"We are very worried about the rise in cases in Maharashtra. Don't take this virus for granted. It can come up unexpectedly. If we have to remain free of this virus, COVID-appropriate behaviour, containment strategy as well as vaccination has to be brought in," Paul said.
Paul noted that "three to four months from now, there will be other vaccines and the stockpile will be even bigger. "And more acceleration can be brought about in the vaccination programme," Paul added.
The Hyderabad-based AIG Hospitals recently published a study conducted on 260 healthcare workers, who got vaccinated between January 16 and February 5, in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases (a peer-reviewed journal).
The DCGI's nod came after the subject expert committee on COVID-19 of the CSDCO last week recommended granting emergency use authorisation to Covovax for the age group of 7 to 11 years.
Long queues were seen outside walk-in vaccination centres across the UK on Monday as people queued for their booster vaccine doses, even as the government's work from home guidance came in force as part of measures to tackle the "tidal wave" of the Omicron variant of COVID-19.
Of the 23.9 million vaccinators who provide vaccination under the universal immunisation programme, 15.4 million will be used for Covid vaccination.
The dry-run was being conducted in state capitals in at least three session sites. Some states also included districts that are situated in difficult terrain or have poor logistical support, according to officials.
The active cases comprise 0.05 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has been recorded at 98.75 per cent, the ministry said.
At $37 per dose, the Pfizer vaccine is much more expensive compared to $3 per dose for the Covishield.
The highest number of vaccines were administered in UP at 21,291 followed by Andhra Pradesh at 18,412, Maharashtra at 18,328, Bihar at 18,169, Odisha at 13,746, Karnataka at 13,594, Gujarat at 10,787, Rajasthan at 9,279, West Bengal at 9,730, Madhya Pradesh at 9,219, Kerala at 8,062.
Children below the age of 15 years account for about 10 to 12 per cent of India's overall TB burden.
Interacting with state chief ministers, Modi underscored the enormity of what he described as the world's biggest vaccination exercise, which begins from January 16, saying over 30 crore citizens will get the jabs in the next few months in India against only 2.5 crore people vaccinated so far in over 50 countries in around a month.
The president also said one of his daughters has been given a shot of the COVID-19 vaccination. "One of my daughters got vaccinated. In fact, she took part in an experiment. After the first vaccination, she had a [body] temperature of 38 degrees [Celcius, 100 degrees Fahrenheit], the next day slightly higher than 37 [degrees], that's all," he said.
Private hospital chains Fortis Healthcare and Apollo Hospitals have started administering Russian COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik V at two of their hospitals in Delhi-NCR, officials said.
History shows us that even effective vaccines could have unknown side effects that could develop over time, warns former Cabinet Secetary K M Chandrasekhar.
The Serum Institute of India has informed the Centre that it will be able to supply around 22 crore doses of Covishield in October as the Union government has announced resuming export of surplus Covid vaccines in the coming fourth quarter under the 'Vaccine Maitri' programme, official sources said.
The Budget outlay for health and well being is Rs 2.23 lakh crore in 2021-22 as against BE of Rs 94,452 crore and marks an increase of 137 per cent," she said while presenting 2021-22 Budget in the Lok Sabha.
The active cases comprise 0.03 per cent of the total infections.
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.
Several private hospitals across the country said they have no clarity on procuring COVID-19 vaccines under the new policy announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and that it has led to the vaccination being put on hold at their centres.
The Union health ministry said in a statement on Monday that over 23,000 adverse events have been reported since the vaccination drive involving Covishield and Covaxin vaccines started in the country and of these 700 cases were reported to be serious.
A delegation of Trinamool Congress leaders on Wednesday met Election Commission officials here and alleged that the use of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's photo on advertisements of various central schemes and the COVID vaccination certificates, distributed by the Union health ministry, violated the model code of conduct.
Bharat Biotech, Serum Institute, Zydus Cadila, Panacea Biotec, Indian Immunologicals, Mynvax and Biological E are among the domestic pharma firms working on the coronavirus vaccines in India.
Castle staff hope the service will bring more people to the site in Romania's Carpathian mountains, where tourist numbers have plummeted since the start of the pandemic.
Aimed at controlling the Covid-19 spike, the Karnataka government on Monday announced a "close-down" across the state for 14 days from Tuesday night.
According to the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, citizens from priority groups in the city who have not yet registered themselves with health workers carrying out house- to-house survey or at urban health centres (UHCs) can get themselves registered on www.ahmedabadcity.gov.in.
A division bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice G S Kulkarni said the Union government's new "near to home" vaccination programme was like waiting for the virus carrier to come to the Centre. "Coronavirus is our biggest enemy. We need to strike it down. The enemy is residing in certain areas and in some people who are unable to come out. Your (government) approach should be like a surgical strike. You are standing at the borders waiting for the virus carrier to come to you. You are not entering the enemy territory," Chief Justice Datta said.
'There are only two bottlenecks for universal vaccination.' 'One, is availability of the vaccine.' 'Two, is the logistics for administering the vaccine.'
'Until the case load starts dropping, we will have to keep up the current level of prevention activities.'
Harsh Vardhan said that 51 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses will be made available by July and 216 crore more between August and December.
Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Thursday sought keen oversight and personal indulgence of health ministers, principal secretaries and additional chief secretaries of states and union territories to lead the second nationwide mock drill on the COVID-19 vaccination scheduled to be held on January 8.
The further distribution of vaccine to the districts will be done as per the registered beneficiaries, for which a separate communication will be done shortly, the letter stated.
Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Punjab and Jharkhand accused the Centre of meting out "step-motherly" treatment to them, and urged the Union government to provide them free vaccine doses to vaccinate all adults.
The daily positivity rate was recorded as 0.20 per cent and the weekly positivity rate was recorded as 0.25 per cent, according to the ministry.
The active cases comprised 0.03 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.75 per cent, the health ministry said.
The inoculation drive will start at 10.30 am at 150 centers across the state on Saturday along with the rest of the country, Madhya Pradesh Health Minister Dr Prabhuram Choudhary said.
Sputnik V is the third vaccine India has given the go-ahead to after 'Covishield', developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca and 'Covaxin', the indigenous vaccine manufactured by Bharat Biotech. Covishield is manufactured by the Serum Institute of India.
71 districts reported Covid case positivity rate of more than 10 per cent in the week from June 23 to 29, the government said, adding that the second wave of COVID-19 is not over.
Districts with a higher literacy level tend to perform better in vaccination than districts with low levels of school-going population, finds Ishaan Gera.
Despite the most lethal COVID-19 wave that any country in the world has experienced so far, India's mask compliance is still low as indicated by the survey finding where 67 per cent of citizens say there is limited or no mask compliance in their area, district, or city, the survey revealed.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances