New Delhi, Jan 3: DCGI chief Dr Venugopal G Somani on Sunday said that the two COVID vaccines that have been approved for the emergency use are ‘hundred and ten per cent’ safe.
‘Vaccines of M/s Serum and M/s Bharat Biotech are being approved for restricted use in emergency situation and permission is being granted to M/s Cadila Healthcare for conduct of the Phase III clinical trial. These vaccines have to be administered in two doses, and all the three vaccines have to be stored at 2 to 8 degrees C,” Dr Somani said.

While talking to reporters here, The Drugs Controller General of India, said that if there is any safety related concern regarding a vaccine, it will never be approved in the first place.
He said that the side effectes of this vaccine are similar to as of the other vaccines, and light fever, little pain, and some allergy due to this is normal.
DCGI has completely quashed the rumours regarding COVID vaccine causing impotency and said that such being said was complete nonsense.
Meanwhile, dry run of the COVID-19 vaccination drive began on Saturday morning across 125 districts, 285 places across the nation to identify the problems and other aspects related to the vaccination campaign.
Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Saturday informed that the vaccine for novel coronavirus will be administered free of cost to all across the country.
“Not only in Delhi, the vaccine will be free of cost across India”, the Health Minister said while speaking to media after reviewing the dry vaccination run at the Guru Teg Bahadur (GTB) hospital here.

New Delhi, Jan 3: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday congratulated the nation after approval to vaccines of Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech, saying it as decisive turning point to strengthen a spirited fight against Corona.

In a series of tweets, Mr Modi also expressed gratitude towards corona warriors just minutes after the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) granting approval to the emergency use of Bharat Biotech’s indigenously manufactured Corona vaccine ‘Covaxin’ and ‘Covishield’ manufactured by Serum Institute of India, Pune.

‘A decisive turning point to strengthen a spirited fight! DCGI granting approval to vaccines of @SerumInstIndia and @BharatBiotech accelerates the road to a healthier and COVID-free nation. Congratulations India. Congratulations to our hardworking scientists and innovators,’ read one of his tweets.

‘It would make every Indian proud that the two vaccines that have been given emergency use approval are made in India! This shows the eagerness of our scientific community to fulfil the dream of an Aatmanirbhar Bharat, at the root of which is care and compassion,’ he said in another tweet.

‘We reiterate our gratitude to doctors, medical staff, scientists, police personnel, sanitation workers and all Corona warriors for the outstanding work done, that too in adverse circumstances. We will remain eternally grateful to them for saving many lives,’ he said.

Eleven months after the first case of the coronavirus pandemic was detected in the country, DCGI chief V.G. Somani on Sunday approved the new vaccines.

New Delhi, Jan 3: World Health Organization South-East Asia Region’s Regional Director Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh on Sunday said that the global health body has welcomed India’s decision to give emergency use authorization to COVID-19 vaccines.

“WHO welcomes the first emergency use authorization given to COVID-19 vaccine in the WHO-South East Asia region”, Dr Singh said.

Hailing India’s decision, she further said that it will help intensify and strenghthen the fight against COVID-19 pandemic in the region.

“The use of vaccine in prioritized populations, along with continued implementation of other public health measures and community participation, will be important in reducing impact of COVID-19”, Dr Singh averred.

The country’s drug regulator, earlier in the day, approved the emergency use of Bharat Biotech’s indigenously manufactured Corona vaccine ‘Covaxin’ and ‘Covishield’ manufactured by Serum Institute of India, Pune.

New Delhi, Jan 3: India’s drugs regulator has approved Oxford COVID-19 vaccine Covishield, manufactured by the Serum Institute, and indigenously developed Covaxin of Bharat Biotech for restricted emergency use in the country. This paves the way for the roll out of at least two vaccines in India in the coming days.
The overall efficacy of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine was 70.4 2 per cent while Bharat Biotech’s COVAXIN was “safe and provides a robust immune response”, Drugs Controller General of India VG Somani said.
The approval came a day after India rehearsed for a massive coronavirus vaccination drive with an inoculation dry run held across states and Union Territories on Saturday.
Healthcare workers: Public and private

The vaccine will first be given to around one crore healthcare workers working in both government and private hospitals, according to the recommendation by the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19 (NEGVAC).

