The vaccination drive for those 18 years began at the beginning of this year.
This happened after the Centre on April 19 had announced a ‘liberalised’ policy in order to ramp up the coronavirus vaccination drive in the country.
India had started the Covid-19 vaccination drive earlier this year on January 16 with two vaccines-Covishield & Covaxin. The first consignment of 150,000 doses of the Sputnik V vaccine has landed in Hyderabad from Russia and more will be coming in the next few weeks.
But as India gets vaccinated, what exactly are in these vaccines? Here is the lowdown.
Covaxin
Covishield
The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is being manufactured locally in India by the Serum Institute of India. The institute is producing 60 million to 70 million doses a month.
The vaccine is made from a weakened version of a common cold virus, also known as an adenovirus from chimpanzees.
The jab is administered in two doses given between four and 12 weeks apart.
The vaccine can be safely stored at temperatures of 2C to 8C and can easily be delivered in existing health care settings such as doctors’ surgeries.
Sputnik V
The COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik V is an adenoviral-based, two-part vaccine against COVID-19.
Sputnik V uses a weakened virus to deliver small parts of a pathogen and stimulate an immune response.
Safely exposing the body to a part of the virus’s genetic code in this way allows it to recognise the threat and learn to fight it off, without the risk of becoming ill.
It can be stored at temperatures of between 2 and 8C degrees (a standard fridge is roughly 3-5C degrees) making it easier to transport and store.
How Is Sputnik V Different From Other Vaccines?
The Sputnik jab uses two slightly different versions of the vaccine for the first and the second dose – given 21 days apart. This is a very different process from most other vaccines.