Covid vaccine in open market by year-end: AIIMS chief

New Delhi : As cases continue to rise in parts of the country and States like Maharashtra are contemplating another lockdown, AIIMS Director Dr R Guleria, who himself got the second dose of the Covid-19 vaccine on Wednesday, said the vaccines will be available in the open market by the end of the year.

"The vaccines will be available in the open market only when prime targets - people to be vaccinated - are covered & there's an equivalence of supply-demand. Hopefully, there'd be such a situation by year-end or before that. Then there would be a likelihood of the vaccines to come to the open market," Dr Guleria said.

Talking about the current pandemic situation in India, Dr Guleria pointed out, "it is still not over". He said: "Right now our situation is fine and many might believe that in India pandemic case is less but I would say this is our window of opportunity to get the vaccine as the pandemic is still not over and the situation can change anytime.

As we have seen in Brazil, Europe, South Africa and the United Kingdom lockdown has been imposed again as the case spiked. We should maintain the present situation in the country as it is necessary."

Sharing his experience of his past 28 days after taking the first dose of Covid 19 vaccine, Dr Guleria said: "I haven't found any side effect from the first dose. I didn't face any difficulty.

I would urge people not to fear the vaccine and it is totally safe. People should come out and take the vaccine. This is essential if we want to come out of the pandemic."

Talking about vaccine hesitancy among the people, Dr Guleria said many have been vaccinated and data also reflects that these vaccines are safe.

"Vaccine hesitancy is understandable as people could have some doubts whether the vaccine is safe or not but so many days have passed and many have got the jab," he added.