India ready to roll out Covid-19 vaccine on January 13

India today announced it is ready to introduce Covid-19 vaccine within 10 days from the date of emergency use authorisation, and based on the feedback of the dry run of the vaccination drive held last week.

On January 3, the Drug Controller General of India had given emergency use permission to two vaccines -- Oxford-AstraZenera by Serum Institute of India and Covaxin by Bharat Biotech.

Indian Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan told the media in New Delhi that the vaccine can be rolled out within 10 days from the emergency use authorisation date based on feedback from the dry run, our New Delhi correspondent reports.

India had conducted a two-day dry run of vaccination across the country on January 2 and 3.

Today's announcement by Bhushan came amid increasing number of the UK's highly infectious strain. So far, 58 people have tested positive for the new strain, the Health Ministry said today, reporting 20 new cases.

Bhushan said, "Today, all vaccines are working. None of the mutations has challenged the vaccines. We have not seen any emergence of untoward clusters. So far, so good".