India developing 7 more indigenous Covid-19 vaccines

Union health minister Harsh Vardhan has said that the country is developing seven more Covid-19 vaccines to make them available to every citizen of India.

“We are currently administering the Covishield and Covaxin vaccines to healthcare and frontline workers. The scientists are here are developing seven more indigenous Covid-19 vaccines to inoculate all the people of India,” said Harsh Vardhan.

“We are working on the development of more vaccines because India is a huge country and we need more players and research to reach out to everyone,” a report quoted him as saying.

Three of the seven vaccines are in the trial phase, two in the pre-clinical stage, one in Phase 1 and another in Phase 2.

However, the centre does not have any immediate plan to make the vaccines available in the open market as it will be difficult to regulate their usage.

The Union government has targeted to inoculate 3 crores of healthcare and frontline workers on an emergency basis and under full observation during the first phase of the Covid-19 immunization drive.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched the world’s largest immunization drive on January 16.

Vardhan also said that people above the age of 50 will receive the Covid-19 vaccine from March this year.