COVID-19: Vaccination process to start in India by this month - Read details here

AIIMS director Dr Randeep Guleria on Thursday (December 3) said that India we now have two-three coronavirus vaccines which are in their final trial stage. Dr Guleria expressed hope that by the end of December or early January we should get emergency use authorisation from Indian regulatory authorities to start giving COVID-19 vaccine to public.

According to Dr Guleria, the process of vaccinating the people will begin in the next two-three months after getting the required approvals from regulatory authorities.

"There is good data available that the vaccines are very safe. Safety & efficacy of vaccine not compromised at all. 70,000-80,000 volunteers given vaccine, no significant serious adverse effects seen. Data shows that in the short term vaccine is safe," said Dr Guleria.

Referring to a volunteer showing adverse reaction during trial stage of a vaccine, Dr Guleria said, "Chennai trial case is an incidental finding rather than related to vaccine. When we vaccinate a large number of people, some of them may have some other disease, which may not be related to vaccine."

"Now, we've seen a decline in current wave & I hope this will continue if we are able to have a good #COVID19 appropriate behaviour. We're close to having a big change related to a pandemic if we manage this behaviour for next 3 months," he added.

Dr Guleria made the statement just a day after the United Kingdom became the first country in the Western world to approve the use of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. The British government said that the vaccine will be rolled out for use from early next week.

"The government has today accepted the recommendation from the Independent Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to approve Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine for use," the government said, adding, "The vaccine will be made available across the UK from next week," reported Reuters.