If word is to be believed, Indians can expect a normal life by October 2021. Yes, you read that right. Adar Poonawalla, CEO Serum Institute of India, which is manufacturing the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in their Pune manufacturing unit, is expecting normalcy to be restored in the country by 2021 October.
Serum Institute of India(SII) has seemed emergency-use authorization from the Government of India, which is expected by month-end. The vaccination drive is set to begin by Jan 2021. According to Mr Poonawalla, vaccinating around 20% of India’s population will help restore the sentiments and confidence of people the people, which can bring normalcy to our current lives.
A quick vaccine update: Earlier last week, the SEC that is examining the applications for emergency use authorisation fo three vaccines, including the SII and Bharat BioTech vaccines, has requested safety and efficacy data from the ongoing trials. The SII vaccine(as published in The Lancet) is shown to protect 70% of the symptomatic cases and has an efficacy of 62% for those who have been given two full doses and 90% in those individuals who have first been given a half dose and then a full dose.
With countries like the UK, Israel, the USA beginning their vaccinations with the Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA vaccine, and many other countries ordering their doses from the pharma giant, Indians can expect the rainbow to show from between cloudy skies with vaccination drive said to begin as early as next month!
