Covid vaccine: India expects to 'begin vaccination in January'

India expects to begin vaccinating people against Covid-19 in January, federal health officials told the BBC.

The officials - who requested anonymity - said a few vaccine candidates were likely to get emergency-use authorisation from the drug regulator in the next few weeks.

Two companies have already applied for consideration, and six more are in various stages of clinical trials.

The vaccination programme aims to reach 300 million people by early August.

India has recorded more than 10 million Covid-19 cases and over 145,000 deaths from the disease so far. The vaccination roll-out plans are being made even as the contagion shows marked signs of a slowdown.

The Covishield vaccine made by Serum Institute of India, which has partnered with British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca; and Covaxin, being developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) have already applied for authorisation.

The other candidates which are in different stages of trials to test safety and efficacy include:

Four of these eight vaccines were being developed indigenously, the officials said.

The officials also disputed media reports that India had pre-booked millions of doses from a number of vaccine makers around the world, saying they were already satisfied with the stocks in the country.

One official said the government was in "touch with a number of local and international vaccine makers, informing them about our requirements and finding out about their production capacities".

Two Indian vaccine makers - Serum Institute of India, the world's largest vaccine maker, and Bharat Biotech - alone have the capacity of making 65 million doses a month, they added.

India also has a "good stockpile" of vaccines, which can be quickly "converted into vials" if the candidates get regulatory approvals, the officials added.

Around 300 million Indians will be vaccinated between January and early August, officials said.

It will begin with an estimated 10 million health workers, followed by policemen, soldiers, municipal and other front line workers.

The next groups eligible for vaccinations would include people above and below 50 years of age with underlying conditions and co-morbidities, officials said.

India already runs the world's biggest immunisation programme, inoculating more than 40 million newborns and pregnant women against 12 diseases every year. It also has a well-oiled electronic system to stock and track these vaccines.

Officials said 154,000 of the country's 223,000 nurses and midwives engaged in this programme will be deployed to give Covid vaccines to people. It will be also inviting final year nursing students to volunteer.

Some 29,000 existing cold storage facilities would be used to stock the vaccines - nearly all vaccines need to be transported and distributed between 2C and 8C in what comprises the so-called cold chain.

Officials said extreme cold storage chain facilities - up to -80C - are already available in a number of agricultural and animal husbandry research centres in Haryana, Karnataka and West Bengal, among other places.

There have been concerns about how India would monitor "adverse events" following immunisation after a controversy involving a vaccine volunteer who sued Serum Institute of India after reportedly falling sick following a trial jab.

"We will have to be transparent and address such adverse events. A standard operating procedure has been drawn up for that," an official said.