Adar Poonawalla has expressed confidence that the vaccine will be available to the Indian public by early 2021, but it depends on regulatory approval.
Adar Poonawalla, owner and CEO of SII, announced at the 18th edition of the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit that the vaccine for COVID-19 would be available in India at the end of 2020 or early 2021. He said the vaccine would be initially administered to frontline workers, health officials, and the elderly who are more vulnerable to disease. The common people would be able to get vaccinated by March- April 2021. The CEO also said that they are ramping up India's production facilities to increase the roll-out of vaccines by February 2021.
However, the vaccine availability is dependent on the necessary approval from the regulators for emergency use in India. The safety trials are still going on, and the timeline is dependant on other factors such as efficacy and immunogenicity results from the Indian trials. Results of the early phase clinical trials have been positive. Further, as Poonawalla suggested, there are limitations like budget, logistics, and infrastructure, which may delay the inoculation for every citizen of the country.
The COVID-19 pandemic has given rise to a lot of potentially dangerous misinformation. For reliable advice on COVID-19 including symptoms, prevention and available treatment, please refer to the World Health Organisation or your national healthcare authority.
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