THD News Desk, NEW DELHI: On 16th September, Minister of State for Home Affairs, Nityanand Rai proudly announced that more than 30 candidates for COVID-19 vaccine have been approved by the government. The vaccines are still in their initial stages of development but soon enough there would be a portfolio of options to choose from.
The Union Minister said in the Rajya Sabha session that 13 clinical trials of repurposed drugs have been sanctioned till now, as reported by the Press Trust of India.
“More than 30 vaccine candidates have been supported which are in different stages of development, 3 candidates are in an advanced stage of Phase I, II, III trials and more than 4 are in the advanced pre-clinical development stage,” he said.
Apart from that, a national expert group on vaccine administration for coronavirus was also established under the NITI Aayog on 7th August, said, Rai.
Earlier this week, Dr Harsh Vardhan, Minister of Family and Health Welfare had declared on a social media interaction programme that India will have its first Covid vaccine by the first quarter of 2021. The number of confirmed infections in the country has crossed the 5 million mark making India the second country with the largest coronavirus caseload after the US. Experts worried about the alarming hike in cases have warned that if the situation is not controlled now, India would have to face an Italy-like scenario. The prospect of having an effective vaccine shortly has rekindled the hope of government.
