Covid vaccines to rollout within 10 days from date of authorisation: Centre

Two Covid-19 vaccine candidates-Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech's Covaxin and the Serum Institute of India's Covishield-on Sunday received the approval of the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) for emergency use in India.

The announcement by the Centre came as a relief amid growing fears over the spread of the mutant strain of coronavirus, that was first detected in the UK and is up to 70 per cent more infectious.

So far, 58 people have tested positive for the new strain, the Union Health Ministry informed earlier in this morning with 20 new cases. 

"Today, all vaccines are working. None of the mutations has challenged the vaccines," the health ministry said, adding, "We have not seen any emergence of untoward clusters. So far, so good."

Overall, the daily positivity rate of Covid-19 is declining and has been less than 3 per cent from Dec 23, 2020 to Jan 5, 2021.

"Only 43.96% of the total active cases of #COVID19 are under treatment in health-care facilities, that is, they need regular medical care," Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said while addressing the media.

"India still amongst the lowest in the world in terms of active cases and deaths of per million population," he informed.

A large scale dry-run was conducted in all states and UTs on Jan 2 with an objective to test operational feasibility of use of CO-WIN app, assess linkage between planning and  implementation as well as to identify challenges before actual implementation, the Health Secretary said.