Health Minister reviews COVID vaccine dry run preparations even as SEC meets on approvals

Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Friday reviewed the preparations for a dry run of administering Covid vaccine from January 2 in all states. As Health Minister Harsh Vardhan discussed Central government's COVID vaccination plan, the meeting of the Subject Expert Committee (SEC) of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) took place simultaneously.

While the Health Minister briefed the media about the meeting, it is expected that the Subject Expert Committee (SEC) is likely to examine Serum Institute of India’s (SII) emergency-use authorisation (EUA) application for Oxford-AstraZeneca’s Coronavirus vaccine. Dr Harsh Vardhan said that the Centre has worked on vaccination guidelines, logistics, etc and dry run will be a big step towards the approval for the vaccine. 

He said, "Our focus is on the vaccine cold chain system, storage, space, vaccination sites, teams. We need to strengthen our cold chain supply, syringes availability, trainers. Training is done at block, state and national level. Dry run purpose is preparedness. The administration, police, security, transportation, health services, doctors, staff all of them have to come together along with their vast experiences to do vaccination. It will be a massive exercise with minutest possible details. We handled Covid better than the whole world. 98 lakh have been cured; Highest recovery rate, lowest fatality rate. Infection rate is decreasing. Good news seems to come from on the vaccine front as well. 2021 will be definitely better than 2020."

On approval of the vaccine, details of the SEC meet are awaited. Notably, the United Kingdom government authorized for emergency use of the vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca. Serum Institute of India (SII) had submitted some additional data required by the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI), PTI quoting official sources said last week. It is likely that Oxford-AstraZeneca's vaccine candidate may be the first anti-COVID-19 vaccine to be granted emergency-use approval in India. Besides SII, Bharat Biotech and Pfizer have also applied to DCGI seeking emergency use authorisation for their COVID-19 vaccines early this month.

The approval of Oxford-AstraZeneca's vaccine by UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) means the vaccine is both safe and effective. The vaccine, which also has a tie-up with the Serum Institute of India, was being evaluated by the MHRA after the final cut of data was submitted by the government last Monday. Britain has ordered 100 million doses of the vaccine, with 40 million expected to be available by the end of March. 

India's dry run

A press release issued by Health Ministry said that COVID vaccination dry run will be conducted by all the State and UT governments on January 2. The decision was taken during a high-level meeting chaired by Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan with Pr. Secretaries (Health), NHM MDs, and other health administrators of all States/UTs through video conference. The first round of the dry run was conducted in Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat, Punjab on 28-29th December 2020 in two districts each where five-session sites with 25 beneficiaries each were identified. The health ministry said that no major issues were observed in the operational aspects during this dry run.

READ | Vaccine Dry Run In Four Districts Of Maharashtra On Jan 2

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Former Top ICMR Official Opens Up On COVID-19 Vaccine Approval

Speaking exclusively to Republic TV on Thursday, Dr. Raman Gangakhedkar, former Head of Epidemiology and Communicable Diseases at ICMR, opened up on COVID-19 vaccination. He explained that the Subject Expert Committee of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation will decide on giving approval for a vaccine depending on factors such as data integrity, efficacy, side effects, storage conditions and stability. Three vaccine candidates - Covaxin, Covishield and Pfizer vaccine are currently under consideration for emergency usage approval.

Moreover, Dr. Gangakhedkar exuded confidence in the vaccine being effective against the highly contagious strain of the novel coronavirus discovered in the UK. While conceding that this was India's first adult immunisation programme after Smallpox, he contended that this was nothing to worry about.

READ | In key global move, WHO accords emergency use approval to Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID Vaccine

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