Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan said that the reason behind the delayed vaccine rollout in India is that the government does not want to compromise on the safety and effectiveness of the coronavirus vaccine.
Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan said on December 20 that Indians may get their first COVID-19 vaccine shot in January 2021.
Speaking to news agency ANI, the Health Minister said: “Our first priority has been safety & effectiveness of vaccines. We don’t want to compromise on that. I personally feel, maybe in any week of January, we can be in a position to give first COVID vaccine shot to people of India.”
Earlier, Dr VK Paul, Head, National Expert Group on COVID-19 vaccination programme, had said that the Government of India plans to vaccinate at least 300 million people by August 2021. He had further said that the Centre will be teaming up with local and global firms to procure adequate doses of the coronavirus vaccine.
India has so far reported more than 10 million confirmed COVID-19 positive cases and over 1.5 lakh people have died of the disease in the country.