Coronavirus: India approves AstraZeneca vaccine; Singapore bans visitors from South Africa

The shots could start to be transported from cold storage to Indian states as early as Saturday

All long-term pass holders and short-term visitors with travel history to South Africa within the last 14 days will not be allowed entry into Singapore

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Indians celebrating New Year’s Eve while awaiting a vaccine. Photo: EPA

Published: 1:15pm, 1 Jan 2021Updated: 10:44pm, 1 Jan 2021

India’s drug regulator on Friday approved a coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University for emergency use, two sources with knowledge of the matter said.

The decision paves the way for the vaccine’s roll-out in the world’s second-most populous country which, after the US, has the highest number of Covid-19 infections in the world.

A representative of India’s Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO), whose experts were meeting for the second time this week, declined to comment.

Britain and Argentina have already authorised the vaccine for urgent public use.

The permission comes a day ahead of a nationwide trial run for vaccine delivery in the country with more than 10 million coronavirus infections.

More than 50 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine have already been stockpiled by its local manufacturer, Serum Institute of India (SII), and one of the sources said the shots could start to be transported from cold storage to Indian states as early as Saturday. The government is also considering emergency-use authorisation applications for vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech, and by India’s Bharat Biotech.