hyderabad after a long wait the world health organisation who on wednesday gave a diwali gift to millions of vaccinated indians by finally granting emergency use listing eul to covaxin the nod has been given for all those aged 18 and above but does not apply to pregnant womenthe nod has come at a time when close to 20 countries have already recognised covaxin recently an official from the who had said the organisation trusts indian industry indicating that the approval was on the cardsthe approval not only opens the doors of countries around the globe to use covaxin in their immunisation programmes but also comes as a major respite to those who had taken two doses of the vaccine but were still facing restrictions in travelling abroadread alsoindias covaxin gets who approval who said whatnew delhi the world health organisation who on wednesday approved indiamade covid19 vaccine developed by bharat biotech the who decision has been welcomed by the government heres who said what bharat biotech the vaccine developer bharat biotech said thatthe technical advisory group convened by the who and made up of regulatory experts from around the world has determined that the covaxin vaccine meets who standards for protection against covid19 that the benefit of the vaccine far outweighs risks the vaccine can be used globally covaxin was also reviewed by whos strategic advisory group of experts on immunisation sage and recommended use of this vaccine in two doses with a dose interval of four weeks in all age groups 18 and above who said in a tweeton pregnant women the who said the available data was insufficient to assess its safety or efficacy and that studies in pregnant women were planned including a pregnancy substudy and a pregnancy registrythe emergency listing got delayed last month as the technical advisory group sought some additional clarification from bharat biotech for its final risk assessment the advisory group had sought more clinical trial data from the company by gender and age groups while it took around 90100 days for who eul for covaxin the un agency maintains that it is not the only vaccine that has taken so much time to receive approval and there are others that have taken longerbharat biotech had submitted its expression of interest on april 19 this year and the rolling data submission began on july 6bharat biotech said with validation from the who countries can now expedite their regulatory approval processes to import and administer the vaccine organisations such as unicef panamerican health organisation and the gavi covax facility will be able to procure the vaccine for global distribution to priority populations ensuring equitable accessbharat biotech chairman and managing director dr krishna ella said validation by the who is a very significant step towards ensuring global access to indias widely administered safe and efficacious covaxin the eul will enable us to contribute to accelerating the equitable access of covid19 vaccine and the access to our vaccine globally thereby addressing the current public