Still unexplained
The hunt for the origins of Covid-19 has for the past four years been a tangled web of politics, power struggles, and international finger-pointing.
A ray of hope emerged for India in its fight against the coronavirus as the vaccine of two candidates – Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin and the Serum Institute of India’s Covishield – have been recommended by a government-appointed panel to the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) for emergency use in the last two days.
India’s first indigenous vaccine developed by Hyderabad-based Biotech with backing from Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), was recommended to the DCGI on Saturday.
Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Dr Harsh Vardhan had yesterday visited two mock vaccination sites in Delhi to review the dry run drill for administering the COVID19 vaccine.
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He first visited the GTB Hospital in Shahdara and later an Urban Primary Health Centre (UPHC) in Daryaganj.
Ahead of the actual vaccination drive, the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare conducted a nationwide mock drill at 285 session sites to test the end-to-end planned operations and the mechanism that has been set up to ensure smooth conduct of the COVID19 vaccination that is expected to begin soon.
Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan had said that free coronavirus vaccines will be given in the first phase to three crore people who have been on the frontline in the fight against the disease.
The government will give priority to 1 crore healthcare workers and 2 crore frontline workers when India begins the rollout of the Covid vaccine, he added.
“In 1st phase of #COVID19Vaccination free #vaccine shall be provided across the nation to most prioritised beneficiaries that incl 1 crore healthcare & 2 crore frontline workers. Details of how further 27 cr priority beneficiaries are to be vaccinated until July are being finalised (sic),” Dr Harsh Vardhan said in a tweet.
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