'The only idea -- the only idea -- of the shutdown was to buy time.'
'Strengthen hospital capacity, look after patients who need care, primarily ICU care...' 'Train doctors, get PPE, get ventilators, have treatment protocols in place.'
So far, no other vaccine has been approved globally for children below 12 years. Sohini Das reports.
From 3.38 per cent in April, the fatality rate in the country has come down to 2.87 per cent as against 6.4 per cent globally.
'Monkeypox is a rare but potentially serious viral illness that typically begins with flu-like illness and swelling of the lymph nodes and progresses to a rash on the face and body'
Hepatitis B virus is 10 times more infectious than hepatitis C virus and 50-100 times more infectious than HIV.
As the virus continued to spread at an alarming rate, Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday warned officials of punishment if they shirked responsibility in tackling the virus outbreak.
The reduced severity of Omicron is good news for now, but it is the result of an "evolutionary mistake" as Covid-19 is transmitting very efficiently and there is no reason for it to become milder, indicating that the next variant could be more virulent, a leading Indian-origin scientist from the University of Cambridge has warned.
'At the current time, we should be vaccinating all those who are potentially going to get more severe illness, before we start vaccinating very young individuals.'
'There is no data to show this virus is more deadlier.'
The novel mRNA vaccine candidate, HGCO19, is supported with seed grant under the Ind-CEPI mission of the Department of Biotechnology. The mRNA vaccines do not use the conventional model to produce immune response. Instead, they carry molecular instructions to make the protein in the body through a synthetic RNA of the virus.
The Australian immunologist, who cautioned that the number of COVID-19 cases will rise in the coming days, said the earliest time frame for an effective vaccine 'going into large numbers of people' is nine to 12 months.
'I can say with confidence that any future SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, developed anywhere in the world, would have to be manufactured in India, if it is to be affordable and of high quality.'
'Anyone who takes the eye off the movement of the virus should be prepared for unpleasant surprises.'
The US's national public health institute, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, had in early May incorporated "a new loss of taste or smell" in the list of COVID-19 symptoms.
The phase 3 trial findings indicate that Covaxin induces a robust antibody response with no severe vaccine-related adverse events or deaths reported among the trial participants, the authors of the study said.
The International Olympic Committee will issue guidelines this week aimed at protecting athletes and visitors from Zika, a mosquito-borne virus spreading rapidly across South America months before the Rio de Janeiro Games in August.
Only half India's population has received the first shot of Covishield and Covaxin and the government's immediate task is to first vaccinate its adult population before placing its focus on children.
Out of the 12 deaths reported in the last 24 hours some are related to the Tablighi Jamaat congregation, Joint Secretary in the Health Ministry Lav Agarwal said in a daily media briefing.
'On a daily basis you are saying, you do this, you do that, but where is the blueprint of the war?' 'How many isolations actually we need per hundred thousand people?' 'How many ventilators will we need for 100,000 people?'
'Testing is a very good strategy if only symptomatic people are transmitting the disease.' 'Here asymptomatic people, with minimum, trivial symptoms, are transmitting too.' 'Testing, treating, tracing contacts and quarantining them -- yes, it will work up to a certain extent.' 'But more important is physical distancing, hand hygiene, cough etiquette and cocooning, protecting with reverse quarantining the most vulnerable people, senior citizens, people with other major medical problems.' 'To me, that makes much more sense.'
The govt said that states have been asked to classify districts which have reported a higher number of cases as hotspots, the districts where cases have been reported as non-hotspots, and green zones where no cases have been reported.
'If at all there is going to be a second wave, it will not be very strong unlike in the US and Europe.'
Also, the recovery rate in COVID-19 patients has progressively improved from 13.06 per cent to over 25 per cent in the country over the last 14 days. Addressing a press briefing, Joint Secretary in the ministry Lav Agarwal said the doubling rate of COVID-19 cases in several states is better than the national average.
Core to the planning is the rigidly-enforced closed loop that physically separates Games-related personnel from the local population
'What is hindering us is the fear for the disease.' 'For those below the age of 55 years, it's a mild disease.' 'So take care of yourself, your family and your parents.'
The Union health ministry on Friday said while there is no evidence to suggest that existing vaccines do not work on the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, some of the mutations reported may decrease the efficacy of the jabs.
'Wearing masks, washing our hands, all those things are barriers to transmissibility, or contagion, but as the virus becomes more contagious it statistically is better at getting around those barriers'
India has purchased 500 million doses of the Oxford University-AstraZeneca vaccine candidate, one billion from the United States company Novavax and 100 million doses of the Sputnik V candidate from Russia's Gamaleya Research Institute, according to the US-based Duke University Global Health Innovation Center.
Experts said the strain has not propelled a surge in cases like Omicron, but advised strict adherence to COVID-19-appropriate behaviour.
According to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Centre, more than 4,000 people in the US have died due to COVID-19 and nearly 190,000 have been infected by it.
Lives "will once again be at risk" if funding is not urgently secured, United Nations officials have said on the eve of the first anniversary of a military crackdown that forced them to flee their country.
Women are great team players and collaborators, 'but they don't put themselves forward,' Dr Gagandeep Kang, the first Indian woman scientist to be elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society, tells Veenu Sandhu.
More than 2 million people have been diagnosed with coronavirus across the world, and the pharmaceutical industry is pulling out all stops to find potential treatments and vaccines for the global pandemic. According to the World Health Organization, there are now more than 70 potential vaccines under evelopment, with some already in clinical trials.
As India prepares to launch its vaccine drive on January 16, here is a look at the options:
The Drugs Control General of India has permitted emergency use of Covid vaccine Sputnik V with certain conditions, clearing the way for a third vaccine in addition to Covishield and Covaxin. Besides, the government on Tuesday also fast-tracked emergency approval for other jabs. Here is what the vaccines are all about:
'This virus may have more immune evasion capability and therefore, it may make you more sick.'
'Essentially there are three things the government should be doing: Identify who you are going to get your vaccine from, figure out how you are going to pay for it, and figure out how you're going to deliver it and to whom.'
The South African authorities said the detected cases and percentage of people testing positive are both increasing quickly, particularly in particularly in most populated province of Gauteng, North West and Limpopo regions of the country.
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