The priority group is made up of 30 million health care workers, policemen, soldiers and volunteers, and 270 million vulnerable people -- mostly citizens above the age of 50 and 10 million others with serious comorbidities. The producers of three leading coronavirus vaccine candidates have applied for emergency use authorization, and all of them require two doses to provide sufficient immunity. "Every single Indian who needs to be vaccinated will be vaccinated," Indian Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said at a news conference on December 8. The other is India's first homegrown coronavirus vaccine, Covaxin, developed jointly by Bharat Biotech and the government-run Indian Council of Medical Research. An Indian health official administers polio vaccination drops to newborn babies at a hospital in Agartala, India's northeastern state of Tripura.

Source: CNN December 19, 2020 00:10 UTC