With rising Covid-19 cases in Maharashtra and Kerala, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Tuesday said check-posts will be set up in places where there are village-to-village contacts between Karnataka and neighbouring states.
The vaccine option for this age group would only be Covaxin, according to guidelines issued by the Union Health Ministry on December 27.
Responding to another question, Choubey said that the phase-I of clinical trials have revealed excellent safety of the two candidate vaccines indigenously developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with Indian Council of Medical Research and Cadila Healthcare Ltd, and now their immunogenicity testing is in progress. Their phase II clinical trials are ongoing.
India is emerging as a major hub for global clinical trials and this new sector is poised to generate more revenue than the information technology industry by 2010, an industry leader has forecast.
"We will never approve anything if there is even the slightest safety concern. Vaccines are 110 per cent safe. Some side effects like mild fever, pain and allergy are common for every vaccine. "It (rumours of impotency) is complete nonsense," V G Somani, Drug Controller General of India said.
Pfizer sought to participate in the Subject Expert Committee consultations towards an emergency use authorisation for its Covid-19 vaccine. However, the company representatives have been unable to participate in the meetings because of extremely short notices of a few hours or less and time-zone limitations.
Dispatch of the vaccine is likely to start by early Tuesday morning, sources said. According to the order placed, each dose of the vaccine has been priced at Rs 200 and with GST of Rs 10, it would cost Rs 210.
Delhi requires 80 lakh doses a month to vaccinate its youth. But it only received 16 lakh doses in May. The Centre has further decreased Delhi's quota in June to 8 lakh doses, Kejriwal said.
A second wave of Covid driven by the Delta variant engulfed the country in May-June bringing the health system to its knees and leaving people gasping for help.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi took second dose of COVID-19 vaccine at the AIIMS in New Delhi, and asked those eligible for the shot to take it soon to defeat the virus.
The Indian vaccine industry largely feels there are two ways in which vaccine innovation can be spurred - one, get a high price for the product and two, have the government buy a few hundred million doses of the product at a certain price.
Lauding the scientists and technicians for the 'Made in India' vaccines, he said the country is proud of them.
This is the amazing story of Dr Krishna M Ella, a scientist who turned into a serial entrepreneur.
While the Indian government has been procuring Covid-19 vaccines at low prices so far, manufacturers have to declare the prices of vaccines they would supply to the open market (industries, private hospitals, etc) and state governments before May 1. Sohini Das reports.
865 million Indian adults require vaccination.
As the COVID-19 vaccination of children falling into the age bracket of 15 to 18 years is scheduled to begin from January 3, the Kerala health department has prepared an action plan for inoculation of all eligible beneficiaries.
'We are rolling out a vaccine when we don't even have the phase 2 trial results; forget about phase 3 trial results.' 'Why are we playing with people's lives?'
The quantity of Covid vaccines to be exported will be decided by the government every month to ensure there is no dearth of domestic availability.
India is currently using two vaccines for COVID-19 -- one developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca and the other developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research-National Institute of Virology. Both the vaccines are being manufactured within the country by domestic firms.
So far, no other vaccine has been approved globally for children below 12 years. Sohini Das reports.
Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) is sitting on 200 million doses of Covishield that were manufactured in December and are set to expire in September. The company is likely to destroy these vaccines if nothing works out, Sohini Das reports.
The IOA had also urged five Olympic-bound sportspersons, who have recovered from COVID-19 in the recent past, to take their first dose of the vaccine as soon as possible.
Addressing a press briefing, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said Zydus Cadila, Sputnik V, Biological E and Gennova are other vaccines also in the pipeline which are in advanced clinical trials in India.
Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain said on Tuesday 56.13 per cent of those covered under the latest serological survey in the city in January have developed antibodies against coronavirus.
Once available, Sputnik V will be the third vaccine to be used in India against coronavirus.
During the meeting, scheduled to be held through video conference at 6 pm on Tuesday, the Department of Biotechnology will make a presentation and also coordinate with all the participants, sources added.
These vaccines are Sputnik V vaccine (in collaboration with Dr Reddy's), Johnson & Johnson vaccine (in collaboration with Biological E), Novavax vaccine (in collaboration with Serum India), Zydus Cadila's vaccine, and Bharat Biotech's Intranasal Vaccine.
Amid concerns over dangerous side-effects of the Oxford's COVID-19 vaccine, India is evaluating all serious adverse events post-vaccination to determine the causality aspects of Covishield and Covaxin, an expert associated with the process said on Saturday.
'No matter how much the political pressure is, I cannot say I will bring the Moon for you tomorrow!'
Union ministers Prakash Javadekar and Giriraj Singh, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and Maharashtra Governor B S Koshyari were among those who got the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine on the fifth day of the second phase of vaccination on Friday.
The Standing Technical Sub-Committee (STSC) of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI) on Thursday recommended reducing the gap between the second and precaution doses of COVID-19 vaccines from the current nine to six months, official sources said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked the nurses administering the COVID-19 vaccine to him on Monday whether they were planning to use some special thick needle as politicians are known to be 'very thick-skinned', drawing laughter from the medical staff who immediately felt at ease.
The move follows the World Health Organisation's Emergency Use Listing for Covaxin, which is the second most used formulation in India.
Addressing a press briefing, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said vaccine effectiveness will be seen only after 14 days.
Briefing the media in Rome, Goyal said the Leaders adopted the 'Rome Declaration' at the G20 Summit and the communique gives a very strong message under the health section with the countries agreeing that the COVID-19 immunisation is a global public good.
Phase-I clinical trials have revealed "excellent safety" of the two candidate vaccines indigenously developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with Indian Council of Medical Research and Cadila Healthcare Ltd and their immunogenicity testing is now in progress, minister of state for health Ashwini Choubey informed the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.
Former Uttar Pradesh chief minister late Kalyan Singh, often termed as a Hindutva icon, and actor Victor Banerjee were among the 65 distinguished personalities who were conferred with Padma awards by President Ram Nath Kovind on Monday.
The aim of the mission is to accelerate the development of at least six vaccine candidates and ensure that they are licenced and introduced in market for emergency use at the earliest.
India expects 2.16 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines between August and December, including the jabs that are currently in clinical trials, reports Sohini Das
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances