India Working On 7 More Vaccines

Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan has earlier stated that India is developing seven more effective COVID-19 vaccines, besides working on further vaccine development. However, he clarified that the government is not planning to make the vaccines available to the public immediately.

While the vaccines may take time to come into the market, the decision on it is negotiable with the situational demands. Union Health Minister further added that the third phase of vaccination for citizens who are above the age of 50 years and those who are younger but with serious co-morbidities is likely to begin in March.

“Our country is not reliant on only the two vaccines as we are striving hard to create seven more indigenous vaccines. Parallel to that, India is also working on the development of more vaccines, keeping in mind that India is a huge country,” Harsh Vardhan stated. Among these upcoming seven vaccines, three of them are in the trial phase, two are in the pre-clinical stage, one is in phase 1 and another in phase 2. 

So far,  nearly 58 lakh healthcare and frontline workers were given vaccinations against COVID-19 in the country and thus, making India as the third country in the world with the highest doses of vaccination.