The Government of India has reportedly begun to identify and list 300 million high priority individuals who are expected to receive an approved COVID-19 vaccine as and when it happens.
A regional portal has reported that the country is preparing to administer as much as 60 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine to a group that would include the elderly, individuals with various health conditions along with first responders including healthcare workers, sanitation workers and the police force.
Every COVID-19 vaccine candidate under consideration is expected to have a follow-up booster shot after a stipulated timeframe.
The list is expected to include 5-7 million healthcare professionals, more than 20 million frontline warriors including civil workers, the police and armed forces, and 26 million elders who are above 50 years along with others from various age groups who have various health conditions.
India will administer close to 600 million doses as it strives to cover over 23 percent of the country’s population with any one of the authorized COVID-19 vaccines.
There are several COVID-19 vaccine candidate Phase 3 trials under progress in the country including one of the most promising vaccine candidates, the AstraZeneca-Oxford COVID-19 vaccine candidate managed by Serum Institute of India (SII).
Officials expect to have necessary phase 3 clinical trial data about the efficacy of the vaccine by the end of November or early December.
Indian multinational pharmaceutical firm Dr. Reddy reportedly gathered necessary approvals from regional authority Drugs Controller General of India (DGCI) for conducting phase 2 and 3 clinical human trials of Russia’s first registered COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik V in the country.
