India Going to Have 3-4 Vaccines in Weeks to Come, People Will Have Options to Choose, Says AIIMS Director

Vaccination Drive In India: At a time when the Central government is starting the next phase of vaccination drive from March 1, All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) director Dr Randeep Guleria on Saturday said that India is going to have 3-4 vaccines in some weeks. He also added that the people in the country will after some weeks have a choice of three or four coronavirus vaccines, and pick which one to take.

Speaking exclusively to NDTV, Dr Guleria stated that India will not have all of the vaccines available together in one centre but one centre will be giving only one vaccine at a time.  However, he added that one centre in one area may have more than one vaccine option in different private hospitals and therefore it may indirectly give people some choice because they would know which vaccine is being given at which centre. He aso made it clear that people can’t go to a centre and ask for one vaccine or the other.

With the cases of coronavirus are rapidly increasing in five states, the AIIMS director said that India needed to urgently ramp up vaccination drive across the country.

He said that if you look at the number of people have vaccinated, it’s large but if you look at it on a percentage basis, it’s very low because of the population of the country and therefore all have to look at a strategy where the vaccination drive can increase exponentially.

One very interesting fact he said was that if vaccinate can be done to a large number of people, we will not only be able to bring down the cases but in those who are most susceptible, bring down the hospitalisation and death rate.

The statement from the AIIMS director comes on a day when the Centre capped at the price of vaccine at Rs 250 per shot at private hospitals and announced that it will be free in all government hospitals and centres when the campaign expands on Monday to cover those over 60 and those over 45 with illnesses.

Notably, the vaccination rive that started on January 16 has progressed slower than expected due to a reluctance of health and front-line workers to take the home-grown COVAXIN shot that was approved without late-stage efficacy data. However, only 11 per cent of vaccinated people have opted for the product developed by Bharat Biotech and the state-run Indian Council of Medical Research.