India Will Get COVID Vaccine By Year-End If Everything Goes Well: Harsh Vardhan

New Delhi: In a statement that will cheer up each and every citizen of India, Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan said that India will get a COVID-19 vaccine by the end of this year, if everything goes well.

On Saturday, Dr Vardhan said in a tweet in Hindi: “I hope that if everything goes well, India will get a coronavirus vaccine by the end of this year.”

As of now, three COVID-19 vaccine candidates, including two indigenous ones, are in different phases of development in India.

ICMR Director General Dr. Balram Bhargava had said recently that phase 1 human clinical trials of the two indigenous vaccines candidates — one by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with ICMR and the other by Zydus Cadila Ltd — have been completed.

On the other hand, Serum Institute of India — which has partnered with AstraZeneca for manufacturing the vaccine developed by University of Oxford — has been permitted to conduct its phase 2 and 3 human clinical trials in India. The trials are likely to start next week.

The coronavirus tally in India crossed the 30-lakh mark after 69,239 fresh cases were reported in the last 24 hours. Of the 30.44 lakh infected with the virus so far, 7,07,668 are active cases, while 22,80,567 have been discharged. The number of casualties in India is 56,706.