The central government on Monday said that it has the stock of vaccines and the country’s own mRNA candidate was likely to move into phase-3 trials soon. 

Speaking to a news agency Dr Renu Swarup, Secretary, Department of Biotechnology said, “We have a pipeline of vaccines – EUA (emergency-use approval) given for the DNA vaccine, our own MRNA candidate likely to move into phase-3 soon.”

She also said that the government was testing each of these COVID-19 vaccines for variants of coronavirus. “We are now looking at developing a vaccine that can be pan-corona so that if any other virus comes in then the vaccine can respond to it,” Swarup said.

Also read: Over 55K Indian students and exchange visitors travelling to US: Embassy

The secretary also said that the government was now expanding genome sequencing into the state departments. “As of today, over 80,000 sequencings have been done not just for the existing variants but also for any new variant of significance,” she said. 

“So far all the breakthrough infections which have been sequenced there has been no other variant been identified but for the Delta and in some cases we know that we have Alpha in the country,” Swarup added.

Earlier, Zydus Cadila’s COVID-19 vaccine ZyCoV-D received emergency use approval from the Drug Controller General of India and it will be administered to people 12 years and above. 

Also read: MP: Mob booked for ‘tazia’ procession in violation of COVID-19 norms

ZyCoV-D is the world’s first DNA-based vaccine against the coronavirus. This is a three-dose vaccine when injected produces the spike protein of virus and elicits an immune response. On Friday, the Department of Biotechnology said that this plays a vital role in protection from the disease as well as viral clearance.

“Zydus Cadila has received approval for Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA) from the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) for ZyCoV-D today i.e. 20/08/2021, the world’s first and India’s indigenously developed DNA-based vaccine for COVID-19 to be administered in humans including children and adults 12 years and above,” it said.

On Monday, India recorded a total of 25,072 fresh COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours. In the same duration, 389 deaths were reported pushing the toll to 4,34,756.