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The first batch of Covishield, the Serum Institute of India’s coronavirus vaccine, left Pune early this morning, four days ahead of the nationwide inoculation drive against COVID-19. Amid tight security, three temperature-controlled trucks rolled out of the Serum Institute gates with their precious cargo shortly before 5 am. The trucks carried 478 boxes of the vaccines, each box weighing 32 kg, news agency PTI reported quoting an unnamed official. A ”puja” was performed before the vehicles left the facility for the Pune airport. From the airport, the vaccines are being dispatched to 13 cities. “Ready get set go! Stand by India! The vaccine to kill the disease is being loaded into the aircraft for distribution all over the country now,” Pune airport tweeted. The vaccines will be flown from Pune in nine commercial flights, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri was quoted as saying by news agency ANI. “Today, Air India, SpiceJet and IndiGo Airl...

India’s coronavirus vaccination drive will begin January 16, the government said Saturday evening, hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a high-level meeting with senior officials to review the Covid situation in the country and finalise vaccine roll-out details. The Prime Minister called the news a “landmark step forward in fighting COVID-19”. Priority will be given to around one crore healthcare workers and two crore frontline staff, like doctors, community health workers and police, who are directly involved in fighting the pandemic. The vaccine will be free of cost for this group , Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan said last week. The next group will be people over 50, followed by those under 50 but with co-morbidities. Around 30 crore people will be vaccinated in the first phase. Minutes after the announcement, Prime Minister Modi tweeted: “On 16th January, India takes a landmark step forward in fighting COVID-19. Starting that day, India’s n...

Ninety people in India have so far contracted the new strain of coronavirus, which was first detected in the United Kingdom in September, the Health Ministry said this today. Eight of these cases of the mutant strain – believed to be more infectious – are new, the data shows.  Across the country, 18,222 fresh Covid cases in the last 24 hours took the tally to 1,04,31,639; 228 deaths took the total number of deaths linked to the disease to 1,50,798. The active caseload, however, is 2,24,190; more than 1 crore people have already recovered.  The surge in the number of patients with the new strain comes as India waits for the vaccine rollout after Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin and Pune-based Serum Institute of India’s Covishield were cleared for emergency use by the drug regulator DCGI last Sunday. The government carried out the third vaccine dry run across the country yesterday to check the preparedness. “The third massive countrywide mock drill conducte...

India added 18,088 coronavirus cases on Wednesday , placing its overall number at 1.03 crore cases, the Health Ministry’s data showed. The number of fresh infections reported on Wednesday were 10 per cent higher than on Tuesday. In this period, India reported 264 deaths linked to the virus, taking the total number of fatalities to 1,50,114.The total number of people who have tested positive for the new UK strain of the coronavirus in the country now stands at 73, the Health Ministry said on Wednesday.

Across India, lakhs of birds have been found dead in the last 10 days. At least four states – Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala and Rajasthan- have confirmed bird flu, sounding an alert as the authorities step up efforts to contain the spread. Karnataka and Tamil Nadu are also vigilant after 12,000 ducks died in the last few days in neighbouring Kerala. In the northern part of the country, Jammu and Kashmir and Haryana, close to Himachal Pradesh, have also started investigating samples amid the scare. Bird flu or avian flu viruses can infect domestic poultry and other bird and animal species. The central government has identified 12 epicentres in four affected states and has issued an advisory to the states. In Kerala, around 24,000 birds, mostly ducks, were culled on Tuesday after the H5N8 strain of Avian Influenza was confirmed in parts of Alappuzha and Kottayam. Sale of poultry, and related products has been regulated only in the affected parts. H5N8 strain, according to...

A sum of ₹ 201.58 crore from the PM-CARES Fund is being allocated for installing 162 dedicated PSA medical oxygen generation plants in public health facilities across the country, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said today. It stressed that adequate and uninterrupted supply of oxygen is an essential pre-requisite for managing moderate and severe cases of COVID -19, in addition to various other medical conditions where this need arises. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had in March announced the creation of the PM’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM-CARES) where people can contribute to help in the government’s fight against the coronavirus and similar “distressing situations”. The PM CARES Fund is allocating ₹ 201.58 crore for the installation of additional 162 dedicated pressure swing adsorption (PSA) medical oxygen generation plants in public health facilities across the country, the Prime Minister’s Office said. The total...

The Union government has not banned the export of any COVID-19 vaccine that has been granted restricted emergency use approval by the drug regulator, the Health Ministry said today, while urging the media to be on guard against the spread of such misinformation. The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) had on Sunday approved Oxford COVID-19 vaccine Covishield, manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, and Bharat Biotech’s indigenously developed Covaxin for restricted emergency use in the country, paving the way for a massive inoculation drive. Responding to a question during a press briefing today, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bushan said, “The Union government has not banned the export of any one of the COVID-19 vaccines and this should be absolutely clear.” “When I say Union government, it means there are three ministries – Ministry of Health, Ministry of Commerce, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade with the Ministry of C...

