Page 12 - Coronavirus Vaccine

Entire world was amazed at scale of India's Covid vaccination programme: PM

The administration of 200 crore doses of COVID-19 vaccines was possible only because of anganwadi, ASHA and health workers, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Tuesday. Addressing the nation on the 77th Independence Day from the ramparts of the Red Fort, he said the entire world was amazed at the scale of India's vaccination programme. The world saw India's potential in the way it dealt with the coronavirus crisis, Modi said, adding, "When the supply chains of other countries were disrupted, we had advocated a human centric approach to ensure world's progress." Holistic healthcare was the demand of the hour after the pandemic, he said, adding his government had established a separate Ayush department and now the world is taking note of Ayush and yoga. "The world is now watching us because of our commitment," he said. Modi said that India has emerged as "vishwa mitra" (friend of the world) in the post-COVID-19 period, Modi said. "After Covid, India advocated for 'One Earth, One .

New Zealand removes last of its closely watched Covid-19 restrictions

New Zealand on Monday removed the last of its remaining COVID-19 restrictions, marking the end of a government response to the pandemic that was watched closely around the world. Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said the requirement to wear masks in hospitals and other healthcare facilities would end at midnight, as would a requirement for people who caught the virus to isolate themselves for seven days. New Zealand was initially praised internationally for eliminating the virus entirely after imposing nationwide lockdowns and strict border controls. But as the pandemic wore on and more infectious variants took hold, the nation's zero-tolerance approach became untenable. It eventually abandoned its elimination strategy. Reflecting on the government's response to the virus over more than three years, Hipkins said that during the height of the pandemic he had longed for the day he could end all restrictions, but now it felt anticlimactic. He said about 3,250 New Zealanders from a popula

Choice of arm for 2nd Covid jab could influence immune response: Research

Getting the second Covid jab on the same arm as the first one or on the opposite arm could influence the body's immune response generated against the SARS-CoV-2 virus, new research from Germany says. Those who got jabbed on the same side, or ipsilaterally, generated more antibodies against the Covid-causing pathogen than those who got jabbed on the opposite side, or contralaterally, the study from Saarland University and other German institutes found. Further, median levels of infection-fighting CD8 T-cells generated in response to the spike-protein of the pathogen were found to be significantly lower in those contralaterally vaccinated. CD8 T-cells destroy virus-infected cells and render protection against severe disease. Consequently, after contralateral vaccination, fewer individuals (43 per cent) were found to have detectable levels of CD8 T-cells than after ipsilateral vaccination (67 per cent), the study published in the journal eBioMedicine said. Individual doses of two-dose

Covid hospitalisations in US are on the rise again, but not like before

Here we go again: COVID-19 hospital admissions have inched upward in the United States since early July in a small-scale echo of the three previous summers. With an updated vaccine still months away, this summer bump in new hospitalizations might be concerning, but the number of patients is far lower than before. A look at what we know: HOW BAD IS THE SPIKE? For the week ending July 29, COVID-19 hospital admissions were at 9,056. That's an increase of about 12 per cent from the previous week. But it's a far cry from past peaks, like the 44,000 weekly hospital admissions in early January, the nearly 45,000 in late July 2022, or the 150,000 admissions during the omicron surge of January 2022. It is ticking up a little bit, but it's not something that we need to raise any alarm bells over, said Dr. David Dowdy, an infectious disease epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. It's likely that infections are rising too, but the data is scant. Federal authoritie

Covid-19 new variant 'Eris' emerges in UK, here's how to protect yourself

Another Covid-19 variant 'Eris' has emerged in the United Kingdom. UKHSA says the new variant is not deadlier than the previous one. Read on to know about symptoms and preventions

Moderna sees up to $8 bn in 2023 Covid vaccine sales on pvt market hopes

Moderna expects $6 billion to $8 billion in sales from its COVID shots this year, up from its previous forecast of $5 billion, driven by potential US demand

India logs 60 fresh Covid cases, active tally reaches 1,482: Ministry data

India has logged 60 new coronavirus infections while the active cases have slightly increased to 1,482 from 1,474 a day before, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Wednesday. The death toll has been recorded at 5,31,917, the data updated at 8 am stated. The Covid case tally has been recorded at 4.49 crore (4,49,95,725) and the national recovery rate has been recorded at 98.81 per cent, according to the health ministry website. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 4,44,62,326 and the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.18 per cent. According to the ministry's website, 220.67 crore doses of Covid vaccine have been administered in the country so far under the nationwide vaccination drive.

