Health care workers, people above 65 will be given priority for Covid vaccine: Harsh Vardhan

New Delhi, November 19

Noting that it is natural to prioritise the COVID-19 vaccine distribution process, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Thursday said healthcare workers and people aged above 65 years would be given coronavirus vaccine on priority.

Addressing the FICCI FLO’s National Webinar on ‘The Shifting Healthcare Paradigm During and Post-COVID’, Vardhan said coronavirus vaccine would be available in a couple of months and it was estimated that by July-August, 400 to 500 million vaccine doses would be made available for 25 to 30 crore people.

“I am confident that the COVID-19 vaccine will be ready in the next three-four months,” he said.

“It is natural that the vaccine distribution would have to be prioritised. As you know the healthcare workers, who are corona warriors, will be prioritised. Then, people who are above 65 years of age, they have been prioritised, and then those from 50 to 65 years of age have been prioritised. Then those below 50 years who have other diseases,” he said.

Vardhan said everything is being decided by experts with a scientific point of view.

“We have made a very detailed meticulous plan on this. What we would have to do in March-April next year, we have started planning for it from now only,” he said.

The minister said: “We have also initiated an integrated response system against COVID-19 and will also host clinical trials for all the major vaccines. About 20 vaccines are in different stages of development.”

He said about 90 to 99 per cent tackling of COVID-19 was only through protecting and motivating others.

“You can protect yourself from this deadly virus with small precautions such as wearing a good quality mask properly, maintaining social distance and taking care of hand-hygiene,” he noted.

The phase-3 trial of the Oxford vaccine of the Serum Institute is almost near completion, while the phase-3 clinical trial of the indigenously-developed vaccine candidate of the Bharat Biotech and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has already started.

Dr Reddy’s Laboratories will also soon start the combined phase 2 and 3 clinical trials of the Russian COVID-19 vaccine, Sputnik V, in India. Also, Biological E Limited has started early phase 1 and 2 human trials of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate.

Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE have said their vaccine candidate was found to be more than 95 per cent effective in preventing COVID-19.

Moderna had on Monday said the independent National Institutes of Health-appointed Data Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) for the Phase 3 study of mRNA-1273, its vaccine candidate against COVID-19, found it to have an efficacy of 94.5 per cent. PTI

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