Decision on Covaxin's clearance next: WHO

This comes almost a week after WHO delayed the emergency use authorisation (EUA) for Covaxin as the global body sent more technical queries to its manufacturer- pharmaceutical major Bharat Biotech.

"WHO & an independent group of experts are scheduled to meet next week to carry out the risk/benefit assessment and come to a final decision whether to grant Emergency Use Listing to Covaxin," WHO tweeted on Tuesday evening.

Bharat Biotech "has been submitting data to the WHO on a rolling basis and submitted additional info at WHO's request on 27 September", another tweet read.

"WHO experts are currently reviewing this info and if it addresses all questions raised, the WHO assessment will be finalised next week."

Without an EUA, Covaxin will not be considered an accepted vaccine by most countries to allow entry to such vaccinated students.

Serum Institute's Covishield is the only Indian-made vaccine to find a place in the list of approved ones globally for now.

India is also among the 33 countries from where fully vaccinated travellers will be allowed to enter the United States from November.

So far, only seven vaccines have been approved for use by the WHO including Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech, Johnson & Johnson, Oxford-AstraZeneca, Covishield (an Oxford-AstraZeneca formulation) and China's Sinopharm and Sinovac.