The technical committee of World Health Organization (WHO) will meet on Wednesday to discuss the issue of giving Emergency Use Listing (EUL) to made in India Covid-19 vaccine Covaxin. The committee had on October 26 sought additional clarifications from Covaxin manufacturer Bharat Biotech.

The technical advisory group for EUL is an independent advisory group that provides recommendations to WHO on whether a Covid-19 vaccine can be listed for emergency use.

Bharat Biotech has been stuck in a regulatory loop, with independent technical experts of the UN health body taking longer to analyse the data that previously disclosed timelines.

So far, the WHO has approved six vaccines – Pfizer/BioNTech’s Comirnaty, AstraZeneca’s Covishield, Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine, Moderna’s mRNA-1273, Sinopharm’s BBIBP-CorV and Sinovac’s CoronaVac.

Yet, there are many countries which have given approval to Covaxin to ease international travel and allow passengers to enter their geographies. These are:

• Guyana

• Iran

• Mauritius

• Mexico

• Nepal

• Paraguay

• Philippines

• Zimbabwe

• Australia

• Oman

• Sri Lanka

• Estonia

• Greece

Earlier, a WHO decision on Covaxin EUL was expected on October 5, after the global health body sought additional information on September 27.

Experts said it may just be a matter of time before a EUL is granted to Covaxin.

The travellers, who have been administered Covaxin and intend to go to the United States or the United Kingdom, will have to wait for the WHO nod, or approval from the European Union (EU). These countries haven’t also individually approved Covaxin yet.

Covaxin has demonstrated 77.8 per cent effectiveness against symptomatic Covid-19 and 65.2 per cent protection against the new Delta variant. The Bharat Biotech said that it concluded the final analysis of Covaxin efficacy from Phase 3 trials.

Meanwhile, India’s cumulative vaccination coverage crossed 1.07 billion.