India has granted emergency approval to both the Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine and the domestically developed Covaxin, signalling the start of one of the largest Covid-19 immunisation drives in the world.

At a press conference on Sunday, the drugs controller general of India said the decision to approve both the Oxford vaccine and Covaxin, which is produced by the Indian company Bharat Biotech and was part-funded by the government, had come after “careful examination” of the data.

It makes India the second country to approve emergency use of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, known as Covishield in India, after the UK gave it the green light on Wednesday.

The approval comes at a crucial time. India, a country of more than 1.3 billion people, has registered more than 10.3m cases of Covid-19, the second highest in the world, and 149,000 deaths. On Sunday, the prime minister, Narendra Modi, called the approval “a decisive turning point”.

India plans to vaccinate 300 million people in its first stage of vaccinations, with priority given to 30 million frontline healthcare workers, police and members of the armed forces. The vaccine will then be given to those above the age of 50 and people suffering from co-morbidity illnesses. The vaccine will be given free of charge.

However, the approval of Covaxin was met with some concern as the vaccine is still undergoing phase 3 clinical trials and the full results of the vaccine’s efficacy have not been published.

All India Drug Action Network, a public health group, said it was “baffled” by the decision to approve a vaccine still in trials. The government had previously promised that Covaxin, which was produced in conjunction with a government-run body, the Indian Council of Medical Research, would be ready for distribution by August 2020.

indianexpress