety & efficacy of vaccine not compromised at all. 70,000-80,000 volunteers given vaccine, no significant serious adverse effects seen. Data shows that in the short term vaccine is safe," news agency ANI quoted Guleria as saying.
He further pointed out that Chennai trial case is an incidental finding rather than related to vaccine. "When we vaccinate a large number of people, some of them may have some other disease, which may not be related to vaccine," he said.
AIIMS Director On Vaccine Distribution:
On distribution of vaccine once its arrives, Dr Guleria said: "Work is going on at war-footing both at the Centre and the state level for vaccine distribution plan in terms of maintaining cold chain, having appropriate storehouses available, developing strategy, training vaccinators and availability of syringes."
Speaking about the ongoing Covid-19 wave in the country, he said, "Now, we've seen a decline in current wave and I hope this will continue if we are able to have a good Covid-19 appropriate behaviour. We're close to having a big change related to a pandemic if we manage this behaviour for the next three months."
Speaking about availability of Covid-19 vaccine to everyone, Guleria said that in the beginning, Covid-19 vaccine will not be available in sufficient doses to give to everyone. "We need a priority list to see that we vaccinate those who've high chances of dying due to Covid. Elderly, people with comorbidities and front line workers should be vaccinated first," he added.
Further in his address, the AIIMS Director also stated that once the booster dose is given, vaccine will give good amount of anti-body production and will start giving protection.
Coronavirus Tally In India
Meanwhile, India on Thursday reported 35,551 new coronavirus infections in the last 24 hours, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare's data on Thursday.
The total tally of Covid-19 cases has reached 95,34,965, including 4,22,943 active cases and 89,73,373 recoveries. With 526 fresh fatalities in last one day, the cumulative death toll mounted to 1,38,648.