Serum Institute of India (SII) CEO Adar Poonawalla today wished the country and Prime Minister Narendra Modi great success as the country began one of the world’s largest vaccination drive.
Adar Poonawalla took to Twitter and shared a video on his account of taking the Covishield vaccine himself which has been manufactured by his company.
“I wish India & Sri @narendramodi ji great success in launching the world’s largest COVID vaccination roll-out. It brings me great pride that #COVISHIELD is part of this historic effort & to endorse it’s safety & efficacy, I join our health workers in taking the vaccine myself,”Adar Poonawala wrote on Twitter.
The government has already bought 11 million doses of the AstraZeneca Covishield shot, produced by the Serum Institute of India and there are plans to provide 5 to 6 crore more doses by February, SII said.
Earlier,Adar Poonawalla said the SII is not only providing the vaccine in India, “but it is also committed to provide it to other countries who are looking at India at this point”.
Around 100 people will be vaccinated in each of the 3,006 centers across the country on the first day, the Health Ministry said.
COVISHIELD Co-developed by the University of Oxford and British-Swedish company AstraZeneca and known as Covishield in India, the vaccine was the first on which a scientific study was published based on Phase 3 clinical trials.
It has so far been given emergency use authorization in the UK, Argentina, Mexico and India.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi today launched India’s COVID-19 vaccination drive and asserted that the made-in-India vaccines being rolled out will ensure a “decisive victory” for the country over the coronavirus pandemic.
Billed as the world’s largest vaccination program, covering the entire length and breadth of the country, the drive aims to first inoculate millions of its healthcare and frontline workers and reach an estimated 3 crore people by the end of its first phase.
