US vaccine manufacturing Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine has been issued restricted emergency use in India. India will now have four vaccines to be used in its vaccination drive with Moderna being the fourth to be authorised, said Covid Task Force Chief VK Paul on Tuesday.
He also said that the government will close the deal with Pfizer.
“There are four vaccines now Covaxin, Covishield, SputnikV and Moderna. We will soon close the deal on Pfizer as well,” said Paul in a press conference.
Moderna has developed its Covid-19 vaccine mRNA-1273 with partnering with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) in US. The vaccine is being sold under the brand tag of ‘Spikevax’.
As per the World Health Organisation (WHO) the mRNA-1273 vaccine has an efficacy of 94.1% against Covid-19, beginning after 14 days of the first dose.
The health agency also said the new variants of SARS-CoV-2, including the B.1.1.7 and the 501Y.V2 also do not alter the efficacy of the vaccine.
Mumbai-based pharmaceutical company Cipla had earlier filed a request with DCGI to import this Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine in India.
The official data of the Union Health Ministry suggest that more than 33 crore Covid-19 vaccines doses have been administered in the nationwide vaccination drive by Tuesday after.
In June average 40 lakh doses were administered every single day.
Among the 33 crore doses 17.48 crore doses were administered to males and 14.99 to females.
