The Indian government is accelerating its review of the Covid19 vaccines developed by Pfizer and Serum Institute of India for emergency use.
As per reports, Pfizer has applied for emergency use authorization of its Covid19 vaccine over the weekend in India.
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Meanwhile, the Serum Institute of India (SII) has also sought authorisation from the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) for emergency use of the Covid19 vaccine, which has been developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University.
Serum Institute of India’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Adar Poonawalla has said the company has made this move in the hope to ‘save countless lives’.
“As promised, before the end of 2020, Serum Institute of India has applied for emergency use authorisation for the first made-in-India vaccine, COVISHIELD. This will save countless lives, and I thank the Government of India and Sri NarendraModiji for their invaluable support,” Poonawalla tweeted.
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“We are in the process of reviewing. It is an accelerated reviewing process, which is there for Serum too. All applications are accelerated. It is the need of the hour,” a news agency report quoted an Indian government official as saying.
After India’s active COVID19 cases slipped below the 400,000 mark on Monday, the government said it was the country’s lowest tally since July 20 when 390,459 infections were reported.
India recorded 32,981 new Covid-19 infections in the last 24 hours, taking the country’s tally past 9.67 million, the Union health ministry’s data showed.
“India has reported a landmark achievement today. India’s total active Covid-19 caseload has fallen below four lakh mark today to 396,729,” the government said in a press release.
“This number translates to just 4.1% of total cases. This is the lowest after 140 days. The total active cases were 390,459 on July 20,” it said.