Izuchukwu Okosi
India on Wednesday pulled off a major milestone in their battle against Coronavirus as The World Health Organization (WHO) granted emergency use approval to COVAXIN, the Asian country’s indigenous COVID-19 vaccine.
The vaccine was developed by Bharat Biotech and adds to a growing portfolio of vaccines approved by the UN health agency for the prevention of the disease.
Join our WhatsApp Channel“The Technical Advisory Group, convened by WHO and made up of regulatory experts from around the world, has determined that the Covaxin vaccine meets WHO standards for protection against COVID-19, that the benefit of the vaccine far outweighs risks and the vaccine can be used,” the WHO said in a statement on Wednesday.
The world’s Health agency have thus recommended the use of the vaccine in two doses, with an interval of four weeks in age groups 18 and above.
But the vaccine has not been advised for pregnant women as available data is “insufficient” to “assess vaccine safety or efficacy in pregnancy.”
The WHO said the vaccine was found to have 78% efficacy against COVID-19 of any severity, and is “extremely suitable for low- and middle-income countries due to easy storage requirements.”
Other COVID-19 vaccines approved by the specialised UN agency are Pfizer-BioNTech, Oxford-AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen, Moderna, Sinopharm, and Sinovac.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
