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NATION DECEMBER 25, 2020 | The Indian Eye 10

How India is preparing to rollout various

vaccines for 1.3 billion people in phases

Our Bureau guide way forward prior to ac-

New Delhi tual implementation including
T he Indian Council of quired in the envisaged process.
improvements that may be re-
Medical
This will also provide a hands-
Research
(ICMR) has said that
managers at various levels.
the Indian vaccine against on experience to programme
COVID-19, Covaxin, has drawn This activity will also in-
global attention. In a tweet, the clude testing for cold storage
ICMR said, “India’s indigenous and transportation arrange-
vaccine against #COVID19 ments for the COVID19 vac-
Covaxin-a product of IC- cine, management of crowd at
MR-Bharat Biotech collabora- the session sites with proper
tion, achieves remarkable feat. physical distancing.
Data generated from within In- The Ministry said that the
dia underlines impressive safe- detailed checklist has been pre-
ty and immunogenicity profile pared and shared with the four
of Covaxin and sparks Lancet’s Foreign envoys take a tour of Bharat Biotech facility where cOVID19 Vac- states to guide them in the dry
interest in publishing them.” cine covaxin is being developed, in hyderabad (ANI) run.
The ICMR said, “Encouraging The National Expert Group
Phase I and Phase II COVAX- HGCO 19, inactivated rabies zation officers, cold chain offi- on Vaccine Administration of
IN trial results have paved the vector platform and Vesiculo cers, IEC officials and develop- COVID-19 (NEGVAC) has
path for Phase III Clinical Trial Vax platform. ment partner. recommended three prioritised
in India, which is currently on- The Central Government To facilitate redressal of population groups which in-
going at 22 sites.” is gearing up for the roll-out of queries on COVID-19 vac- clude about one crore health-
The All India Institute of COVID-19 vaccine across the cination and Co-WIN portal care, about two crore frontline
Medical Sciences (AIIMS) country and a two-days dry run related queries, national 1075 workers and 27 crores priori-
based in New Delhi on Thursday has been planned in Andhra and state 104 helpline capacity tised age group.
invited volunteers for the Phase Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat and has also been strengthened to The present cold chain sys-
III clinical trial of the indige- Punjab considering the geo- address queries beyond their tem consisting of 85,634 equip-
nously developed COVID-19 graphical locations next week, routine support. As a step to ments for storage of vaccine at
vaccine candidate ‘Covaxin’ for said the Union Ministry of prep up for the administration about 28,947 cold chain points
which it is one of the sites. Health and Family Welfare on of COVID-19 vaccine, and across the country will be used
Earlier, Union Health Min- Friday. to assess the readiness of the for the cold chain administra-
ister Harsh Vardhan on Decem- The government has al- planned activities, a dry run has tion, as vaccines are tempera-
ber 19 had said that country’s ready trained participants who been planned in four states to ture sensitive and need to be
scientists and health experts will administer the vaccine. The start with Andhra Pradesh, As- stored in a specific temperature.
have worked on the develop- detailed training modules have sam, Gujarat, Punjab consider- Meanwhile, Aurobindo
ment of an indigenous vaccine been developed for different ing the geographical locations. Pharma and US-based Covaxx
and in the upcoming six to sev- categories of vaccine handlers “Each State will plan it in have entered into a license
en months India will have the and administrators including two districts and preferably agreement to develop, commer-
capacity to inoculate about 30 medical officers, vaccinators, in different five-session type cialize and manufacture a vac-
crore people. alternate vaccinators, cold settings e.g. district hospital, cine to fight Covid-19 for India
The six vaccine candidates chain handlers, supervisors, CHC/PHC, urban site, private and the United Nations Chil-
which are in various stages of data managers, ASHA coordi- health facility, rural outreach, dren’s Fund (UNICEF) agency.
the clinical trial are - Covishield, nators and all others involved etc.,” it added. Covaxx is currently con-
Covaxin, ZyCoV-D, Sputnik V, in the implementation process The dry run will enable end- ducting a phase one clinical
NVX-CoV2373 and recombi- at different levels, to strength- to-end mobilization and testing trial for the vaccine candidate
nant protein antigen-based vac- en the capacity of human re- of COVID-19 vaccination pro- UB-61. “We are proud to part-
cine, according to the Health source for vaccine introduction cess (except the vaccine) and ner with Covaxx in developing
Ministry. and roll-out. check the usage of Co-WIN in the first-ever synthetic pep-
In addition to the above As many as, 2,360 partici- field environment, the linkages tide-based vaccine to combat
six which are in various tri- pants were trained during na- between planning, implementa- the Covid-19 pandemic,” said
al stages, the following three tional-level training of trainers tion and reporting mechanisms N Govindarajan, Managing Di-
are in pre-clinical trial stages - which comprised state immuni- and identify challenges and rector of Aurobindo Pharma.

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