Seven important Coronavirus vaccine updates that you need to know

As India gets ready for a massive Covid vaccination programme, heath experts on Sunday said that 21 days is an ideal gap between the first and the second booster dose, and those who get vaccinated will have to maintain, for a certain time period, the same health and hygiene regimen as they are supposed to do without the vaccine. 

Hyderabad-based vaccine major Bharat Biotech, which had applied for an accelerated approval from the drug regulator based on phase-1 and 2 clinical trial data last week, said that it has already recruited 8,000 volunteers for a 22,000-subject, phase-3 clinical trial. 

There is no pressure on the drug regulator to take a decision on the Covid-19 vaccine approval one way or another, and the final call on granting emergency-use authorisation will be made on sound scientific principles within a few days, Niti Aayog member V K Paul said on Saturday. Addressing Ficci’s 93rd annual general meeting, Paul said, “It is an Apollo-11 moment for Indian science...The decision on vaccines will be taken by a panel which represents India’s scientific capital. We will wait till all parameters are met.”