Scientists are not fully confident that COVID-19 vaccines will work on a new variant of the coronavirus found in South Africa, ITV’s political editor said on Monday, citing an unidentified scientific adviser to the British government. British Health Secretary Matt Hancock said earlier on Monday that he was incredibly worried about the new variant. Public Health England did not answer phone calls requesting comment on the report. “According to one of the government’s scientific advisers, the reason for Matt Hancock’s ‘incredible worry’ about the South African Covid-19 variant is that they are not as confident the vaccines will be as effective against it as they are for the UK’s variant,” ITV political editor Robert Peston said. Both Britain and South Africa have discovered new variants in the coronavirus in recent months that have driven a surge in case numbers. Scientists say the new South African variant is different from others circulati...

Daily new COVID-19 cases in the country remained below 20,000 for the third consecutive day taking the virus caseload to 1,03,40,469, while the recoveries surged to 99.46 lakh, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Monday. A total of 16,504 people tested positive for coronavirus infection in a day. The death toll increased to 1,49,649 with 214 new fatalities, the data updated at 8 am showed The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 99,46,867 pushing the national recovery rate to 96.19 per cent, while the COVID-19 case fatality rate stands at 1.45 per cent. The COVID-19 active caseload remained below 3 lakh for the 14th consecutive day. There are 2,43,953 active cases of coronavirus infection in the country which comprise 2.36 per cent of the total caseload, the data stated. India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16. It went past 60 lakh on Sep...

Kerala, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Chhattisgarh have contributed to nearly 62 per cent of India”s active cases of the novel coronavirus, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) has informed. The total number of active cases in India stands at 2,50,183. Talking about these states, the MoHFW as per Friday, Kerala has 65,054 active COVID-19 cases in the country. And, more than 3,000 people have died to the disease in Kerala. With nearly 2 million COVID-19 cases, Maharashtra has reported active cases at 52,084 so far. The country’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh has reported over 56,454,1 Covid-19 cases till now. A total of 13,831 active cases in the state reported so far.

India’s drug regulator, Drugs Controller General of India, is set to approve on Friday a coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University for emergency use, three sources with knowledge of the matter said. The decision would pave the way for the vaccine’s rollout in the world’s second-most populous country which, after the United States, has the highest number of Covid-19 infections in the world. Britain and Argentina have already authorised the vaccine for urgent public use. AstraZeneca-Oxford University’s Covid-19 vaccine candidate has a better immune response when a two full-dose regime is used rather than a full-dose followed by a half-dose booster, the university said on Thursday, citing data from early trials. The developers of the vaccine candidate, which has been licensed to pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca , have already published later stage trial results showing higher efficacy when a half dose is followed by a full dose, compared t...

Barring the approval of a coronavirus vaccine, a two-day mock drill of the vaccination process held in four states shows India is ready to start inoculating its people at the forefront of its war against COVID-19. “All the four participating states are satisfied with systems put in place for COVID-19 vaccination process,” the Health Ministry said in a statement issued on Tuesday – last day of the dry-run when Joint Secretary (Public Health) also reviewed field feedback from day 1 through video conferencing with state and district programme officers. “All states expressed satisfaction in terms of the operational approach and use of IT platform to ensure transparency and effective monitoring of vaccination processes expected to cover a large number of people across the country,” the Ministry said. However, the states have given “additional suggestions on IT platform… for further enhancement of Co-WIN” app that identifies beneficiaries. ...

The Centre today said the COVID-19 restrictions on various activities will stay, noting that while there has been a continuous decline in active cases in India, there is a need for surveillance, containment and caution due to a surge globally and the emergence of a new variant of the virus in the UK. In a statement, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said it has issued fresh guidelines for surveillance with regard to COVID-19 that will remain in force till January 31, as it asked the states and union territories to keep a strict vigil to prevent any rise in cases during the New Year celebrations and the winter season. It also asked the states and UTs to actively support central authorities in the preparations for an expected vaccination drive. “While there has been a continuous decline in the active and new COVID-19 cases, there is a need to maintain surveillance, containment and caution, keeping in view the surge in cases globally, and the emergence of a new variant of the virus ...

