After UK's approval to Pfizer's COVID- 19 vaccine, know when India can expect it

NEW DELHI (DIVYA SAINI): The UK has already become the first country to approve the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine and people of UK might get it from the next week, the officials said on Wednesday.

Here's everything you should know about the COVID- 19 vaccine:

According to the health ministry, the National Expert Group of India on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19 was in news about “all candidate vaccine manufacturers” for supply to India.

The firm said that their aim is to produce around 50 million doses of vaccine in 2020 and 1.3 billion doses in 2021.

Adar Poonawalla, CEO of Serum Institute of India (SII) said earlier that, ”we had estimated a need for about 15 billion doses of the COVID-19 vaccine if a two-dose programme – similar to the measles vaccinations drive – is initiated.”

According to the firm, it should start arriving in the UK within days and could be used on British citizens from next week.

As we all know, COVISHIELD, COVID- 19 vaccine of India is being developed by the Serum Institute of India is already in the process of applying for emergency use license for its COVID-19 vaccine. It is already manufacturing about  50-60 million doses per month, and hopefully from January, they would increase the production to 100 million doses per month.

Bharat Biotech and ICMR have already started the phase 3 trial of the COVID- 19 vaccine “COVAXIN “. According to reports Zydus Cadila likely to apply for Phase 3 trials of its COVID-19 vaccine in December and may expect  its launch in March 2021.

According to Kirill Dmitriev, Chief Operating Officer (CEO) of Russian Direct Investment Fund, they are likely to get approval by next month and are "ready to supply the vaccine to a wider population within the same timeframe".

Well, the cost of vaccine is still not known, whereas health insurance policies are will not cover the cost of vaccination and its reactions.

Image credits: Google