Adar Poonawalla: Covid-19 Vaccination drive to start from Jan 2021

Coronavirus vaccination drive In India is expected to start in January 2021 and life is expected to return to normalcy by October 2021, said Adar Poonawala, chief executive officer of the Serum Institute. He said the Serum Institute seeking an emergency use authorisation for its Covid-19 vaccine in the country is likely to get permission from the central government by the end of December 2020. Vaccination drive may then begin in January. If 20 percent of the total population of the country is vaccinated against corona, the confidence of the people will increase. We are hoping that by September-October 2021, adequate stock of corona vaccine will be available to all people in the country and public life will return to normal. 

The Serum Institute has also been instrumental in the development of the corona vaccine, which is being jointly developed by the Oxford University-AstraZeneca Company.

Pune-based Serum Institute is conducting a phase-3 trial of its coronavirus vaccine called Covishield in different parts. In order to introduce an urgently needed vaccine against COVID-19 in India, SII, the world's largest vaccine manufacturer, has entered into a collaboration with the University of Oxford and Swedish pharma giant AstraZeneca to manufacture the vaccine.

As per the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Serum Institute has manufactured four crore doses of the vaccine under the at-risk manufacturing and stockpiling licence obtained from the DCGI.