New Delhi, December 1: Rajesh Bhushan, Secretary of the Health Ministry on Tuesday said that the government never spoke about administering COVID-19 vaccine to the entire nation. He said," I just want to make this clear that the govt has never spoken about vaccinating the entire country. It's important that we discuss such scientific issues, based on factual information only," as reported by the news agency ANI.  However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said in October 2020,  that the Government has been  preparing a detailed road map to make the vaccine reach every single citizen as soon as it is readily available. India Records 31,118 New Coronavirus Cases in Past 24 Hours, COVID-19 Tally Nears 95 Lakh.

Dr Balram Bhargava, Director General of ICMR  aslo added that they aim to break the virus transmission by the vaccine and they might not need to vaccinate the entire country. He said, "Vaccination would depend on the efficacy of the vaccine & our purpose is to break the chain of COVID-19 transmission. If we're able to vaccinate critical mass of people & break virus transmission, then we may not have to vaccinate the entire population." COVID-19 Vaccine Covishield Safe, Incident With Chennai Volunteer Not Related to Trials, Says Serum Institute of India.

Addressing the issue of recent reports on adverse effect of COVID-19 vaccines' clinical trails, Bhushan said the Data Safety Monitoring Board supervises the clinical trials of the vaccine and analyses all the reports.  He said, "Data Safety Monitoring Board also monitors clinical trial from day to day basis & keep an eye on adverse events and report it. Drug Controller General analyses all reports & finds out whether there's a one-to-one co-relation between adverse event & vaccination."

The Health Secretary said that an Institutional Ethics Committee is available at each clinical trial spot, that is independent of the manufacturer or the government."In case of any adverse event, this Committee takes note & gives its report to Drug Controller General of India," he added.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Dec 01, 2020 06:30 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).