Amid rising coronavirus cases in the country, Director of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Dr Randeep Guleria on Thursday said that India has COVID-19 vaccines which are in their final trial stage in India.
Dr Randeep Guleria while speaking to news agency ANI about the Indian vaccines candidates and his assessment on the rollout, he said that he is hopeful that by the end of this month or early next month they should get emergency use authorisation from Indian regulatory authorities to start giving the vaccine to public.
"In India, we now have vaccines which are in their final trial stage. Hopeful that by the end of this month or early next month we should get emergency use authorisation from Indian regulatory authorities to start giving the vaccine to public," Dr Randeep Guleria said.
Talking about the safety of the vaccines Dr Guleria said there are data which supports that in short term vaccine is safe. "There is good data available that the vaccines are very safe. The safety and efficacy of vaccines are not compromised at all. About 70,000-80,000 volunteers were given the vaccine and no significant serious adverse effects were seen. Data shows that in the short term vaccine is safe," the AIIMS Director added.
Expressing his thoughts on the current COVID-19 wave, Guleria said, "Now, we've seen a decline in the current wave and I hope this will continue if we are able to have a good COVID-19 appropriate behaviour. We're close to having a big change related to a pandemic if we manage this behaviour for the next three months."
The vaccines currently under trial in India include Oxford-AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine, being produced and tested by the Serum Institute of India. Other vaccines being tested in India are Russia's Sputnik V, currently under trials at Dr Reddy's Laboratories. India's home-frown Covaxin, being developed by Bharat Biotech in partnership with ICMR has also proven as an effective and safe vaccine so far.
Globally, UK has the first country in the world to approve the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine candidate to prevent COVID-19.
India's COVID-19 tally breached the 95-lakh mark on Thursday with 35,551 new infections in the last 24 hours, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare's data. The overall coronavirus cases now stands at 95,34,965, including 4,22,943 active cases and 89,73,373 recoveries. With 526 new deaths, the cumulative toll mounted to 1,38,648.