You may not need fourth shot of Covid-19 vaccine, but a flu shot might help

As flu cases rise in cities, health experts advise the annual flu shot for the vulnerable

China eyes next pandemic in push for new medical emergency facilities

The facilities will be used for tourism, recreation and healthcare in normal times. During emergencies, they will serve as medical treatment and quarantine centers

'Govt kept same rules for Indian, foreign cos while getting Covid vaccines'

Foreign-made vaccines were not procured during the Covid pandemic as the firms were demanding indemnity, which was not made available to Indian vaccine manufacturers, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya has said, asserting that the "same rule applies for all". He also said that it was wrong to suggest that India stopped foreign made vaccines like that made by Moderna and Pfizer from coming to India. "We may have certain requirements and strengths and other countries may have some other strengths and needs. It is wrong to say that India stopped any country from coming to India.When they applied with required data, we gave them emergency use approvals just like we gave to Indian companies," Mandaviya said in an exclusive interview to PTI recently. However, their demands for indemnification and sovereign immunity waivers were a major impediment and eventually the government did not go ahead with it, the minister stated. "At that time, Sputnik vaccine was also there and so were Ind

India logs 55 new Covid-19 cases, active infections decrease to 1,653

India's COVID-19 infection tally rose by 55 in a day while active cases declined to 1,653 from 1,712 a day earlier, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Saturday. The death toll was recorded at 5,31,903 with one fatality reported in Maharashtra, the data updated at 8 am stated. The tally of Covid cases was recorded at 4.49 crore. The national COVID-19 recovery rate was 98.81 per cent, according to the health ministry website. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 4,44,60,316, while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.18 per cent. According to the ministry's website, 220.66 crore doses of Covid vaccine have been administered in the country so far under the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive.

Two, including a juvenile, held over involvement in CoWIN data 'leak'

A man was arrested and a juvenile were apprehended from Bihar in connection with their involvement in the alleged data leak from CoWIN portal, officials said on Thursday. The man is alleged to have used a Telegram app to leak the data, they said. There have been claims about a breach of data of citizens registered on the CoWIN platform, and opposition parties have asked the government to take deterrent action. The government has termed such reports "mischievous" and "without any basis" while asserting that the CoWIN portal is completely safe with adequate safeguards for data privacy. The matter was sent for a review by the country's nodal cyber security agency CERT-In, which said in its initial report, that the backend database for the Telegram bot, which is at the centre of the alleged leak, was not directly accessing the APIs of the CoWIN database. In a statement, the Union Health Ministry also said that an internal exercise has been initiated to review the existing security ...

India records 95 Covid-19 cases in a day, active infections dip to 1,784

India recorded 95 coronavirus cases in a day while the number of active cases in the country has been recorded at 1,784, according to Union Health Ministry data on Thursday. The death toll was recorded at 5,31,900, the data updated at 8 am stated. India has so far logged 4.49 crore Covid cases. The national COVID-19 recovery rate has been recorded at 98.81 per cent, according to the health ministry website. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 4,44,60,082, while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.18 per cent. According to the ministry's website, 220.66 crore vaccine doses have been administered in the country so far under the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive.

Possible to make new Covid strain vax in 100 days: Gennova BioPharma

Co gets nod for Omicron booster of its mRNA vaccine

India's 1st mRNA Omicron booster vax gets DCGI nod, to launch in 2-3 weeks

DCGI has granted Emergency Use Authorisation to India's first mRNA-based Omicron booster vaccine and it is likely to be rolled out in 2-3 weeks, Gennova Biopharmaceuticals announced on Tuesday

India records 108 new Covid-19 cases, active infections dip to 1,983

India recorded 108 new coronavirus cases, raising the tally to 4.49 crore, while the active cases decreased to 1,983, the Union Health Ministry said on Saturday. The death toll due to the viral disease stood at 5,31,893, according to data updated by the ministry at 8 am. The national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.81 per cent, it stated. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 4,44,59,514, while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.18 per cent, it said. So far, the country has recorded a total of 4.49 crore (4,49,93,390) coronavirus cases. According to the ministry's website, 220.66 crore doses of Covid vaccine have been administered in the country so far under the nationwide inoculation drive.

India needs better defences to be a digital superpower after data breach

I suspect the government is right and CoWIN is not currently being accessed by hackers. Even so, it seems likely that outsiders have penetrated some aspect of India's digital public infrastructure

Equitable access to vaccines could have prevented half of Covid deaths

A more equitable access to Covid vaccines could have prevented more than 50 per cent of COVID-19 deaths in 20 lower income countries, according to a new study. Scientists from the Northeastern University, US, have estimated 518,000 deaths could have been averted if the 20 countries in the study had received the vaccines at the same time as the US and other high income countries and in comparable quantities, using a computational epidemic model. The countries included in the study were Angola, Kenya, Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire, Mozambique, Uganda, Rwanda, Zambia, Egypt, Morocco, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Bolivia, El Salvador, Honduras, Philippines and Kyrgyzstan. The study is published in the journal Nature Communications. The estimation that "thousands and thousands" of lives were lost to vaccine inequity was a "punch in the stomach," said Alessandro Vespignani, director of Northeastern's Network Science Institute and the study's co-author. "We need to hav

Vaccines access could have prevented 50% Covid deaths globally: Research

Better access to vaccines could have prevented more than 50 per cent of Covid-19 deaths in 20 lower income countries, scientists contend in a new study

India reports 120 new Covid-19 cases, active infections dip to 2,148

India has recorded 120 new coronavirus infections, while the active cases have decreased to 2,148 from 2,248, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Wednesday. The death toll stood at 5,31,892, the data updated at 8 am stated. The Covid case tally was recorded at 4.49 crore (4,49,93,080). The national recovery rate has been recorded at 98.81 per cent, according to the health ministry website. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 4,44,59,040 and the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.18 per cent. According to the ministry's website, 220.66 crore doses of Covid vaccine have been administered in the country so far under the nationwide vaccination drive.