S Eswara Reddy, Joint Drugs Controller, Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO), on Saturday stated that Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin has satisfactory efficacy levels and there is nothing to worry. He also said that according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the smallest efficacy of any vaccine should be at least 50 per cent, which is measured as the passing mark for any vaccine.

Speaking at the JITO Professional Forum (JPF) through video conferencing, Reddy said, "We assure that the vaccine is safe and the efficacy (of Covaxin) is to the satisfaction."

Reddy spoke on the subject 'Making Sure Vaccine is Safe'. He added that the government will closely monitor all those receiving the Covid vaccine dose. "A robust programme has been built to monitor all the beneficiaries," Reddy said.

Clearing the doubts about the efficacy of India's first indigenous vaccine, he said that the Phase 3 trials involved 24,000 subjects; and for Covishield, manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, the government has UK's Phase 3 efficacy data. Reddy said that India has the infrastructure to develop 2 billion vaccine doses per annum, and it can very well meet its domestic demand, and also import vaccines to other countries.

He also elaborated on the methodology deployed to calculate the efficacy of the vaccines, and stressed that all procedures were followed leading to the vaccination drive. He emphasised that vaccination is extremely important to break the chain of transmission of novel coronavirus.

Meanwhile, the Centre has plan to vaccinate close to 30 crore people in the next five to six months.

(With inputs from IANS)