A vaccine against COVID-19 will be available in India not before the first quarter of 2021.

This has been suggested by certain senior government officials today.

The officials, to be precise, were answering the questions of the members of the Rajya Sabha Standing Committee on science and technology.

As per media reports, the officials from Department of Science and Technology, Department of Biotechnology, CSIR and the principal scientific advisor gave a presentation revolving around India's preparedness for the pandemic and beyond.

Although the MPs also wanted to know whether the timeline of August 15 given by ICMR for launching the vaccine in India is realistic, the government officials didn't give a straight answer, and reportedly kept speaking about the different ongoing researches.