While India's COVID-19 vaccine, COVAXIN is yet to get a EUL nod from the World Health Organisation, Bharat Biotech Managing Director Krishna Ella has said that he hopes the indigenous vaccine Emergency Use Listing (EUL) by the golbal health body soon.
According to India Today, Krishna Ella said, "We have five more vaccines that are included in EUL. We know how the process works. Hope it (Covaxin) gets approval soon."
On completing the 100-crore Covid-19 vaccine milestone, Krishna Ella also congratulated the country saying "I want to thank the people of this country and the contribution of people, healthcare workers, frontline workers. I am a scientist ... we made the vaccine. But people came forward and got vaccinated."
The Bharat Biotech chairman said the country has the potential to achieve more in terms of indigenous vaccines. "India is always sitting on a pressure cooker. We can cross milestones," he said.
Krishna Ella said the goodwill of Covaxin has affected the sales of other vaccines as well, especially rabies vaccine and rotavirus vaccine.
Speaking about vaccination for children, Krishna Ella said children should also be protected against Covid-19. "I don’t want to get into the controversy over whether children should be vaccinated or not. But if you ask me, children should also be protected. Even 1-2 per cent hospitalisation of children could lead to long term problems like asthma or breathing problems in them," he said.
The CoWin portal on Thursday mentioned that a total of 100 crore vaccine doses has been administered so far to the eligible population under the vaccination drive in India.
India's vaccination drive against the Covid pandemic was launched on January 16, 2021. The healthcare workers were the first ones to get doses. Later, the frontline workers were also included in the drive from February 2. The state and central police personnel, Armed Forces, Home Guards, Civil Defence and others were included in the vaccination drive.
The vaccination drive was expanded from March 1 to include people above 60 years of age and those above 45 years with associated specified comorbidities. From May 1, the vaccination drive was thrown open to all above 18 years of age.
