The Biden administration has come under criticism from several quarters, including from members and supporters of the Democratic party, for not releasing surplus COVID-19 vaccines to India when the country is experiencing its worst-ever public health crisis.
Despite these rare occurrences, the pharmaceutical company maintains that extensive clinical trial data and real-world evidence consistently support the vaccine's safety and efficacy.
The Union Health Ministry on Friday announced that those above the age of 18 years who have completed nine months after the administration of the second dose will be eligible for the precaution dose.
Chief Medical Officer Sandip Chaudhary on Wednesday said he has ordered an inquiry into the matter and assured stern action against those found responsible for this negligence.
SII said it will address the limited capacity by scaling up the vaccine production over the next two months.
Serious AESI, which included stroke and Guillain-Barre syndrome, were reported in one per cent of individuals, the study, which looked at long-term safety of the BBV152 vaccine in adolescents and adults, claimed.
Recalling how the industry used to face "hardships" in securing permissions and "harassment from bureaucrats" 50 years ago, chairman of the Pune-based vaccine maker Serum Institute of India (SII), Dr Cyrus Poonawalla, on Friday hailed the Modi government saying that red-tapism and licence raj have come down under its rule.
'Seek medical help if after five days of the first symptom the fever has not subsided.'
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.
AstraZeneca has stressed that patient safety is its "highest priority" and pointed out that regulators around the world "consistently state that the benefits of vaccination outweigh the risks of extremely rare potential side effects".
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 Bombay high court on Monday said content posted by two individuals and their organisations against vaccine manufacturing major Serum Institute of India (SII) was "prima facie defamatory" and directed them to delete it.
'We seem to be in a situation where we can do little, and nothing needs to be done anyway.'
'We are trying to salvage 50-100 million doses of Covishield with the latest drive on booster doses.'
NCP president Sharad Pawar may be busy getting ready for the INDIA Opposition bloc meeting in Mumbai with other Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) constituents, but his close friend and industrialist Dr Cyrus Poonawalla has a piece of advice for the octogenarian leader.
As of now, Gennova Biopharmaceuticals has launched a vaccine, Gemcovac-OM, which is based on the Omicron variant.
It has been approved by the European Medicines Agency for conditional marketing authorisation.
Serum Institute of India (SII) and Bharat Biotech have also stopped producing the Covishield and Covaxin vaccines respectively.
According to CoWIN data, only 73 vaccination centres are currently active in India, of which 32 are government-run.
The DCGI's approval came following recommendation by the Subject Expert Committee of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation.
Serum Institute of India has urged Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya to consider reducing the gap between the second and the precaution dose of Covishield from the current nine months to three, in line with Centre's revised guidelines for officials on election duty, official sources said on Thursday.
Neutralising antibody levels waned after six months in those who were fully vaccinated against the coronavirus with Covishield, Covaxin and a mix of both.
Take a bow Natasha for looking so unignorable.
Poonawalla was talking to media persons amid rising cases of coronavirus infections in the country since March.
There is no association between the Covid-19 vaccines used in India -- Covishield and Covaxin -- and increase in the risk of heart attacks, according to an observational study which emphasises the protective effect of the jabs.
Sources indicated that there were no fresh orders from the Government of India, and their supply commitments have ended as of March 31, reports Sohini Das.
There is confusion over the United Kingdom government's vaccine recognition process for Indian travellers as even though Oxford/AstraZeneca Covishield, the India-manufactured Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, is on an updated international travel advisory, India is not yet on a list of 17 approved countries.
Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) is sitting on 200 million doses of Covishield that were manufactured in December and are set to expire in September. The company is likely to destroy these vaccines if nothing works out, Sohini Das reports.
BE's Corbevax is the first such vaccine in India to be approved as a heterologous COVID-19 booster in the country.
To visit the village of Malana deep in the Himalayas, a COVID-19 vaccination team scrambled over a landslide that blocked the road the day before, scaled a retaining wall and then began a three-hour trek down and up a river valley.
'Your body will be able to deal with Omicron at any time, but it depends (on when) if you are vaccinated.'
India will be within its rights to initiate reciprocal measures if the UK does not address concerns over the new travel rules relating to COVID-19 vaccine certification, foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said on Tuesday describing the policy as "discriminatory".
The Indian players, who have all taken the Covishield vaccine, are likely to take their second dose in the UK.
Earlier this month, India had said that all British nationals arriving in India from the UK will have to undergo a mandatory 10-day quarantine if they are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
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.
"There is no sufficient supply of vaccine vials by the Centre for inoculation of above-45 age group people. Hence, the state cabinet decided to divert the stock, purchased for the 18-44 age group, for the above-45 age group," Health Minister Rajesh Tope said.
Activist Raman Sharma had filed a query under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, seeking to know from the government the number of people who had received the first dose of vaccines -- Covishield and Covaxin -- but did not take the second within the stipulated time period.
Delhi currently has four days of Covaxin and three days of Covishield stock for those above 45, and healthcare and frontline workers.
Currently, CoWin certificates mention the beneficiary's age based on the year of birth besides other details.
Uttam Ghosh offers his take on Britain's controversial travel advisory wherein Indian travellers who received both doses of the Covishield vaccine will be considered unvaccinated and have to undergo self-isolation for 10 days.
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