Expert committee on Covid-19 vaccine administration to meet on Wednesday

An expert committee under the chairmanship of NITI Aayog member Dr VK Paul will meet on Wednesday to consider the logistics and ethical aspects of procuring and administering the Covid-19 vaccine, the Union Health Ministry said on Tuesday.

The committee on vaccine administration will engage with all the stakeholders including state governments and vaccine manufacturers, the ministry said in a tweet.

The committee would chalk out strategies on the aspects of prioritisation of the vaccine administration once it is developed, rollout, and cold chain logistics and training of the people who would be administering it.

"The Expert Committee on Vaccine Administration under the chairmanship of Dr. V K Paul, NITI Aayog will meet on 12th August to consider logistics & ethical aspects of procurement & administration of Covid-19 vaccine," the ministry tweeted.

The phase-1 human clinical trials of the two Covid-19 vaccine candidates, developed indigenously by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research and Zydus Cadila Ltd, have been completed and the trials have moved to phase 2, ICMR Director General Balram Bhargava said last Tuesday.

The Serum Institute of India, Pune has also been permitted for conducting Phase 2 and 3 human clinical trials of the Oxford University-developed Covid-19 vaccine candidate in the country.

India's Covid-19 caseload has climbed to 22,68,675 while the death-toll mounted to 45,257, according to the Health ministry data updated at 8 am on Tuesday.