Nasal COVID vaccine likely to be available in Delhi by mid February

Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya and science and technology minister Jitendra Singh launched India’s first indigenously made nasal Covid-19 vaccine on the occasion of Republic Day. The availability of the vaccine in private centres will, however, depend on the bookings made by each hospital.

Bharat Biotech’s intranasal Covid vaccine, iNCOVACC, is likely to be available at government centers in Delhi by mid-February, senior officials of the Delhi government noted. The provision of the vaccination in private facilities would, however, rely on the reservations made by each hospital, the report said.

“We will start procuring stocks. After February 15, the nasal vaccines are expected to be administered in our centres,” a government official said.

On the occasion of Republic Day on Thursday, Mansukh Mandaviya, the union minister for health, and Jitendra Singh, the minister for science and technology, introduced the country's first locally produced nasal Covid-19 vaccine.

In public hospitals, the cost of the vaccine will be Rs 325 each dosage, while it will cost  Rs 800 in private facilities.

The nasal vaccination had already received approval from the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization earlier in December (CDSCO). Later that month, the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (NTAGI), India's technical expert council on immunisation, also that it be included as one of the "precautionary dosage" boosters people can take.

The goal of making the nasal variant accessible on the market will be to increase the booster coverage, according to report, especially in the national capital where the coverage of the two primary doses is above 97%.

The intranasal vaccine iNCOVACC is a recombinant replication-deficient adenovirus vector vaccine with a pre-fusion stabilized spike protein. The Hyderabad-based vaccine manufacturer had stated in a statement that this vaccine candidate had undergone successful evaluation in phase I, phase II, and phase III clinical trials.