Both vaccines will be administered in two doses and stored at standard refrigerator temperatures of 2 to 8 degrees Celsius (36 to 46 degrees Fahrenheit).
The approval is a crucial step in India’s effort to contain its coronavirus outbreak, which has infected more than 10 million people, trailing only the United States in total caseload.
The Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine maker, is producing the AstraZeneca and Oxford vaccine locally, having taken on a huge risk to manufacture the vaccine months before approval from regulators.
“It’s a great day for India and the world, because this is going to be the most affordable vaccine, that will be equitably distributed as much as possible across the globe,” the institute’s CEO Adar Poonawalla told CNN Sunday.
But the vaccines, locally branded Covishield, won’t be available to other countries until March or April, as the…
