The Union health ministry has quashed rumours around the administration of COVID-19 vaccine as and when it is rolled out
Bengaluru: The Union health ministry has quashed rumours around the administration of COVID-19 vaccine as and when it is rolled out.
It reiterated that the vaccine would be given to all without any bias or any sort.
Adding to it, a popular website referred to Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan in refutation of the rumours that the vaccine administration would be prioritised for the population living in metropolitan cities before disembarking to Tier II and further categories of towns.
He added, "The government does not discriminate between metro and non-metro cities/towns or the need of vaccine administration on the basis of geographical location. We would provide the vaccine to all priority groups first, irrespective of region or location.”
"Whenever regulatory approvals for vaccine administration are provided, we have a plan which would ensure that the vaccine reaches all priority population groups irrespective of the region they reside in," Bhushan further added.
On the issue of vaccine production, he also stated that the government is in touch with all vaccine manufacturers, including foreign manufacturers, after US-based pharma company Pfizer Inc reported 90 per cent effectiveness of its vaccine candidate.
It can be recalled that Pfizer Inc and German biotech company BioNTech had announced that their mRNA-based Covid vaccine candidate, BNT162b2, demonstrated efficacy of 90 per cent in preventing Covid-19 in participants without evidence of prior SARS-CoV-2 infection in the first interim efficacy analysis.
"The national expert group on Covid vaccine administration is in dialogue with all the vaccine manufacturers, including domestic and foreign manufacturers. We look at the status of development of their vaccines and also at regulatory approvals where they have progressed," the website quoted Bhushan as saying.
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