India gives final urgent-use approval to AstraZeneca and local Covid-19 vaccines, South Asia

NEW DELHI (REUTERS) – Indiaࢀ™s drugs regulator on Sunday (Jan 3) gave final approval for the emergency-use of two coronavirus vaccines, one developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University and the other by local company Bharat Biotech and a state-run institute. The decisions mark the first vaccine approvals for the worldࢀ™s second-most populous country, which after the United States, has recorded the most infections of the coronavirus disease. It is now expected to start a massive immunisation programme within about a week, a government official said, and hopes to inoculate 300 million of its 1.35 billion people free of charge in…