Akhilesh Yadav asks Centre to address doubts over COVID-19 vaccine, seeks rollout timeline

On Monday, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav put the onus on the Centre to address concerns over the restricted emergency approval of COVID-19 vaccines. Questions have been raised about the green signal to COVAXIN owing to the fact that its phase 3 efficacy data is not available. Earlier, the former UP CM had sparked a row by announcing that he will not take the vaccine as he did not trust 'BJP's vaccine'.

After facing a lot of criticism, Yadav claimed that neither he nor his party had questioned the ability of the experts, researchers or scientists. Thereafter, he asked the Union government to release a timeline for the vaccination of the poor persons and demanded that it should be done free of cost. As per the Uttar Pradesh government's three-stage vaccination plan, the healthcare workers will be vaccinated first followed by other frontline workers and people aged above 50 years and those with co-morbidities shall be covered in the third phase.  

Read: 'Vaccines 110% Safe; Else Wouldn't Approve,' Says DCGI; Rubbishes SP's Impotency Claim

Read: Sanjay Jha Calls Congress Campaign Against Covaxin "ridiculous"; Asks To Trust Scientists

DCGI approves two vaccines 

In a big breakthrough in India's fight against COVID-19, the Drug Controller General of India accepted the recommendations of the Subject Expert Committee of Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation, paving way for the approval of COVISHIELD and COVAXIN. Manufactured by the Serum Institute of India with technology transfer from Oxford University-AstraZeneca, COVISHIELD is a Recombinant Chimpanzee Adenovirus vector vaccine with its overall efficacy at 70.42%. 50 million doses of this vaccine are ready. On the other hand, COVAXIN is a Whole Virion Inactivated Corona Virus Vaccine developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with ICMR and NIV.

As part of its phase 3 trials, 22,500 participants have been vaccinated across the country so far. However, it has been approved in "public interest" in the clinical trial mode so that there can be more options for vaccination in case of infection by mutant strains. Both the vaccines have to be stored between 2-8 degree celsius. Countering the charge that COVAXIN was approved hastily, Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan made it clear that all the recipients of this vaccine will be tracked and monitored as if they are in clinical trial mode. The government of India will inoculate 30 crore individuals belonging to priority groups in the first phase of its COVID-19 vaccination drive. 

Read: BJP Chief JP Nadda Slams 'Vaccine Politics'; Says 'Congress Not Proud Of Anything Indian'