Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Thursday said future decisions on COVID-19 SOPs will be taken in consultation with the Union Health Ministry and the state Task Force, amid a difference between the Centre and the state over guidelines for international travellers in the wake of the new variant of SARS-CoV2.
According to some experts, there is not much difference in the number of seasonal flu cases and that of COVID-19, even though they stressed that surveillance for newer variants should continue in the off chance of a new lineage of coronavirus catching the country off guard.
Covovax is likely to be available on the portal in a few days at a price of Rs 225 per dose plus applicable GST.
The study, published in the journal Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, noted that the 'nanobodies' can prevent infection with the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 by blocking its interaction with the protein ACE2, which it uses as a gateway to enter and infect cells.
Bharat Biotech on Wednesday said a study has demonstrated that a booster dose of Covaxin has a neutralising effect on the Omicron and Delta variants of COVID-19.
It's expected that INSACOG will be once again releasing a bulletin from next week on updates about the types of variants present in India.
The Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine provides less immunity against Omicron than from other coronavirus variants, according to a lab study that suggests a booster may still provide good protection.
The genomic consortium, citing global data, said there is now clear experimental and clinical data supporting very high immune escape potential of Omicron, which appears to be the major component of its growth advantage over Delta.
The researchers, including those from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UT Health San Antonio) in the United States, developed two molecules that inhibit the molecular 'scissor' enzyme used by the coronavirus called SARS-CoV-2-PLpro.
Using this sequence data, the researchers traced the origins and evolution of SARS-CoV-2 by focusing on the tell-tale features of the virus.
The Covid-19 vaccine demonstrated an overall 90.4 per cent efficacy in phase 3 clinical trials, reports Sohini Das
The study describes a new blood test which pinpoints the immune system molecules called antibodies in infected individuals that specifically target a unique piece of the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2's spike protein.
'WHO issued an emergency use listing for Covovax, expanding the basket of WHO-validated vaccines against COVID-19. The vaccine is produced by the Serum Institute of India under licence from Novavax,' the world health body said in a tweet on Friday.
'However, the importance of children in transmitting the virus remains uncertain,' the scientists cautioned in the study. 'Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that can cause infection and disease in animals, capable of rapid mutation and recombination, leading to novel viruses that can spread from animals to humans,' they said.
The ICMR has validated 'TruenatTM beta CoV test on TruelabTM workstation' and has recommended it as a screening test,the apex health research body said on Friday.
According to the study, 'mixed' schedules of these vaccines induced high concentrations of antibodies against the SARS-CoV2 spike IgG protein when doses were administered four weeks apart.
The B.1.640.2 variant has been reported by researchers at institute IHU Mediterranee Infection in at least 12 cases, and has been linked to travel to African country Cameroon.
In its weekly bulletin of December 27, released on Monday, the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) said global outbreaks of SARS-CoV-2 are increasingly shifting from Delta to Omicron.
While Lupin is working on a Remdesivir powder for inhalation, Glenmark has tied up with a Canadian Biotech firm for nitric oxide nasal spray that reduces Sars-CoV-2 viral load and thus transmission.
The minister will review the COVID-19 situation at 11:30 am on Wednesday 'considering the international scenario', they said.
He urged people not to panic and clarified that there was no change in the guidelines for international air travel so far.
'Given that the globally most prevalent clade of SARS-CoV-2 is also predominant in India, any vaccine or drug that gets developed in the world should also prove effective in India'
Senior virologist Shahid Jameel on Sunday resigned as the chairman of scientific advisory group of Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium, a forum set up by union government in December last year for laboratory and epidemiological surveillance of circulating strains of COVID-19 in India.
COVID-19 may be a seasonal infection linked to low temperatures and humidity, much like seasonal influenza, according to new 'robust' evidence found by researchers.
Omicron can evade the immune protection conferred by COVID-19 vaccines and natural infection, according to a peer-reviewed study which also suggests that the new variant of coronavirus is completely resistant to antibody therapies in use today.
"The COVID-19 cases are rising, but hospitalization and deaths are still less," said sources.
"This antibody is both highly neutralising (meaning it works very well at low concentrations) and broadly neutralising (meaning it works against all variants)," said Michael S Diamond, a professor at Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis, US.
During a virtual meeting with health ministers and senior officials of states in view of the recent surge in coronavirus cases in some parts of the world, he said, "The Centre and states need to work in tandem and in a collaborative spirit as was done during the previous surges for Covid prevention and management."
The research, published in the journal Scientific Reports, provided the first experimental evidence on the capacity of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 disease, to infect and be transmitted by mosquitoes.
Bharat Biotech's Covaxin has demonstrated 77.8 per cent effectiveness against symptomatic COVID-19 and 65.2 per cent protection against the new Delta variant.
The ICMR claimed that no country has yet reported successful isolation and culture of the UK-variant of SARS-CoV-2.
The findings, published in the Journal of Medical Virology, indicate that some of these products might be useful for reducing the viral load, or amount of virus, in the mouth after infection.
The rapid molecular test is highly accurate and easy to use, making it a prime candidate for use in settings with limited testing capabilities, according to the researchers.
The United States intelligence community has failed to reach any firm conclusion on the exact origin of COVID-19 and is split on whether it leaked from a lab in China or emerged in nature, even though it does not believe the virus was developed as a biological weapon, according to results of a detailed review ordered by President Joe Biden.
The 'antisera' has been developed by the ICMR in collaboration with a Hyderabad-based bio-pharmaceutical firm. "With Biological E Limited we have developed an horse 'antisera' and we have just got clearance for conducting clinical trials for that," ICMR Director General Dr Balram Bhargava said at press briefing.
The research, published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, is the first large-scale study to compare the health outcomes of coronavirus infection from Omicron and Delta in the age group which is not yet vaccinated.
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.
The team led by researchers at the University of Maryland in the United States found that people infected with SARS-CoV-2 exhale infectious virus in their breath, and those infected with the Alpha variant put 43 to 100 times more virus into the air than people infected with the original strains of the virus.
Amid a gradual rise in daily Covid-19 cases, the Union health ministry said on Thursday that the XBB.1.16 subvariant of Omicron might be the dominant virus strain in the country but there has been no reported increase in the rate of hospitalisation or death so far.
The company claims that when the Nitric Oxide Nasal is sprayed over nasal mucosa it acts as a physical and chemical barrier against the virus.
