NEW DELHI (INDIA) – India said it will provide homegrown coronavirus vaccine COVAXIN in seven more states from Monday as it aims to vaccinate 30 million healthcare workers across the country.
The expansion from the 12 states now providing COVAXIN has the southern state of Kerala, with a high COVID-19 caseload, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat, according to the government late on Saturday.
Some doctors have raised concerns about COVAXIN, which was approved with no data on efficacy from late-stage clinical trials. The government says it is safe. The Lancet medical journal said on Thursday the drug produced an immune response in a small group of adults.
The government said on Sunday that the government said on Sunday that authorities have inoculated nearly 1.6 million health workers overall using the two vaccines,
India is also exporting doses, which includes commercial shipments to Brazil and Morocco, and free shipments to the Maldives, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Nepal.
The vaccination drive, targeting frontline workers, is to be expanded later so that it would cover 270 million people older than 50 or considered at high risk due to pre-existing medical conditions.
