India may add more vaccines in its bouquet in the coming months, including products from Biological E, Sputnik Light and Novavax.
New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government at the Centre is planning to roll out Zydus Cadila’s Covid-19 vaccine, ZyCoVD, by the end of October, News18 has learnt.
The government is expecting the delivery of one crore doses of DNA vaccine which can also be administered to adolescents aged between 12 and 17.
“We are waiting for guidelines from the panel of experts on vaccination for kids and adolescents. Once they release the guidelines, we can open up vaccination drive for youngsters as well,” a senior government official told News18.
According to the official, the supply of vaccines has increased phenomenally and in the coming months, it is going to improve further.
The current government data shows that around 26 states hold more than seven crore doses of vaccine.
Not only the available vaccines, in the coming months the government is likely to roll out several new vaccines in India.
“Production of Covishield is expected to go up further. It was 19 crore and is likely to go up to 20 crore next month. In the coming months, India may also add more vaccines in its bouquet, including products from Biological E, Sputnik Light, Novavax and others.”
Moreover, the official said Hyderabad Bharat Biotech is in the last lap of discussions with the World Health Organisation for the international approval of Covaxin.
“The meeting with WHO was planned for this week or sometime very soon. We are expecting approval in the next few days.”
Covid vaccination on Friday crossed one crore by the afternoon – for the fourth time in less than a month. The numbers encourage the government to vaccinate the majority of the population by the end of this year, as announced earlier.
Target to vaccinate All on Track
While it is trying to adopt innovative ways to push the administration for the second dose, it is concerned that the complacency should not set in amid the falling number of infection cases. The government is also focusing on improving vaccination numbers in poll bound states, especially Uttar Pradesh.
“We don’t know if a third wave will come or not. Hence, there is no place for complacency to set-in. Everyone must go and get fully vaccinated, even if cases are low or if they have got one dose.”
