Moderna's COVID vaccine likely to reach India this week, to be available in govt hospitals

The first batch of Moderna's novel coronavirus vaccine will arrive in India in the next few days after completing some official formalities, government sources told news agency ANI. After reaching the country, the vaccines will be distributed to government hospitals.

On delivery of Moderna's COVID-19 messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine, a spokesperson of GAVI said: "On behalf of COVAX, Gavi is working closely with the US government and other partners to operationalise dose donations and get doses delivered as quickly as possible so that countries can continue to protect their most at-risk groups. More information on volumes and timelines will follow in due course."

The Gavi Alliance is a global health partnership to increase access to immunisation in poor nations. The GAVI Vaccine Alliance facilitates vaccination in developing nations by working with donor governments, UNICEF, the World Health Organisation, etc.

Last week, the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) granted permission to pharmaceutical firm Cipla to import donated doses of Moderna's COVID vaccine from the United States. These doses will be handed over to the central government and will be available for inoculation in selected hospitals. 

With the arrival of Moderna's COVID vaccine, India will have four vaccine options. The others are Covishield, Covaxin and Sputnik V.

According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), more than 36.97 crore COVID vaccine doses have been distributed to states and union territories. Of this, the total vaccines used, including wastages, is 34,95,74,408 doses, as per data provided by the government at 8 am today.

COVID-19 Cases in India:

India on Monday reported 39,796 new COVID-19 cases, taking the total tally of cases to 3,05,85,229. The death toll has reached 4,02,728 with 723 more fatalities, according to Health Ministry data. During the same period, 29,700,430 individuals have recovered from the infection. Meanwhile, the active caseload has declined to 4,82,071.