Russia’s president Vladimir Putin will receive the Sputnik V vaccine against the coronavirus, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a Russian state TV channel on Sunday. “He said he will be vaccinated, he made this decision and was waiting until all formalities are completed,” the spokesman was quoted as saying to Rossiya 1 TV Channel on its website. Russia launched a voluntary vaccination programme with the Russia-made Sputnik V vaccine earlier in December, starting with the most vulnerable groups in Moscow. People over the age of 60 may begin to apply for shots on Monday, Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on his website on Sunday, the day after the Russian health ministry said the vaccine was approved for use by elderly people after a separate trial. 68-year-old Putin said earlier that the Russian vaccine was effective and safe and he saw no reason not to be vaccinated adding that he was waiting until it became available.

New York State Health officials said on Saturday they are investigating a Brooklyn-based healthcare provider on suspicion it violated state guidelines for distribution of COVID-19 vaccine. ParCare Community Health Network “may have fraudulently obtained COVID-19 vaccine, transferred it to facilities in other parts of the state in violation of state guidelines and diverted it to members of the public – contrary to the state’s plan to administer it first to frontline healthcare workers, as well as nursing home residents and staffers,” state Health Commissioner Howard Zucker said in a statement. “We take this very seriously and DOH will be assisting State Police in criminal investigation into this matter,” he added. ParCare Community could not immediately be reached for comment.

Four cases of a coronavirus variant believed to be particularly infectious that recently emerged in Britain have been confirmed in Madrid, the regional government said Saturday, the first cases detected in Spain. All four cases involved people who recently arrived from the UK, the Madrid regional government’s deputy health chief Antonio Zapatero told a news conference. “The patients are not seriously ill, we know that this strain is more transmissible, but it does not cause more serious illness,” he said. “There is no need for alarm,” Zapatero added. There are another three suspected cases of the coronavirus variant but the results of tests will only be available on Tuesday or Wednesday, Zapatero said.

India continued to log more coronavirus recoveries than fresh COVID-19 infections, which rose by 23,067 in the last 24 hours, government data shows. Some 24,661 people fought off Covid in this period while 336 people died of the illnesses. With this, the country’s total coronavirus cases shot to one crore, one lakh and 46 thousand with 1,47,092 deaths, so far. Country’s active coronavirus cases – or those still receiving medical attention – dropped further to 2.81 lakh. Kerala, the country’s worst-hit state with more than 63,000 active Covid cases, has moved the Supreme Court against the High Court’s order which increased the number of devotees allowed to enter Sabarimala temple to 5,000 per day. The state has quoted central government guidelines and possible spread of UK’s coronavirus mutation to restrict daily visitors to 2,000 during pilgrimage season. In the last 24 hours, the state recorded 5,177 new infections with 22 deaths. In the past d...

A Covid-19 vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac Biotech called CoronaVac is 91.25 per cent effective, according to preliminary data from a late-stage trial in Turkey, a potentially much better result than reported from a separate trial of the vaccine in Brazil. Researchers in Brazil, which is also running a final Phase III trial of the vaccine, said on Wednesday the shot was more than 50 per cent effective, but did not disclose full results at the Sinovac’s insistence, raising questions about transparency of the process. The Beijing-based biopharma firm’s vaccine for Covid-19, CoronaVac, is an inactivated vaccine. CoronaVac functions by using killed viral particles to expose the body’s immune system to the virus without risking a serious disease response. The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines being developed in the West are mRNA vaccines. This implies that part of the coronavirus’ genetic code is injected into the body, triggering the body to begin making viral p...

India’s active coronavirus cases continued to decline with 24,712 fresh COVID-19 infections recorded in the past day with 312 deaths. The country’s cumulative Covid case count now stands at 1.01 crore with 1,46,756 deaths. The daily infections were 3 per cent higher than yesterday’s. With an average of 20,000 cases a day, it took India – world’s only other country after US with more than a crore Covid cases – a week to add 1,23,778 fresh infections. In this period, however, the country has consistently logged more recoveries than new cases taking the number of those being treated for COVID-19 down to 2.83 lakh – almost 3 per cent of the tally.

The faster spreading coronavirus strain first detected in the UK is unlikely to make vaccines less effective as of now but the preventives may need to be appropriately altered if more mutations occur over time, say scientists. More than 40 countries, including India, have banned travel to and from the UK, a move several scientists said was necessary in view of the rapid spread of the new viral strain, VUI-202012/0, that was detected on September 21. According to Jeremy Farrar, director of the London-based research charity Wellcome Trust UK, there is no indication at the moment that the new strain would evade treatments and vaccines. However, the mutation is a reminder of the power of the virus to adapt, and that cannot be ruled out in the future. Acting urgently to reduce transmission is critical, Farrar said in a statement. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) announced on Sunday that the rapid increase of a SARS-CoV-2 variant with multiple spike protein mutat...