Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Friday informed the Parliament that three of the nearly 30 coronavirus vaccine candidates in the country are in advanced stages of clinical trials. In a written reply to a question on Lok Sabha, Harsh Vardhan said that the government has formed a high-level committee to look into the matters concerning vaccine distribution and immunisation.

“Nationally, nearly 30 vaccine candidates are under development, by both industry and academia. These vaccines are in different stages of pre-clinical and clinical development of which three candidates are in advanced stage of Phase I/II/III trials and four are in advanced pre-clinical development stage,” news agency PTI quoted Harsh Vardhan, as saying.

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“Once available, the coronavirus vaccine distribution follows the same route as for the current practice of vaccines distribution under Universal Immunisation Program (UIP),” the minister added.

India has raced to number two spot in the list of worst-affected countries by the coronavirus. While India has reported over 52 lakh cases, the US has most number of COVID-19 cases in the world with over 66 lakh infected people. Over 1.97 lakh people have died in the US. In India, the death toll stands at over 84,000.