People who are infected should also take COVID-19 vaccine, says Bharat Biotech Chairman

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On the distribution of vaccines in India, he said, India is well prepared for that and Indian immunisation system is very robust.

An illustration of COVAXIN, the vaccine candidate for COVID-19 developed by Bharath Biotech. Image: Bharath Biotech

People who are infected should also take a vaccine, and India is well prepared regarding the logistics for the vaccine distribution, Bharat Biotech Chairman & MD Krishna Ella said on Wednesday. He was speaking in a virtual session on ”Sero surveillance significance in immunogenicity and safety in pre and post-vaccination era” organised by industry body CII. For the people who are infected, should they take a vaccine, “the answer is yes”, because they may not have a good T cells response…” Ella said.

Talking about the company’s efficacy trials of its COVID-19 vaccine, he said that for the efficacy trials the company has taken 24 centres all over the country so that it has tier I, tier II and tier III cities to capture the efficacy in a better way.

On the distribution of vaccines in India, he said India is well prepared for that and Indian immunisation system is very robust, Ella said.

Speaking at the session, Biocon Chairperson Kiran Mazumdar Shaw said, “We have to ensure we have a sense of pandemic preparedness moving ahead”.

“We need to understand the need for a concerted effort and a very important paradigm which is based on both antigen and antibody testing is going to be of an immense importance going forward,” she added.

About the roadmap, Mazumdar Shaw said: “If we can come up with algorithms and paradigms, which many universities in other parts of the world are looking at as a Covid calculator, we can also come up with very interesting paradigms that will tell us which parts of our society and communities are safe and which parts of our community has actually developed herd immunities and which parts of our country can be opened up with ease”.

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