new delhi of the two vaccines presently being procured for the ongoing covid19 vaccination covishield manufactured by the serum institute of india sii has received the who prequalification while the process of prequalification for bharat biotechs covaxin is going on the government informed parliament on tuesdayin a written reply to a question in the rajya sabha minister of state for health bharati pravin pawar said the application for prequalification is submitted by the manufacturer directly to the world health organization whoin response to a question on when the who approval for covaxin is expected the minister said the data required for approval was submitted by bharat biotech international limited to who on july 9based on the time taken for approval of other covid19 vaccines it is estimated that the whoeul process takes approximately two to three months from the date of submission she saidon the steps that the government is taking or has taken to ensure that more whoapproved vaccines are made available in the country pawar said the regulatory norms have been streamlined for the approval of import and usage of the offshoremanufactured vaccines in india that have received the emergency use license eul by the fda of the united states the mhra of the united kingdom the pmda of japan or the whoeulthe minister further informed that the covid vaccine manufactured by moderna has already been approved for import and usage in the country by the drugs controller general of india dcgithe national empowered group on vaccine administration against covid19 negvac is in regular talks with offshore manufacturers for facilitating the import of covid vaccines some of which have already received the who prequalification she added