GOOD NEWS! HEALTH MINISTER SHARES BIG UPDATE ON COVID-19 VACCINE AND DISTRIBUTION PLAN 

Amid the rise in cases and deaths due to the novel coronavirus, Union health minister Harsh Vardhan informed that India is likely to have a vaccine against COVID-19 by early next year. He also said that the vaccine will possibly come from several sources.

He shared this big news during a meeting of the Group of Ministers today. “We’re expecting that early next year we should have vaccine in the country from maybe more than one source," Dr Harsh Vardhan was quoted as saying by ANI.

"Our expert groups are formulating strategies to plan on how to roll out the distribution of the vaccine in the country,” the health minister added.

Meanwhile, The World Health Organization (WHO) chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan also stated that a vaccine will be ready for registration by the end of 2020 or early next year at the earliest. 

Giving further confirmation on the vaccine, Swaminathan said; “As you know, we have about 40 vaccine candidates now in some stage of clinical trials, and 10 of them are in the phase three trials, which are the late-stage clinical trials, which will tell us about both the efficacy and the safety."

Also in the latest episode of weekly Sunday Samwad, Dr Harsh Vardhan informed about the key factors that will be taken into account to ascertain the priority groups. 

“Prioritisation of groups to be vaccinated shall be based on key considerations, first is occupational hazard at the risk of exposure to the infection and second is the risk of developing severe disease and increased mortality,” he said.

“All Covid-19 vaccines currently in India are in the phases 1, 2 or 3 of trials with results awaited. Adequate safety and efficacy data is required for emergency use authorization vaccine approval for ensuring patient safety. Further course of action will be based on data generated,” he later added.