PM Modi reviews coronavirus vaccine delivery plan, calls for speedy access to all

New Delhi, Oct 17: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday reviewed Covid-19 pandemic situation in the country, preparedness of vaccine delivery, distribution amd administration. The meeting was attended by Union Health Minister, Principal Secretary to PM, Member (Health) NITI Aayog and other Departments of Govt of India.

"In an effort to help the global community, the Prime Minister directed that we should not limit our efforts to our immediate neighbourhood but also reach out to the entire world in providing vaccines, medicines and IT platforms for vaccine delivery system," a statement from the prime minister's office said.

PM Modi further directed that keeping in view geographical span ad diversity of the country, the access to the vaccine should be ensured speedily. He also stressed that every step in logistics, delivery and administration should be put in place rigorously.

The Prime Minister pointed to India's conduct of national elections and disaster management programmes and suggested officials apply learnings from these to plan for vaccine distribution.

The meeting comes after the government's statement that it if a vaccine gets regulatory clearance, the country is likely to receive 400-500 million doses, and as many as 25 crore individuals could be vaccinated by July 2021.

Currently two indigenously developed vaccine candidates for Covid-19, one by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with ICMR and another one by Zydus Cadila Ltd, are undergoing phase 2 of human clinical trials.

Pune-based Serum Institute of India, which has partnered with AstraZeneca for manufacturing the Oxford Covid-19 vaccine is also conducting phase 2 and phase 3 human clinical trials in India.