IMC 2020: PM Modi says mobile technology to be used for COVID-19 vaccination drive

Prime Minister Modi said on Tuesday India will use mobile technology for mass inoculation against the coronavirus disease in the country as chances of the availability of a Covid-19 vaccine soon going up.

Speaking at the India Mobile Congress, he said mobile technology has enabled benefits worth billions of dollars to reach the deserving and also helped the poor and vulnerable during the pandemic.

“It is also with the help of mobile technology that we will embark on one of the world’s largest Covid-19 vaccination drive,” he said without giving details.

Three leading coronavirus vaccine developers — Pfizer Inc and AstraZeneca Plc and Bharat Biotech — have applied for emergency use authorization in India.

While Pfizer India has applied to drug regulator for permission to import its experimental mRNA vaccine for sale and distribution without the requirement for local clinical trials, Serum Institute of India Ltd, AstraZeneca’s India vaccine partner, has applied for emergency use authorisation using data from Phase-III trials that were conducted locally, as well as in Brazil and the UK.

Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech has sought nod Covaxin which is being indigenously developed in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

The applications mean that a mass vaccine effort could be shortly underway in a nation that has the world’s second-largest coronavirus caseload.