Live Updates

New Delhi: The Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) would be addressing a press conference at 11 am on Sunday. During the media briefing, the country’s apex regulatory authority for medicinal products is expected to make key announcements on coronavirus vaccines—Covishield and Covaxin.

This comes after an expert panel of India’s central drug authority recommended granting permission for the restricted use of Bharat Biotech-developed indigenous COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin in an emergency situation, especially in the context of infection by mutant strains.

Prior to that, the panel had cleared the Serum Institute of India’s emergency use athorisation application for the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine Covishield.

Mass roll out of vaccine in coming days

Earlier on Saturday, while speaking to a news channel, AIIMS Chief Dr. Randeep Guleria had said that the mass rollout of COVID-19 vaccine is expected in the coming 10-14 days.

He also stressed on the importance of ensuring crowd management when the vaccination drive finally begins. “We also need to ensure that the vaccines are not getting wasted because of the cold storages. This is why the dry run helps,” News 18 quoted him as saying.

India perhaps the only country with 4 vaccines

Meanwhile, Union minister Prakash Javadekar said that India was probably the only country where four vaccines were in the pipeline– two vaccines in the coming days, while two more are in advance stages of development.

Asked about some religious figures raising doubts over vaccines, Javadekar said, ‘Our vaccine is effective’ and the rest of the world was also using it. He added that vaccines are introduced after tests and those that would be brought in would be safe.