The researchers, working in an 'unprecedented' vaccine development effort to prevent COVID-19, said they have started screening healthy volunteers (aged 18-55) from Friday for their upcoming trial in the Thames Valley Region of England.
In the WHO South-East Asia region, four cases of monkeypox have been reported, three from India and one from Thailand.
OSD in the health ministry Rajesh Bhushan said that herd immunity is a kind of indirect protection from an infectious disease like COVID-19. It happens only when a population becomes immune either through vaccination or immunity is developed through a previous infection, he said.
'An individual who maybe has had two vaccines, or has had two vaccines, and a booster, is going to be pretty well protected.'
According to the findings of the phase 1/2 randomised clinical trial, published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal, the vaccine candidate could induce an antibody response in participants within 28 days of the first immunisation, by giving two doses 14 days apart.
'Mucor is an environmental fungus, and it's much more prevalent in hot and humid areas.' 'The amount of fungus in the air is much higher in India than some other parts of the world.'
'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.'
Zhang Wenhong, who heads the Covid-19 clinical expert team in Shanghai and leads the infectious disease department at one of the eastern metropolitan city's top hospitals, expects that in the long term, countries will have to take a flexible approach to recurring outbreaks.
'It will only get worse, definitely, for the next month and one-and-a-half months.'
'The virus is constantly, constantly making mistakes when it replicates.' 'When the virus has accumulated enough mistakes, then it becomes now a variant and it behaves differently.'
'The challenge will be making sure its efficacy is high.' 'If a vaccine is only 50 to 60 per cent efficient, it's a double-edged sword.'
China has given conditional approval for a single dose COVID-19 vaccine, touted to be a rival to Johnson & Johnson's one-jab shot cleared by the United States drug regulator on Sunday.
A 24-hour control room was set up in the neighbouring district of Wayanad following the Nipah outbreak in Kozhikode
'A good 30 per cent of people will still get infected after getting the Covishield vaccine.'
'All the vaccines that are available in most countries, right now, are all highly effective and safe.'
The Union health ministry on Monday reviewed the steps for health screening of international travellers arriving in India at airports and ports after two cases of Monkeypox were reported in the country.
A notice issued to the foreign journalists on Wednesday said they can get the Inactivated SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine, developed by Sinopharm's China National Biotec Group. Sinopharm's COVID-19 vaccine has been granted conditional market approval by China's National Medical Products Administration.
The study also shows that levels of these antibodies that are able to recognise and fight the virus are lower with increasing age, and that levels decline over time, providing additional evidence in support of plans to deliver a booster dose to vulnerable people.
It underlined that anyone can catch the virus if they have had prolonged or repeated contact with an infected individual.
'The genetic thing is not in your control. The virulence is not known.' 'The only thing is if you can avoid it.' 'Once you get COVID-19, none of it is in your control.'
'It is safe to consume cooked non-vegetarian food.'
This year, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bollywood actor Ayushmann Khurrana, the 'dadi from Shaheen Bhagh' Bilkis, Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Professor Ravindra Gupta are among TIME's 100 most influential people of 2020.
'Serial testing is much more valuable than a single test which reflects just a point in time.'
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.
'We can't rule out the fact that the virus might have changed in such a way that it's actually causing more harm to young people.'
Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Moderna's announcement comes just a week after Pfizer and Biontech said their COVID-19 vaccine candidate was found to be more than 90 per cent effective in preventing COVID-19 in participants.
In a major setback in the search for AIDS cure, a child in the US, who was thought to have been cured of HIV after intensive drug therapy, has been found with detectable levels of the virus, scientists say.
State health minister Veena George said a meeting was held between the principal secretary of the health department and the Union health ministry earlier in the day and now the monoclonal antibody has arrived.
"To make sure there isn't a Covid surge in the country, PM Modi has asked us to be careful. The government is also preparing if at the Covid cases increase. Today, mock drills are conducted across Covid hospitals in the country to make sure people get proper treatment," Mandaviya said.
The researchers from King's College London in the United Kingdom also found that most systemic side effects -- meaning side effects excluding where the injection took place -- peaked within the first 24 hours following vaccination and usually lasted 1-2 days.
'Some of the longer-term implications of COVID-19 are not related to the virus itself.' 'They are actually related to immune responses from the virus.'
'The most important pillars of disease prevention remain masking, hand/cough etiquette and physical distancing.'
Along with persistent cough that may last for several weeks, tuberculosis patients also complain of frequent bouts of fever, chills and sweating at night, says Dr Rahul Kendre.
'People are sick at home and think that they might have COVID-19, but will not want to go and get themselves tested'.
Given the robust and statute-based death registration system in India, while some cases could go undetected as per the principles of infectious disease and its management, missing out on the deaths is unlikely, the Union health ministry said.
'The first duty of the government is to learn lessons from a bad experience and course correct. It's a pity that the government is making policy without looking at evidence and differentiating between immediate and urgent.'
Agarwal said that the current 'R0' or R naught for the coronavirus infection is somewhere between 1.5 and 4.
Addressing an online question and answer session, WHO's chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said there would be at least one effective vaccine by 2021 but it would be available 'only in limited quantities'. "Most people agree, it's starting with healthcare workers, and frontline workers, but even there, you need to define which of them are at highest risk, and then the elderly, and so on," Swaminathan said on prioritising who gets the vaccine first.
Her appointment as World Health Organisation's deputy director offers an opportunity to push for improving the medical research environment in India.
The reduced severity of the Omicron variant is good news for now, but it is the result of an 'evolutionary mistake' and does not indicate that the virus which causes COVID-19 is becoming less virulent, a leading Indian-origin scientist from the University of Cambridge warned on Thursday.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances