Union Minister Mansukh Mandaviya visits COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing facilities in Gujarat

Union Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilisers Mansukh Mandaviya on Sunday visited the COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing facilities of Zydus Cadila and Hester Biosciences in Gujarat.

"Visited Zydus Biotech Park in Ahmedabad today. @ZydusUniverse is the developer of the 'ZyCov-D' which will be the world's first DNA-based Covid-19 vaccine," he tweeted.

In another tweet, the minister said that he assured all government assistance to vaccine manufacturing company Hester Sciences for the production of Bharat Biotech's COVAXIN vaccine.

"Happy to visit @Hesterindia in Gujarat today. Hester has inked an MoU with @BharatBiotech for the production of Covaxin. Commending their efforts, I assured them of all Govt assistance for ramping up vaccine production to ensure free vaccine for all," he tweeted.

Pharmaceutical firm Zydus Cadila has applied for emergency use authorisation (EUA) from the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) for its COVID-19 DNA vaccine ZyCoV-D. They stated on Thursday that they expect to produce one crore vaccine doses per month from August onwards after approval.

ZyCoV-D is a three-dose Covid shot, the world's first Plasmid DNA vaccine.

COVAXIN, meanwhile, is Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech's COVID-19 vaccine. On Saturday, the vaccine manufacturing firm said that Covaxin efficacy from the Phase-3 clinical trial is 77.8 per cent effective against COVID-19. It also added that Covaxin gives 65.2 per cent protection against the SARS-CoV-2, B.1.617.2 Delta variant.

As per the union health ministry, as many as 35,12,21,306 doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in the country so far, including 63,87,849 in the last 24 hours. This includes 28,71,37,161 first doses and 6,40,84,145 second doses.

( With inputs from ANI )

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