The Central government said Zydus Cadila’s Covid vaccine ZyCov-D will be launched in India very soon and will have different pricing than those vaccines that are being used now. As far as the price of the ZyCov-D is concerned, the government is in talks with the manufacturers, said Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan in a press conference.

As it comes with a needleless delivery system and is a three-dose vaccine, the price of the jab will be different than the existing vaccines that are currently used in the Covid vaccination programme, added Rajesh Bhushan.

"It will be introduced in the Covid-19 vaccination drive very shortly," Bhushan said.

When asked about the WHO clearance for Covaxin, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) Director-General Dr Balaram Bhargava said that we all know that scientific data, public health considerations and international health requirements are all considered on which the clearance is given by the WHO.

He added that ZyCoV-D has received permission to use in emergency cases from the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) and this vaccine will be inoculated to those people above 12 years of age.

ZyCoV-D is the world's first DNA-based Covid 19 vaccine and when injected into the human body, produces the spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and elicits an immune response, said the Department of Biotechnology (DBT).