Coronavirus vaccine: Multiple jabs to be ready ‘by early next year’, says Indian health minister

India awaits results of three Covid vaccines being trialled in the country

India's total Coronavirus cases stand at 7.1 million (AFP via Getty Images)

India’s health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan has claimed the country will have at least one viable Covid-19 vaccine by the beginning of 2021.

During a meeting with a group of ministers on Tuesday, Dr Vardhan said: “We're expecting that early next year we should have vaccine in the country, from maybe more than one source. 

"Our expert groups are formulating strategies to plan on how to roll out the distribution of the vaccine in the country,” he added, according to the ANI news agency.

Like much of the rest of the world, India is looking to a vaccine for some respite from the coronavirus pandemic, as its own recorded cases of the virus keep rising at an alarming rate. 

India has a total of 7.1 million Covid infections so far, including an increase of 55,342 cases in the past 24 hours, according to the latest data released by the health ministry. 

The spread in India does appear to finally be slowing, however, with the daily increase falling to its lowest rate in almost two months. India has also seen more than 100,000 deaths due to the novel coronavirus, with 706 deaths in the last 24 hours.

India is looking at multiple sources for the vaccine, including the recent breakthrough by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), called Covaxin. The vaccine is in phase two of clinical trials in the country and the makers have sought approval from drug regulators to start the third phase clinical trial.

Other than that, Indian pharmaceutical company Cadila is developing a vaccine called ZyCoV-D, which is currently in phase two clinical trials. 

And India is also involved in the work on Covishield, a vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca, which is being collaborated on by the Serum Institute of India (SII) and ICMR, and is also undergoing phase two trials in India. On 8 October, the first batch of 100 participants were vaccinated in the Indian trial. 

Last week the CEO of SII, Adar Poonawalla, raised concerns over India’s preparedness for the distribution of vaccines that potentially need to reach a population of over a billion. He said the government may need to set aside Rs 800 billion (£8.3bn) for this purpose.

Globally, there are 42 vaccines in clinical evaluation, according to the WHO, of which around 10 are at an advanced stage. The global count of coronavirus cases stands at 37.8 million.