As India prepares for coronavirus vaccine roll-out, the Prime Minister of the country communicated with the citizens today asserting that the vaccines being manufactured in India are one of the most cost-effective vaccines in the world.
The vaccine administration has entered its decisive and final stages and what many say is the world’s largest vaccination program is set to commence from 16th January onwards. The two vaccines are Covaxin by Bharat BioTech and Covishield by The Serum Institute and Oxford, both in their manufacturing phases and will begin administration soon. Both vaccines require a set of 2 doses, 4-6 weeks apart, and are above the 50% efficacy mark for a vaccine.
The Oxford-Serum Institute of India collaborated Covishield vaccine is set to be sold at INR 440 to the Centre and INR 700 to the common people while Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin is set to be sold at INR 350 to the Government.
The PM emphasized the vaccines being made in India and being cost-effective. He also made it clear that the vaccines shall only be available to the front-line warriors and no one else. The ‘public representatives’ which are the elected candidates, Government Officials, and ministers shall not be considered in the frontline. He strictly warned them to abstain from queuing up for the vaccine shot and patiently wait for their turn. The first stage of inoculation is scheduled from 16th January and is to be administered to a total of 3 crore frontline warriors which include doctors and police force.
PM Modi last week held a nation-wide wide meeting with all the states and union territories where he took account of all the statistics of the cases to plan the rationing of vaccines for the commons. In the meeting, Prime Minister mentioned that the State government’s need not be bothered with the price of the vaccines as the cost for frontline warriors shall be covered by the Centre.
In his statement PM also added that along with these two “Made in India” vaccines, 4 more vaccines are in their last stages to be made available to the market. India also expects to start the export of the vaccines within a fortnight of the launch. Bangladesh and Brazil are some of the countries which have already requested the Indian Government to expedite the export of vaccines.
