By Krishna N. Das
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday that India is fully self-sufficient in providing coronavirus vaccines, as the world’s second most populous country inoculated more than 1 million people in a week after your campaign starts.
On Saturday, India started what the government calls the largest vaccination program in the world, using two injections made locally: one licensed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca Plc, and another developed at home by Bharat Biotech in partnership with the Indian Council of Medical Research. .
“Our preparation has been such that the vaccine is rapidly reaching all corners of the country,” said Modi in a video call with healthcare professionals.
“And in the greatest need in the world today, we are totally self-sufficient. Not only that, India is also helping many countries with vaccines.”
India, known as the pharmaceutical capital of the world, offered vaccines to neighbors and partners like Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Seychelles, Mauritius and Maldives. It is starting commercial shipments to Brazil and Morocco on Friday.
The US State Department praised the Indian effort.
“We applaud India’s role in global health, sharing millions of doses of the COVID-19 vaccine in South Asia,” the newspaper said on Twitter. “India is a true friend who uses its pharmaceutical industry to help the global community.”
Earlier this week, the head of the World Health Organization urged countries and manufacturers to spread vaccines more fairly around the world and warned that the world would be on the verge of “catastrophic moral failure” if it did not.
FIRST MILLION VACCINATED
India’s own vaccination campaign started with 30 million health professionals and other frontline professionals first in line, followed by around 270 million people over 50 or considered to be at high risk due to pre-medical conditions. existing.
That puts Modi, 70, in the second category. He reiterated that the sequence would be followed, but made no reference to exactly when he would be vaccinated.
India, a country with 1.35 billion inhabitants, has reported 10.63 million cases of COVID-19 so far – the largest after the United States – with 153,032 deaths.
The health ministry said India vaccinated more people on the first day than the United States, Britain or France. Still, it has encouraged more frontline workers to take the initiative, as only a handful of states have managed to meet their daily goals.
He said in a statement that 1.04 million people received their first doses on Friday.
Some doctors have expressed doubts about the Bharat Biotech vaccine, which has been approved for emergency use without data on the efficacy of end-stage clinical trials. The government says it is safe and effective.
Bharat Biotech said on Friday that 13,000 people who participated in the final testing stage of their COVAXIN received the second dose, which may help it to get an idea soon about its effectiveness. The test began in late November, completing the registration of a total of 25,800 participants in early January.
In the coming months, India is expected to approve two more vaccines, the Russian Sputnik V and Cadila Healthcare ZyCov-D. India’s focus on photos taken locally may force companies like Pfizer Inc to also look at production in the country.
The American company was the first to seek authorization for emergency use in India early last month, with plans to import the vaccines, but a senior government official in vaccines told Reuters he would first need to do a local test. The government also asked the company to consider local production, as Russia did.
(Reporting by Krishna N. Das; Additional reporting by Euan Rocha; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Alison Williams)