Page 12 - Coronavirus

Indian Embassy in China holds meeting with students hit by Covid visa bans

The Indian Embassy here has held its first interactive session with the Indian students who suffered the most during the three-year COVID-19 period following China's visa bans prolonging their academic periods for several years. Around 80 old and new students from more than 13 Chinese universities took part in the welcome and interaction ceremony held on May 4. Indian Ambassador to China Pradeep Kumar Rawat, and Counsellor Nitinjeet Singh interacted with the students and heard their grievances and experiences during Saturday's meeting. The meeting also included a detailed presentation by Amit Sharma, Second Secretary (Education) on various services offered by the Embassy, Dos & Don'ts for students, the Embassy posting on X said. Until the coronavirus struck China in early 2020 over 23,000 Indian students mostly studying medicine in Chinese universities constituting the second-highest number of foreign students after Pakistan. Currently, the numbers reportedly come down to around .

Covaxin developed with focus on safety first, says Bharat Biotech

Bharat Biotech on Thursday asserted that its Covid-19 vaccine Covaxin is safe and devoid of any side-effects amid AstraZeneca's admission that Covishield could cause complications in rare cases. In a statement, the company stated that Covaxin was developed with a single-minded focus on safety first, followed by efficacy. The vaccine was evaluated in more than 27,000 subjects as part of its licensure process, Bharat Biotech stated. It was licensed under restricted use in clinical trial mode, where detailed safety reporting was carried out for several hundred thousand subjects, it noted. The vaccine was also evaluated by the Union Ministry of Health, it said. Besides, safety monitoring (pharmacovigilance) was continued throughout the product life cycle of Covaxin, it stated. All the above studies and safety follow-up activities have demonstrated an excellent safety record for Covaxin without any vaccine-associated incidents of blood clots, thrombocytopenia, TTS, VITT, pericarditis,

Why Covishield vaccine case doesn't qualify for medical negligence in India

Given the oversight of different regulatory bodies and that Covishield is produced locally by Serum Institute of India, Indian users may not be able to join the British lawsuit

Pregnancy-related deaths have fallen to pre-Covid levels, new US data shows

US pregnancy-related deaths have fallen back to pre-pandemic levels, new government data suggests. About 680 women died last year during pregnancy or shortly after childbirth, according to provisional CDC data. That's down from 817 deaths in 2022 and 1,205 in 2021, when it was the highest level in more than 50 years. COVID-19 seems to be the main explanation for the improvement, said Donna Hoyert, a Centres for Disease Control and Prevention maternal mortality researcher. The coronavirus can be particularly dangerous to pregnant women. And, in the worst days of the pandemic, burned out physicians may have added to the risk by ignoring pregnant women's worries, experts say. Fewer death certificates are mentioning COVID-19 as a contributor to pregnancy-related deaths. The count was over 400 in 2021 but fewer than 10 last year, Hoyert said. The agency on Thursday released a report detailing the final maternal mortality data for 2022. It also recently released provisional data for 202

U-WIN may allow mothers to track and report vaccine side-effects on babies

Similar to the CoWIN portal for covid-19, the government's U-WIN platform registers and tracks routine vaccination and immunisation

PM Modi missing from Covid certificates after Covishield row: Here's why

Ministry of Health and Family Welfare informed that PM Modi's photo was removed from Covid certificates due to the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) in effect for the ongoing Lok Sabha polls

AstraZeneca admits Covishield has rare side effect: Is concern warranted?

AstraZeneca's acknowledgment that the vaccine may lead to thrombosis isn't a new revelation, but it underscores the need for transparent communication by the pharma companies, say experts

Astrazeneca row: Only 7 in a million at risk of TTS, says ex-ICMR scientist

Former ICMR scientist Raman Gangakhedkar said the risk is highest after the initial dose, eventually decreasing with subsequent doses

AstraZeneca responds to Covishield vaccine concerns: Here's what they said

Regulatory agencies around the world maintain that the risks from the vaccine outweigh the benefits

Chinese scientist who published Covid-19 virus sequence back in his lab

The first scientist to publish a sequence of the COVID-19 virus in China said he was allowed back into his lab after he spent days locked outside, sitting in protest. Zhang Yongzhen wrote in an online post early on Wednesday that authorities had tentatively agreed to allow him and his team to return to his laboratory and continue their research for the time being. Zhang had been staging a sit-in protest outside his lab since the weekend after he and his team were suddenly notified they had to leave their lab, a sign of Beijing's continuing pressure on scientists conducting research on the coronavirus. The Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center previously said Zhang's lab was being renovated and was closed for safety reasons. But Zhang said his team wasn't offered an alternative until after the eviction and the new lab didn't meet safety standards for conducting their research. Zhang's latest difficulty reflects how China has sought to control information related to the virus: An ..

