NEW DELHI, Jun 27 (NNN-PTI) – Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, yesterday chaired a review meeting of the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination drive in the country.
Senior officials of concerned ministries attended the meeting, which was held at a time when 50 cases of the COVID-19 Delta Plus variant have been reported in the country.
The highly transmissible Delta Plus variant was first detected in three states – Madhya Pradesh, Kerala and Maharashtra earlier this week, and in the following days, it has been detected in Punjab, Indian-controlled Kashmir, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan.
India’s federal government said on Thursday that, distribution of COVID-19 vaccines was being done in a transparent manner, based on the population, caseload, utilisation efficiency and wastage factors of a state.
The federal health ministry said, the country’s national COVID-19 vaccination programme was built on scientific and epidemiological evidence, World Health Organisation guidelines and global best practices.
The vaccination programme against COVID-19 started in India on Jan 16, by administering two made-in-India vaccines – Covishield and Covaxin.
Serum Institute of India (SII) is manufacturing AstraZeneca-Oxford University’s Covishield, while Bharat Biotech partnered with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) in manufacturing Covaxin.
Of late Russian COVID-19 vaccine, Sputnik V was also rolled out in the country.
As per the health ministry, so far, over 315 million doses have been administered.– NNN-PTI
