New Delhi: An expert committee headed by NITI Aayog member VK Paul will meet today to consider the logistics and ethical aspects of procuring and administering the Covid-19 vaccine.
This comes a day after Russia claimed that it has developed the world’s first covid vaccine offering ‘sustainable immunity’ against the coronavirus. Russia’s Health Ministry however said though clinical trials were not yet complete and final stage testing involving more than 2,000 people was to start today.
In a tweet on Tuesday, the Health Ministry said the committee on vaccine administration will engage with all the stakeholders including state governments and vaccine manufacturers.
The committee would chalk out strategies on the aspects of prioritisation of the vaccine administration once it is developed, rollout and cold chain logistics and training of the people who would be administering it.
“The Expert Committee on Vaccine Administration under the chairmanship of Dr V K Paul, NITI Aayog will meet on 12th August to consider logistics & ethical aspects of procurement & administration of Covid-19 vaccine,” the tweet said.
The phase-1 human clinical trials of the two Covid-19 vaccine candidates, developed indigenously by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research and Zydus Cadila Ltd, have been completed and the trials have moved to phase 2, ICMR Director General Balram Bhargava said last Tuesday.
The Serum Institute of India, Pune has also been permitted for conducting Phase 2 and 3 human clinical trials of the Oxford University-developed COVID-19 vaccine candidate in the country.