As Russia rolled out its first coronavirus vaccine on Tuesday, a panel of top Indian health experts is scheduled to meet on Wednesday to chart out guidelines on who should get the first injections and how to ensure adequate stocks of the vaccines.
The National Expert Group of Vaccine Administration, chaired by V K Paul, member of Niti Ayog, is scheduled to deliberate upon suitable vaccines for India and how to procure them and ensure logistics for making it available throughout the country.
“The terms of reference of the expert group include selecting a suitable vaccine, its delivery, prioritising groups that should receive it,” Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan told reporters here.
He said the expert group has also been mandated to identify financial resources for procurement of the vaccine, issues related to equity of access and logistics such as cold chain and related matters.
The expert group will hold discussions with state governments and vaccine manufacturers in this regard, Bhushan said.
All over the world, experts are battling the dilemma of “equitable, fair and transparent” methods to allocate vaccines. Expert panels have been set up to decide on whether healthcare workers or most vulnerable populations should get the first shot at vaccination.
Bhushan said the better clinical management of Covid-19 patients has resulted in an increase in the recovery rate to nearly 70% and a fall in the case fatality rate below 2%.
“The case fatality rate (CFR) currently stands at 1.99%,” he said. The CFR was more than 3% in June.
In India, two vaccine candidates, developed indigenously by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research and Zydus Cadila Ltd, have been phase I trials and have moved to phase II, ICMR Director General Balram Bhargava said last week.
The Oxford vaccine, expected to be manufactured by Serum Institute of India, has received approvals for Phase II and III trials.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has launched a Covid-19 vaccine, touted as the world's first such vaccine with one of his two daughters receiving the first dose.