On December 10, 2020 Dr Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare virtually addressed the World Bank Inter Ministerial Meeting on Vaccination of South Asia against COVID-19.
Key Points from Union Minister’s Address:
i.Union Minister, Harsh Vardhan highlighted that India’s fatality rate is 1.45% which is below the global average of 2.29%.
ii.He highlighted the contributions of various research institutes of India towards developing a vaccine against COVID-19. The research institutes have lent their services in production, distribution & administration of vaccines.
iii.Out of 260 vaccine candidates at the Global Level, 8 vaccine candidates are set to be manufactured in India (including 3 indigenous ones).
iv.India has partnered with various international institutions like Oxford University (United Kingdom) & Thomas Jefferson University (United States of America) for vaccine research.
v.Vaccination process will start soon in India after approval from Drug Controller General of India (DCGI).
Digital Interventions:
Harsh Vardhan highlighted various digital interventions of India such as Mission Indradhanush immunization programs or the building of advanced CO-WIN digital platforms.
Note:
The 3 indigenous vaccine are – Covishield (developed by Serum Institute of India (SII)), Covaxin (developed by Bharat Biotech) & ZyCoV-D (Cadila Healthcare)
Recent Related News:
i.On August 11, 2020, the Central Government formulated an expert committee namely “National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration” under the chairmanship of Dr VK Paul to oversee the administration of COVID-19 vaccine in discussion with all state governments and vaccine manufacturers.
About Ministry of Health and Family Welfare:
Union Minister – Dr Harsh Vardhan
Minister of State – Ashwini Kumar Choubey
About World Bank:
President- David R. Malpass
Headquarters- Washington, D.C., United States