These healthcare workers have further been divided into sub-categories – frontline health and Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) workers, nurses and supervisors, medical officers, paramedical staff, support staff and students.

The data for the same has been collected from the government and private health facilities and is being fed into CoWIN, a digital platform to roll out and scale up the vaccination drive.

Frontline and municipal workers
Around two crore frontline workers associated with the state and central Police department, armed forces, home guard, disaster management and civil defense organisation, prison staff, municipal workers and revenue officials engaged in COVID-19 containment, surveillance and associated activities are next in line to get the vaccine.

Workers associated with state government and ministries of defense, home, housing and urban affairs will also be inoculated in this phase.

Population above 50 years of age

This group is divided into two sub-categories: Above 60 and 50-60 years of age.

The latest electoral roll for Lok Sabha and Legislative Assembly elections will be used to identify the population under this category for the vaccination drive.

Areas with high COVID-19 infection

States and Union Territories will have the generic flexibility to do priority phasing of the rollout for the identified priority groups (as decided by the NEGVAC) in identified geographical areas where the COVID-19 infection prevalence is high.

Remaining population
The remaining population will be inoculated after the people in priority list are covered. The vaccination here will depend on the disease epidemiology and vaccine availability. To avoid overcrowding at vaccination session site, the vaccine will be given to the beneficiaries in a staggered manner.

How can you register for the vaccine?
Self-registration module will be made available in the later phases of the implementation.

Self-register on the CoWIN Website
Upload government photo identity or do an AADHAAR authentication. The authentication can happen via biometrics, OTP or demographic.
Once registered, a date and time will be allocated for vaccination
There will be no on the spot registration and only pre-registered beneficiaries will be allowed to proceed for the vaccination.
Respective district administration will be responsible for the session management in the CoWIN system. They will approve the beneficiaries for session and site allocation. CoWIN will have an inbuilt monitoring and reporting mechanism.
Vaccine sites have been allocated for different priority groups:

Fixed session site

Vaccination conducted at the health facilities – both government and private – where either a medical officer or a doctor is available is defined as a fixed session site.

Outreach session site

Sites other than health facilities such as schools, community halls etc.
This is for remote, hard-to-reach areas, migratory populations areas and international borders areas. District administrations need to plan these teams as part of the operational plan.

What will the vaccination process entail?
There will be three demarcated rooms and areas for the vaccination process: Waiting room – where one will wait before the vaccine is administered; vaccination room – where the vaccine will be administered and observation room where the beneficiary will be observed for 30 minutes post receiving the vaccine.

Who will give the vaccine?
A five-member vaccination team will be entrusted with the process:
Vaccination officer 1: For pre checking the registration
Vaccination officer 2: For authentication
Vaccination officer 3: In-charge of giving vaccine. Since it is an intramuscular vaccine, a trained professional will administer the vaccine.
Vaccination officer 4 and 5: In-charge of crowd management and 30-minute observation.

New Delhi, Jan 3: The Serum Institute of India, the world’s biggest manufacturer of vaccines, has said it is making between 50 and 60 million doses a month of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine, which is cheaper than the Pfizer-BioNTech jab and easier to store and transport. India has set an ambitious target of inoculating 300 million of its 1.3 billion people by mid-2021.
The institute said that it will sell Oxford vaccine to government at Rs 200/ and to public at Rs 1000.
Countries around the globe are hoping that the roll-out of vaccines will bring under control a pandemic which has infected 84.6 million people and killed more than 1.8 million since it first emerged in China just over a year ago. (Agencies)

New Delhi, Jan 3: Bharat Biotech’s coronavirus vaccine, which is still undergoing clinical trial, is likely to be the “back-up” vaccine in the coming days, Dr Randeep Guleria, the chief of Delhi’s All-India Institute of Medical Sciences said Sunday as two vaccines got emergency approval from the country’s drug regulator.

“I feel that in the coming days it is the Serum Institute vaccine that will be the main vaccine, Bharat Biotech only a backup for emergency use in case of reinfection,” Dr Randeep Guleria told NDTV in an interview.

