India approves two vaccines for emergency use, one is Astra-Zeneca

2021-01-03T06:50:34.745Z

 India has authorized two vaccines against Covid-19, paving the way for a huge inoculation program to stem the coronavirus pandemic in the second most populous country in the world. On Sunday the Indian Drug Regulatory Authority issued an emergency authorization for vaccines developed by the University of Oxford and the British pharmaceutical manufacturer AstraZeneca and another developed by the Indian company Bharat Biotech. The country's initial immunization plan aims to vaccinate 300 million people - health care workers, frontline personnel including the police and those considered vulnerable due to their age or other illnesses - by August 2021. India, with almost 1.4 billion inhabitants, it is the second most affected country by the coronavirus after the United States, with over 10.3 million confirmed cases and 149,435 deaths.