Massive production of COVID-19 vaccine will start once scientists give a green signal: Government

The Government has said that massive production of COVID-19 vaccine will start once scientists give a green signal. Briefing the media in New Delhi on Tuesday, Secretary in the Health Ministry, Rajesh Bhushan said, all the preparations have been made and an outline has been drawn to ramp up production of vaccine and to make it available to every person in the shortest possible time.

Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech have applied for Emergency Use Approval. The Secretary added that the Prime Minister has interacted with all vaccine manufactures and scientists. There are six vaccine candidates in the clinical trial stage in India.

He said, some of the vaccine candidates may get licensed in the next few weeks. Preparatory activities for the rollout of the vaccine are being carried out by the Central government in collaboration with States and Union Territories. He stressed that vaccination cannot just be a State's or the Centre's responsibility, and it has to be people's participation. He informed that the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19 was constituted in August this year. It guides prioritisation of population groups, procurement and inventory management, vaccine selection and vaccine delivery and tracking mechanism.

He said that while the cases are increasing around the world, there has been a steady and continuous decline in new cases in India since mid-September. He said, the active cases in the country are less than 4 lakh today and it is less than four per cent of the total number of cases. Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka, West Bengal and Delhi contribute to 54 per cent of the total active cases in the country.