“By that their time they will get their dosage ready and by the time they will get the data which will be able to show that the phase 3 data is robust and they have enough events to show that it is efficacious and it is safe, we will be able to have that vaccine available. But the first few weeks, it will be the serum institute vaccine which will be rolled out. It has 50 million doses available,” Dr Guleria said.

The health ministry said the expert committee appointed by the government has reviewed all data on its “safety and immunogenicity” and gave permission for “restricted use in emergency situation in public interest”.

The idea was to have “more options for vaccinations, especially in case of infection by mutant strains,” the ministry said, adding that the clinical trials of the vaccine will continue.

Covaxin, the clinical trial of which is being conducted in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research, has completed its Phase I and Phase II trials.

While announcing that the vaccine is being given “restricted” approval, Drug Controller General VG Somani said the results showed it is “safe and provides a robust immune response”.

The Phase III trial is on and 22,500 of the 25,800 participants have been vaccinated,” he added.

New Delhi, Dec 3: Hailing the efforts of Indian scientists for Covid Vaccine, the Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday said that the approval given by the Drug Controller General of India to Indian vaccines will prove to be a game changer in boosting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat.’
Taking to twitter, he said “A momentous achievement for India! DCGI has granted approval to COVID vaccines of @SerumInstIndia and @BharatBiotech. I salute our very talented and hardworking scientists for making India proud. Congratulations to PM @narendramodiji for striving towards a COVID free India”.
Thanking scientists, doctors, medical staff, security personnel and all Corona warriors who dedicatedly served humanity during these testing times, Mr Shah further said that visionary leadership can make a huge difference while time and again, we have seen a New India eager to innovate and help the humanity during crisis.
Nation will always remain grateful to them for their selfless service towards mankind.
The DCGI on Sunday gave its approval to two Covid 19 vaccines by the Serum Institutes of India and Bharat Biotech.

Srinagar, Jan 3: The summer capital, Srinagar and other parts of Kashmir valley received fresh snowfall on Sunday though the night temperature witnessed major improvement and settled above normal.
Meanwhile, the valley has been cut off from rest of the country as the air and road connectivity has been snapped in view of light to moderate snowfall since late Saturday night.
Even though there was an improvement of about 4 degree in the night temperature, the border town of Kargil in the Union Territory of Ladakh was the coldest place in the region, followed by Leh, where the mercury plunged about 3 degree and settled at minus 12 degree. All the waterbodies in Ladakh remained frozen as the maximum and minimum temperature in the UT has been settling several degrees below sub-zero. The maximum temperature recorded in Kargil and Leh was minus 6.1 degree and minus 4.5 degree, respectively.
A Met department spokesperson told UNI a fresh Western Disturbance (WD), which originated from the Arabian Sea and approached the region through Afghanistan and Pakistan, hit the region on Saturday night.
He said under the influence of the WD, light to moderate rain and snow is expected at most places in Kashmir and Zojila area of Ladakh for three days from Sunday. “Weather is expected to improve from Thursday onwards,” he added.
He said a weather warning has been issued for Tuesday, when heavy rain and snow could occur at some places in the Valley.
An official said many flights were on Sunday cancelled while others were delayed due to accumulation of several inches of snow on the runway at Srinagar International Airport. “Flights will be allowed to operate from the only airport in the valley after clearance of snow and improvement in visibility,” he added.
Meanwhile, much to the delight of the tourists, Gulmarg, about 55 km from here in north Kashmir, received about 5 inches of fresh snowfall. Kongdori and Apharwat, the highest point of the cable car project in Gulmarg, also received moderate snowfall. “Despite chilly weather conditions and fresh snowfall, the tourists are out on ski slopes, which are already covered under several feet of snow, enjoying different activities,” a hotelier told UNI over the phone.
The mercury at Gulmarg, which is known for its ski slopes and quality of snow, improved over 2 degrees from Saturday and settled at minus 5 degree, about 2 degree above normal.
Tree and roof tops, electric poles and transmission wire besides open fields and roads had turned white as people woke up in Srinagar, which received heaviest snowfall of the winter so far since early this morning. The night temperature in the city improved over 4 degrees from Saturday due to overcast conditions and settled at minus 1.5 degree, which is slightly above normal.
Police in several districts of the valley have issued emergency helpline numbers to help general public in view of snowfall.