Union health minister Harsh Vardhan on Sunday said that the government is pondering over plans to dismiss the country's first Covid-19 vaccine. It is estimated that after prioritizing the target groups in the entire population as to who would need the vaccine first, the supplies of COVID vaccines would be available in limited quantities, initially.
“In a huge country like India, it is critical to prioritize vaccine delivery based on various factors such as per risk of exposure, comorbidity among various population groups, the mortality rate among COVID Cases, and several others," the health minister said while interacting to question on social media in his fifth episode of Sunday Samvaad.
Vardhan also said that the country is open to the availability of all different types of the vaccine because some may suit a particular age group, while others may not get any benefit from the same vaccine.
He said the most important thing is planning the cold chain and other logistics in such a manner that there are no minor setbacks while delivering the vaccine. Vardhan highlighted there will be a need for advocacy at large scale for building community sensitization activities to understand people's hesitancy to not take vaccines and address them properly.
Declining rumours of the Government prioritizing young and working-class for the COVID-19 vaccine for economic reasons, the health minister said, “the prioritisation of groups for COVID-19 vaccine shall be based on two key considerations: Occupational hazard and risk of exposure to infection, and the risk of developing severe disease and increased mortality."
Further talking about the ongoing clinical trials of the various COVID-9 vaccine candidates in the country, Vardhan explained that the Phase I trials are done primarily to establish the safety of the product; Phase II Trials measure immunogenicity as a primary endpoint and safety as a secondary endpoint; In Phase III clinical trials, both safety and immunogenicity are measured as secondary endpoints; effectiveness to remain the primary endpoint for this phase of a clinical trial.
The minister said that the issue of 'Emergency Use Authorization' of COVID vaccines in India, is being discussed. “Adequate safety and efficacy data are required for emergency use authorization vaccine approval for ensuring patient safety. Further course of action will depend on the data generated," he added. Interacting with the audience, Vardhan informed that the COVID-19 Vaccines in India are under trial and are of two and three-dose vaccines.
Talking about the vaccine doses, the minister said the Vaccine by Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech require two doses while the Cadila Healthcare vaccine requires three Doses. The other vaccines are in preclinical stages, presently whose dosing is being tested.
“Considering the large population size of India, one vaccine or vaccine manufacturer will not be able to fulfil the requirements of vaccinating the whole country. Therefore, we are open to assessing the feasibility of introducing several COVID-19 vaccines in the country as per their availability for the Indian population”, the minister said while talking on the need to include other candidates for COVID Vaccine.
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Dr Harsh Vardhan further said that the current pandemic situation demands multiple vaccine partners as he shared his opinions on Public-Private Partnership. This would ensure that the maximum Indian population gets vaccinated and the use of a single vaccine from a certain company should not be viewed in a negative light. The unveiling of a faster and cheaper Feluda COVID-19 test will be done soon, he added.
"Based on tests in over 2,000 patients during the trials at the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB) and on testing in private labs, the test showed 96% sensitivity and 98% specificity. This compares favourably to ICMR’s current acceptation criteria of RT-PCR Kit of at least 95% sensitivity and at least 99% specificity," Vardhan said.