COVID-19 vaccine update: Centre discusses distribution plans for Coronavirus vaccine

Central government officials, including the Principal Secretary to Prime Minister PK Mishra, had discussed various plans regarding the distribution of the Coronavirus vaccine across the country on Saturday.

Central government officials, including the Principal Secretary to Prime Minister PK Mishra, had discussed various plans regarding the distribution of the Coronavirus vaccine across the country on Saturday. According to a report by The Indian Express, a high-level government meeting was chaired where top government officials (Cabinet Secretary, Principal Scientific Adviser, Empowered Action Group Convenors and department secretaries) deliberated on having an effective COVID-19 vaccine distribution system. Stages of vaccine development along with the necessity of district health action plans were also discussed, apart from the overall Coronavirus strategy of the country, the report said,

According to the report, Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan discussed the current status of eVIN Platform which helps to monitor the vaccine supply chain, the delivery system of Coronavirus vaccines once their availability is confirmed and a beneficiary enrolment system. He also talked about the status of states regarding their case trajectory, testing numbers as well as the case fatality rate.

Last month, a similar meeting took place where it was noted that there will be two panels looking at vaccines in India. The first panel was expected to check the manufacturing of Coronavirus vaccines in the country along with making a note on phase-wise clinical trials of vaccines. This is expected to push for faster manufacturing of Coronavirus vaccines in India. Another panel will be looking at vaccine administration. The main responsibility of this panel was set to look after the stockpiling of all vaccines in India whenever they will be ready for distribution. The second group will also work on the cold chain as well as the quantum of vaccines.

Meanwhile, in India, there are three vaccines that are currently under the second phase of human clinical trials. These include Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin, Zydus Cadila’s ZyCov-D, and Oxford’s Covishield.