Two more India-made vaccine candidates, one by Zydus Cadila and the other by Biological E, are proving to be quite successful in the last stage trials and are likely to be made available for use by September, Dr. Narendra Kumar Arora, Chairman of COVID-19 Working Group of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (NTAGI), said on Friday.
“We are soon going to have the world’s first DNA-plasmid vaccine by Zydus Cadila which has been Made in India. The other vaccine that we can expect soon is Biological E – a protein sub-unit vaccine,” Dr Arora said.
“The trials of these vaccines have been quite encouraging. We are hopeful that these vaccines will be available by September,’’ Dr Arora said in an interview to the Department of Science and Technology’s OTT – India Science Channel.
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The Indian m-RNA vaccine which can be stored at temperature 2 – 8 Degree Celsius should also be available by September. Two other vaccines namely Novavax by Serum Institute of India and Johnson & Johnson may also be expected soon, he added.
“By the third week of July, the production capacities of Bharat Biotech and Serum Institute of India are going to be increased phenomenally to produce more Covaxin and Covishield vaccines. This will enhance the vaccine supply in the country. By August, we expect to procure 30-35 crore doses in a month,” Dr Arora said.
This will enable us to vaccinate one crore persons in a day, he added.
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Asked to explain the concept of efficacy of vaccines. The chairperson said, “When we say a certain vaccine is 80% effective, it means that vaccine reduces the chances of COVID-19 disease by 80%.”
There is a difference between infection and disease. If a person has contracted COVID infection but is asymptomatic, this person only has an infection.
However, if the person has symptoms due to the infection, this person has COVID disease. All vaccines in the world prevent COVID disease. There is very little chance of severe disease after vaccination while the chances of death after vaccination are negligible. If the efficacy of a vaccine is 80%, then 20% of the vaccinated people may contract mild COVID.
The vaccines available in India are capable of reducing the spread of coronavirus. If 60%-70% people are vaccinated, the spread of the virus will be checked.
