The COVID-19 vaccines might be available in the open market by end of the year but only after prime targeted people are vaccinated, said Director of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Dr. Randeep Guleria.
“Hopefully, there would be such a situation by year-end or before that. Then there would be a likelihood of the vaccine to come to the open market” the AIIMS director told news agency ANI.
Dr Guleria made the comments after receiving the second dose of Covid-19 jab today. He got his first shot on January 16 on the same day the COVID vaccination drive was launched across the country.
In January, the noted pulmonologist had said that the people who have contracted Coronavirus should also get the jab about 4-6 weeks after recovery. Guleria had also allayed apprehensions about the coronavirus vaccines and assured that the side-effects will not result in the death of the beneficiary.
As of February 17, nearly 90 lakh healthcare and frontline workers have been administered the vaccine, according to Union Health ministry. As many as 89,99,230 vaccine doses have been given to beneficiaries through 1,91,373 sessions, as per the ministry. These include 61,50,922 health care workers (first dose), 2,76,377 health care workers (second dose) and 25,71,931 frontline workers (first dose).
Meanwhile, the country’s COVID-19 caseload reached 10,937,320 on Wednesday after 11,610 new cases were recorded in the last 24 hours, according to Union health ministry. While the number of people succumbing to the disease in the span of the last 24 hours was at 100. The death toll has now reached to 1,55,913. The number of active cases is currently at 1,36,549. The number consists of just 1.25 per cent of the country’s total positive cases.
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