Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Tuesday said that a government panel of experts was looking into a Delta subvariant, AY.4.2, that has been detected in the United Kingdom. He also said the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) technical committee will take a call on granting the emergency use listing (EUL) to Covaxin today.
“A team is investigating the new Covid-19 variant AY.4.2 … ICMR and NCDC teams will study and analyse the different variants,” the Union Health Minister said at a press conference.
On the emergency authorisation of Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin, the health minister said that the approval will be given by WHO on the basis of today’s meeting.
“WHO has a system in which there is a technical committee which has approved it (Covaxin) while the other committee is meeting today. The approval for Covaxin will be given on the basis of today’s meeting,” Mansukh Mandaviya said.
The World Health Organization is meeting on Tuesday to consider Emergency Use Listing of Covaxin, India’s indigenously-made vaccine against Covid-19. WHO Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan had said in a tweet earlier that the technical advisory group at the organisation will meet on October 26 to consider the much-coveted emergency use listing for Covaxin being manufactured by Bharat Biotech.
He also said that PM Modi approved 157 new medical colleges and the seats for medical students has almost doubled. “We worked with a total approach to ensure people are given affordable treatment,” he said.
Meanwhile, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya will meet Health Ministers of States tomorrow over ramping up of vaccine administration, government sources said.
The Centre on Tuesday said that 11 crore second doses were still overdue. The government is concerned over the issue and has called for a meeting with Health Minister of all states at Vigyan Bhawan tomorrow. The meeting will be held to expedite vaccinations for those with pending second dose and also those who still have not taken their first dose yet.
Speaking on the Covid vaccine for children, Mandaviya said that pricing on children’s vaccine ZyCoV-D’s is under discussion.
He also said that the government has took a decision to set up 1,50,000 health and wellness centres for treatment of diseases like cancer and diabetes. About 79,000 above have been inaugurated in the country, he added.
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