As Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) granted permission to the vaccines developed by Serum Institute of India (SII) and Bharat Biotech for emergency use on Sunday, many political leaders, including Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati and Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, congratulated the scientists associated with the coronavirus vaccines and people of the country. 

In a tweet in Hindi, Mayawati urged the Centre to make the doses available for the poor free of cost. “The ‘swadeshi’ anti-COVID vaccine is welcome and congratulations to the scientists. A request to the Central government is that along with all the health workers, if the extremely poor people get the vaccine free of cost, then it will be appropriate,” she tweeted.

“A watershed moment in India’s famed battle against #COVID19 under the charismatic leadership of Hon’ble PM Sh @narendramodi Ji !

Our wait for #COVID19vaccine is over with COVISHIELD from @SerumInstIndia & COVAXIN from @BharatBiotech approved for emergency use in India,” Vardhan said in a tweet.

Also read: India approves two COVID-19 vaccines today, what will happen next?

“These vaccines are a fitting tribute to our corona warriors! My heartfelt gratitude to all healthcare professionals & frontline workers for their exemplary efforts during these unprecedented times. Congratulations to all the scientists & researchers for their untiring efforts,” he added.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah also took to the microblogging site to say how grateful the nation will remain for the services of ‘corona warriors’.

“We heartily thank our scientists, doctors, medical staff, security personnel and all Corona warriors who dedicatedly served humanity during these testing times. Nation will always remain grateful to them for their selfless service towards mankind,” he said.

The approval is expected to kick off one of the world’s biggest vaccination drives in the coming days in the country of 1.3 billion people.

India is the world’s second most-infected nation with more than 10.3 million cases and almost 150,000 deaths.