Indian PM Modi visits 3 COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing facilities
New Delhi, India | THE INDEPENDENT & XINHUA | Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday visited three vaccine manufacturing facilities in the country to review the development and manufacturing process of COVID-19 vaccines.
The Serum Institute in Pune is developing a vaccine that will trigger immunity against COVID-19 in partnership with Oxford’s AstraZeneca. Ahmedabad’s Zydus Cadila Park is developing a vaccine by Zydus Cadila while the Bharat BioTech headquarters is developing a COVID-19 vaccine namely Covaxin.
The development of COVID-19 vaccines is still in progress and is at least four months away if international approvals are got.
Uganda on COVAX countries list
When it is ready, the COVID-19 vaccine will be distributed initially in India, before being given to developing countries, including Uganda, in an arrangement code named COVAX that is being driven by the World Health Organization (WHO), the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and vaccine alliance fund, GAVI.
Adar Poonawalla, CEO, Serum Institute of India told the press after Modi’s visit that “the vaccine will be distributed initially in India, then we will look at the COVAX countries which are mainly in Africa. The UK and European markets are being taken care of by AstraZeneca and Oxford. Our priority is India and COVAX countries.”
Prime Minister Modi was also encouraged by what he saw.
“Visited the Zydus Biotech Park in Ahmedabad to know more about the indigenous DNA based vaccine being developed by Zydus Cadila. I compliment the team behind this effort for their work,” Modi wrote on his social media platform after concluding the visit, saying that the government of India is actively working with them to support them further ramp up vaccine manufacturing.
The COVAX Advance Market Commitment
COVAX is one of three pillars of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, which was launched in April by the World Health Organization (WHO), the European Commission and France in response to this pandemic.
The 92 low and middle-income countries and economies approved by the GAVI Board will be able to access vaccines through the COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC), which will also cover at least part of the cost.
The COVAX AMC forms part of the COVAX Facility, a mechanism hosted by GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, designed to guarantee rapid, fair and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines for every country in the world.
Experts say COVAX is the only truly global solution to this pandemic because it is the only effort to ensure that people in all corners of the world will get access to COVID-19 vaccines once they are available, regardless of their wealth. (see WHO deployment plan at bottom)
This is the result of an extraordinary and unique global collaboration, with more than two-thirds of the world engaged – COVAX has the world’s largest and most diverse portfolio of COVID-19 vaccines, and as such represents the world’s best hope of bringing the acute phase of this pandemic to a swift end.
India leads the way
The Indian government has initiated a backend preparation for the largest immunization drive in the country, where five COVID-19 vaccine candidates are in advanced stages of development in India.
India’s Federal Health Minister Harsh Vardhan last month said the vaccine would likely be available in India by early next year.
On Saturday morning the federal health ministry said the number of COVID-19 cases in the country has reached 9,351,109 and the death toll has risen to 136,200.
India is in the grip of the ongoing pandemic and globally it is the second worst-hit country by COVID-19.
Uganda ready to test COVID-19 medicine
Meanwhile, President Yoweri Museveni on Sunday revealed that Uganda is close to developing COVID-19 treatments, with trials of the medicine set to start in the next two weeks.
“Our scientists have given me the good news that they have developed seven wonderful products, six of which are under trial, and one, an immune booster is already being used,” Museveni said.
In an address on COVID-19 and security from the Eastern city of Mbale, the President said the first three products are all anti-virals — killing the virus and limiting the damage of the virus to the body. “They have told me starting December 15, 2020, patients under strict medical supervision will have this medicine tried on them,” he said.
The scientists have promised that in 40 days they will be able to prove that the drug works against COVID-19 and other viruses.
The fourth exciting product is a bronchial dilator- a drug that will keep a patient’s lung airways open without the need to use the ventilators that cause damage to other body parts where they are inserted.
“Our scientists have also developed two diagnostic tests- one which uses saliva and can give results in 30 minutes. There is always opportunity in adversity,” he stated.
So far, Uganda has so lost 201 people to COVID-19, and has had 20,145 cases with 8,989 recoveries.
In comparison, India is one of the worst hit in the world. By Saturday, India had 9,430,724 cases and the death toll risen to 137,152. They have 8,844,751 recoveries.
The USA meanwhile has lost 266,000 people, with a record 13.3 million cases.
WHO vaccine deployment plan
WHO 2019 NCoV Vaccine Deployment 2020 by jadwongscribd on Scribd
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