National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19 chaired by Dr V K Paul met for the first time

The National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for COVID 19 met for the first time on August 13 to discuss regarding the delivery of vaccines in the country. They mainly discussed the conceptualization and implementation mechanisms for the creation of a digital infrastructure for inventory management and delivery mechanism for the vaccine.

Details of the Meeting

The expert group meeting was chaired by Dr VK Paul, the member of NITI Ayog along with the Secretary of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare as the co-chairman of the meeting. The main idea of the meeting was that there should be proper management of COVID 19 treatment process in the country. The last-mile delivery of any kind of vaccine would be the main challenge in the country and that should be prepared for in advance.

The group discussed broad parameters for selection of the COVID 19 vaccine candidates for the country and also sought inputs from the Standing Technical Sub-Committee of National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization. (NTAGI)

NTAGI

It is an advisory committee consisting of multi-disciplinary groups of experts responsible for providing information to the national government that is used to make informed decisions regarding vaccination and immunization programs. This is present in almost all the WHO member countries of the world.

COVID 19 Vaccine Scenario

AstraZeneca is a British multinational pharma major has started its trial for COVID 19 vaccine in the US and it has partnered with IQVIA to do this. CanSino Biologics in China has developed Ad5-nCoV, the first-ever vaccine for the deadly COVID 19 virus developed by China. This is going to complete all the trials by January 2021. Apart from that, Moderna has announced the development of m-RNA 1273 against COVID 19 and the US government has already placed an order for this. The USA is funding three vaccine candidates as of now under its Operation Warp Seed – Moderna, The University of Oxford and AstraZeneca one.

Russia has, in the meantime, registered the first COVID 19 vaccine on August 12, named as Sputnik V.

Month: Current Affairs - August, 2020