India to roll out COVID-19 vaccine by January 13

COLOMBO (News1st): India's health ministry has said it is prepared to roll out the coronavirus vaccine by January 13, paving way for mass vaccination drive in the country. "We are prepared to roll out COVID-19 vaccines within 10 days of granting emergency use authorisation date, based on dry run feedback," said Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan at a press conference. The Oxford-AstraZeneca's Covishield manufactured by Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech's Covaxin has been approved for restricted emergency use in India. The vaccine will be first offered to 10 million healthcare workers, along with 20 million frontline and essential workers and 270 million elderly, mostly above the age of 50 years with co-morbidities. Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech said on Monday that its vaccine is efficient against the mutant strain of novel coronavirus found in the UK while announcing that its data would be made public within a week.