New Delhi: In India, the war against the corona virus through vaccination continues. At present, the vaccination campaign with two vaccines – Covishield and Covaxin – is going on at a fast pace. India is being hailed all over the world because of the way India has helped the neighboring and poor countries by providing them the corona vaccines during the crisis period. However, the world will be stunned once again as seven more new vaccines are currently being worked out in India.
Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Saturday said that the country is developing seven more COVID-19 vaccines and also working on further vaccine development to inoculate every citizen of India.
He said the Centre does not have any immediate plan to make the vaccines available in the open market and a decision will be taken as the situation demands. The COVID-19 inoculation process for people aged above 50 will start in March.
“We are not dependent only on the two vaccines as the country is working on seven more indigenous vaccines. Simultaneously, we are also working on the development of more vaccines because India is a huge country and we need more players and research to reach out to everyone,” he said.
Three of the vaccines are in the trial phase, two are in the pre-clinical stage, one is in phase 1 and another in phase 2, the Union health minister said.
“The Covid-19 inoculation process for people above 50 years of age will start next month,” he said.
“Presently, Covid-19 vaccines are being administered on an emergency basis, under full observation and in a controlled manner. If the vaccines are released in the open market, there won’t be any control over them. The decision will be taken as the situation demands,” he added.
The Union Health Ministry also said that more than 56 lakh people have been vaccinated against COVID-19 so far in the country and no cases of serious adverse effects or deaths have occurred after vaccination. Dr. Manohar Agnani, Joint Secretary said that so far a total of 5636868 people have been vaccinated, of which 5266175 are health workers and 370693 are Front line workers.