Nasal vaccine approved for COVID-19 | Fusion - WeRIndia

In the wake of rising COVID-19 cases, the government approved Bharat Biotech’s nasal vaccine as a booster dose for adult citizens in India. The nasal vaccine, iNCOVACC, was approved by the expert committee.

Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya yesterday in Parliament said that Bharat Biotech’s nasal vaccine was approved to fight against COVID-19. It got approval for restricted use in emergency situations.

Soon the vaccine will be available on the COWIN platform. The vaccine manufacturer, Bharat Biotech, got approval for the nasal vaccine from the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) to be used as a booster dose.

As it is a nasal vaccine, the inoculation of the vaccine is easy. Just dropping into the nose can protect against COVID-19. As per experts, immunity is required in the nose, where the virus attacks the cells first.

Bharat Biotech’s iNCOVACC is an adenovirus vectored nasal vaccine. This indigenously developed vaccine is the world’s first approved intranasal vaccine for COVID-19.

The nasal vaccine has a pre-fusion stabilized spike protein. It shows positive results in various phases of clinical trials. The vaccine has robust data. That’s why an expert committee has recommended it as a booster dose. However, it has not been disclosed publicly as it was done with other vaccines.

Hindustan Times stated that more than three-fourths of the country’s population is not yet taken the booster dose. Around 719 million out of 940 million adults are yet to receive the booster dose, while 75 million adults are yet to take the second dose.

As new variants of Covid are emerging, the number of cases is rising across the globe. In this context, the expert committee suggested a booster dose for all adult citizens.

Especially, people who are more vulnerable need to take booster doses to get additional protection against COVID-19.

Photo by Douglas Jordan, M.A, USCDCP on Pixnio (Free for commercial use / CC0 Public Domain)

Image Reference: https://pixnio.com/people/female-women/process-of-administering-a-dosage-of-live-attenuated-intranasal-vaccine-into-the-right-nostril