The Moderna vaccine has been granted emergency drug use authorization by the Drugs Controller General of India, the head of the regulatory body for pharmaceuticals in the country.
Officials at the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the NITI Aayog revealed on Tuesday that Moderna is the first internationally developed vaccine that has been granted special permission to be imported to India. Mumbai based pharma giant Cipla will be heading the import procedure for the Moderna vaccine, which is said to be 90% effective against the virus.
“We received an application for Moderna, and Cipla has been granted the permission to import it. The vaccine has been given permission for restricted use, and this has opened up the possibility of the vaccine being imported to India soon,” Dr VK Paul, Head of the National Covid-19 task force and NITI Aayog Health Committee member, added.
However, the official did not reveal if the vaccine would be available on a commercial basis or is being provided as a charitable cause by the United States of America. “A big licensure has been granted and it has opened up pathways for import for either of the mediums. Let us wait and see how it is used,” Dr Paul added.
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Moderna, also an mRNA vaccine, will be the fourth vaccine available to the citizens of India, after Covaxin, Covishield, and Sputnik V. The health officials also added that the government is currently engaged in discussions with Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson for the import procedures of their vaccines.
As of Tuesday, over 33 crore jabs have been administered across the nation, and over 5 crore citizens have been fully vaccinated against the virus. Of the total, males have received 17.48 crore doses and females have received 14.99 crore doses. Over 54,000 doses have been provided to members of the non-binary gender.
“We would like to see an increased number of women at the vaccination booths so that we can correct this skew in vaccination,” Dr Paul said while adding that the vaccine is safe for lactating and pregnant women.
The officials also informed that of the total doses administered between May 1-June 24, 9.72 crore jabs have been given in rural areas (56%), while 7.68 crore jabs have been given in the urban areas (44%).
Dr Lav Agarwal further detailed the number of jabs given to members of different age groups. While those aged between 18-44 years have been provided 59.7 crore doses, those between 45-49 have been provided 20.9 crore doses. Those aged 60 years and above, and are considered to be the most vulnerable to Covid, have been provided 13.8 crore doses.
However, 49% of those aged above 60 have been given the first dose of the vaccine.
On June 29, India registered 37,566 fresh infections. This marks a 91% decline in daily cases since the highest reported peak on May 7. Only 111 districts are now reporting more than 100 daily cases. These regions lie in the peninsular areas of India- Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, and West Bengal.
The recovery rate has risen to 96.9%, and only 5.52 lakh active cases remain in hospitals and under home isolation. The nation conducted 18 lakhs tests on average every day last week. The weekly positivity between June 21-27 was 3.2%.