PM Narendra Modi Holds Virtual Meeting With Top Officials On India's Strategy For Developing Covid-19 Vaccine

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday held a virtual meeting with top officials including members of NITI Aayog to review the strategy for the development of Covid-19 vaccine and making it accessible for all Indians. Know all about it.

Image tweeted by PM Narendra Modi (@narendramodi)

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday held a virtual meeting with top officials including members of NITI Aayog on India's strategy for developing a Covid-19 vaccine and making it accessible for all.  "Held a meeting to review India's vaccination strategy and the way forward. Important issues related to the progress of vaccine development, regulatory approvals, and procurement were discussed," PM Modi tweeted. "Reviewed various issues like prioritisation of population groups, reaching out to HCWs, cold-chain Infrastructure augmentation, adding vaccinators and tech platform for vaccine roll-out," he tweeted. Many are in advanced stages of trials and they have reported over 90 percent effectiveness. "Five vaccines are in advanced stages of development in India, out of which 4 are in Phase II/III and one is in Phase-I/II. Countries such as Bangladesh, Myanmar, Qatar, Bhutan, Switzerland, Bahrain, Austria and South Korea - have shown keen interest in partnering for vaccine development of Indian vaccines and use thereof," the government said in a statement on Friday. "In an effort to administer the vaccine at the first available opportunity, database of healthcare and frontline workers, augmentation of cold chains and procurement of syringes, needles, etc. are in advanced stages of preparation," the government stated.

Held a meeting to review India’s vaccination strategy and the way forward. Important issues related to progress of vaccine development, regulatory approvals and procurement were discussed. pic.twitter.com/nwZuoMFA0N

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) November 20, 2020

The third phase of human trials of Covaxin, India's indigenous vaccine, began at an institute in Odisha on Friday. It was administered to two recruits at the Institute of Medical Sciences and SUM Hospital, the only institute in Odisha chosen by the Indian Council for Medical Research for human trial of the vaccine, said E Venkata Rao, principal investigator of Covaxin human trial. Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij was also administered the vaccine dose after he had volunteered to be made part of the third-phase trials. Meanwhile, Vaccine maker Serum Institute of India's CEO Adar Poonawalla on Thursday had expressed hope of the Oxford Covid-19 vaccine to be available for healthcare workers and the elderly by February next year and by April for the general public. The pice will be capped at Rs 1,000 for two necessary doses, depending on the final trial results and approvals from regulatory authorities. India's fresh coronavirus infections rose by 45,882 in the past 24 hours to touch 90,04,365, government data reported. 84.28 lakh patients recovered, taking the national recovery rate to 93.6 percent. Up to 584 people have succumbed to the disease, the overall number till now being 1,32,162. There are 4,43,794 active cases in the country.