According to officials, an additional dose of vaccine is different from a booster dose.
Those who have recovered from COVID-19 respond faster to the Covishield vaccine and reach high antibody levels, says a study, leading to hopes that they may not need a second dose and therefore help widen India's corona immunisation cover.
Delhi Capitals have brought in Shams Mulani as a short-term COVID-19 replacement for Axar Patel for their IPL-2021 campaign.
Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan held a review meeting with states and Union Territories on Tuesday and advised them to ramp up testing for early identification and management of cases.
'If there are any symptoms/variants of concern, states can prepare accordingly.'
The researchers from the the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UT Health San Antonio) in the United States said by enabling this modification, nsp10 protects the virus from host cell immune response.
The new report highlights how different parts of the intelligence community have arrived at disparate judgments about the pandemic's origin.
Three new categories -- all asymptomatic healthcare workers working in non-COVID hospitals/areas of COVID hospitals/blocks, asymptomatic frontline workers such as surveillance workers deployed in containment zones and paramilitary/police personnel involved in COVID-19 related activities -- have now been included.
The Union health ministry on Friday urged eight states and Union Territories to take up immediate containment measures including preventing crowds, conducting widespread testing as well as increasing vaccine coverage on a priority basis in districts where the Delta Plus variant of coronavirus has been detected.
Experts said the strain has not propelled a surge in cases like Omicron, but advised strict adherence to COVID-19-appropriate behaviour.
The weekly epidemiological update by WHO revealed the week of December 20-26 saw the global number of new COVID-19 cases increase by 11 per cent as compared to the previous week.
The decision was taken at a cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, Health Minister Rajesh Tope told reporters.
To reduce the risk of transmitting the SARS-CoV-2 virus to newborns after delivery, the researchers said the hospital staff practised social distancing, wore masks, and placed COVID-positive moms in private rooms.
"In children, fortunately, infections with SARS-CoV-2 are generally not severe. There is a risk of long COVID, there is a risk of a very, very rare condition called MISC (Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome) but by and large healthy children have nothing," said Dr Gagandeep Kang, leading Indian virologist.
The decline in the effectiveness of Covaxin, India's indigenous COVID-19 vaccine, from 77.8 per cent to 50 per cent during a Delta-driven case surge in April and May this year is neither bad nor surprising, say scientists.
"We not only uncovered that these stem cell-derived heart cells are susceptible to infection by novel coronavirus, but that the virus can also quickly divide within the heart muscle cells," said study co-author Arun Sharma from the Cedars-Sinai Board of Governors Regenerative Medicine Institute in the United States. "Even more significant, the infected heart cells showed changes in their ability to beat after 72 hours of infection," Sharma said.
If the vaccine is recommended for use as a booster against Omicron, it may significantly boost the demand for Covishield in India.
Safety and Efficacy results from the final analysis will be available in June, and the final report will be submitted to a peer-reviewed publication.
The mask can potentially be worn longer, causing less plastic waste as it does not need to be replaced as frequently, the researchers said.
These 25 people include the 20 who were found positive with the mutated strain on Tuesday and Wednesday.
A third wave of COVID-19 -- if it occurs -- is unlikely to be as severe as the second wave given the extent of spread of coronavirus infections that has already taken place in the country, according to a study.
"We continue to call on China to be transparent in sharing data and to conduct the necessary investigations and share the results. Understanding how the pandemic began remains both a moral and scientific imperative," Ghebreyesus said.
AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, as the trial sponsor, said that they cannot disclose further medical information but confirmed that independent investigations concluded that the trials were safe to restart.
Seropositivity was the highest in the age group of 18-45 years (43.3 per cent), followed by those between 46-60 years (39.5 per cent) and it was the lowest among those aged above 60 (17.2 per cent).
Dr Karthiyayini Mahadevan tells you how to differentiate between a cold, flu and COVID-19 and take appropriate action.
The new test it will enable rapid testing amongst more people easily.
The researchers noted that transmission rates of SARS-CoV-2 are much higher indoors than outdoors, and transmission is greatly reduced by indoor ventilation.
Two athletes residing in the Olympic village tested positive for COVID-19.
The study also indicated that the risk seems to increase with each infection.
The arrival of summer in India may have raised hopes that hot and humid weather could slow the COVID-19 progression but virologist Naga Suresh Veerapu believes that outbreak and pandemic occurrences often do not follow seasonality.
The Centre is conducting a study to assess the presence of SARS-CoV-2, or novel coronavirus, in the Ganga as corpses were found dumped in the river during the second Covid wave, and were fished out from districts in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, officials said.
"Even though the vaccine may not be able to provide absolute protection against different variants of virus, it can certainly reduce the risk of death and complications," a statement quoting WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said.
Pune's Mylab Discovery Solutions' CoviSelf, which gives results in 15 minutes, gets ICMR nod
This apart, to further increase capacities, Bharat Biotech has partnered with Indian Immunologicals (IIL) to manufacture the drug substance for Covaxin. The technology transfer process is underway and IIL has the 'capabilities and expertise' to manufacture the inactivated viral vaccines at commercial scale.
'The COVID-19 virus has the power to quietly enter your body, without causing pain via symptoms, because it craftily manipulates your pain response.'
Modi stressed on the need for constant genome sequencing to monitor emergence of mutants and also to ensure increased oxygen availability, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said in a statement.
These decisions were taken by the ministry based on the fresh recommendations by The National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19 (NEGVAC) and have also been communicated to the states and union territories, an official statement said.
'The most intriguing thing (about COVID-19) is the range of the illness -- from asymptomatic or less symptoms to death and quite severe manifestations.' 'The vaccine will be at least another year away from having any effect.'
This is the world's first DNA-based vaccine against the coronavirus, and this three-dose vaccine when injected produces the spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and elicits an immune response, which plays a vital role in protection from the disease as well as viral clearance
The SARS-CoV-2 sero-positivity rate among children is high and comparable to the adult population and hence, it is unlikely that any future third wave of the prevailing COVID-19 variant would disproportionately affect children aged two years and above, according to the interim findings of an ongoing study conducted in the country.