AstraZeneca reaffirms Covid vaccine safety amid rare side effect concerns

This comes in the wake of a recent admission by AstraZeneca, the pharmaceutical company, that its Covid vaccine Covishield and Vaxzevria "can, in very rare cases, cause TTS

AstraZeneca vaccine: From its origin to side effects, all you need to know

Manufactured first in 2021, the AstraZeneca vaccine, known in India as Covishield, has been facing scrutiny over the years, with many countries banning it back in 2021 itself

India global services export to reach $800 billion by 2030: Goldman Sachs

Report says services exports could reach around 11% of GDP by 2030, helping increase demand for top-tier discretionary spending

AstraZeneca admits its Covishield vaccine may lead to rare side effect

AstraZeneca has admitted for the first time in court documents that its Covid vaccine can cause rare side effects, marking an about-turn that may open the door for a multi-million pound legal payout

Baba Ramdev crossed line with false claims of curing Covid: IMA president

Baba Ramdev crossed a red line when he claimed he could cure COVID-19 and at the same time maligned modern medicine by calling it a "stupid and bankrupt science", Indian Medical Association president Dr R V Asokan said on Monday. This is IMA's first comment since the Supreme Court's tongue lashing to Ramdev and his multibillion-dollar consumer goods empire Patanjali Ayurved last month over misleading ads. It comes a day before the top court is scheduled to hear the matter next. The apex court is hearing IMA's 2022 plea alleging a smear campaign against the Covid vaccination drive and modern systems of medicine. The court had asked Ramdev, his aide Acharya Balakrishnan and Patanjali Ayurved Ltd last month to issue a public apology for not following its orders on misleading ads. In an interaction with PTI editors, Asokan also said it was "unfortunate" that the Supreme Court criticised IMA and also the practices of private doctors. The "vague and generalised statements", he added, hav

Channapatna's eroding toy story sees a beacon of hope amid Karnataka polls

Ahead of the general elections in Karnataka, artisans who work at these toy factories are demanding the upcoming govt to create a conducive business environment for them and save their "dying" art

100 scientists spend two years renaming viruses after Covid mistakes

Airborne viruses will be called "pathogens that transmit through the air" under new terminology the World Health Organization hopes will end a scientific rift that hampered early response to Covid 19

Biden govt announces partnership with 50 nations to stifle future pandemics

The announcement comes as countries have struggled to meet a worldwide accord on responses to future pandemics. Four years after the coronavirus pandemic

Compensation for death of Covid-19 warriors is not bounty, says Bombay HC

Compensation for the death of COVID-19 warriors was not a bounty, and cases seeking ex-gratia cannot be dealt with casually, the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court said while dismissing a petition filed by the widow of a handpump helper who died during the pandemic. A division bench of Justices Ravindra Ghuge and R M Joshi said there was nothing "perverse or erroneous" in the order passed by the Maharashtra government rejecting the woman's application seeking compensation of Rs 50 lakh. A copy of the judgment passed on March 28 was made available on Tuesday. The order was passed on the petition filed by Kanchan Hamshette from Nanded district, who sought ex-gratia of Rs 50 lakh from the government as her husband, who she claims was deployed by the government, had died after getting infected with the coronavirus. During the pandemic, the state government introduced a comprehensive personal accident cover of Rs 50 lakh to employees who were on active duty relating to survey, ..

Oppn made Modi govt provide for free Covid-19 vaccines, says Congress

The Congress on Friday claimed that the Modi government was "dragged into" providing free COVID-19 vaccinations on the insistence of the opposition and the Supreme Court, and said it is hard to forget the "extent of the mismanagement" that occurred during the pandemic. Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said the BJP has been touting free COVID-19 vaccinations as a big achievement. "The truth is the Modi Sarkar was dragged into doing so by the insistence of the Opposition and the intervention of the Supreme Court. Aap chronology samajhiye: On April 18, 2021, Dr. Manmohan Singh writes to the Prime Minister, urging him to clarify vaccine policy - which until then was chaotic and not systematized - and giving him well-thought out suggestions on how to maximise vaccinations," Ramesh said on X. On April 19, 2021, the Union government announced the "Liberalised Pricing and Accelerated National COVID-19 Vaccination Strategy" which made the vaccination of citizens between 18 and 44 yea