The joint secretary also said a high-level task force to work on frontiers of science related to vaccines and drug testing was formed on Sunday.
'There is no emergency of a third wave that we are rushing for booster doses.'
Addressing a press conference, NITI Aayog Member (Health) Dr V K Paul said the question of the third wave keeps coming up because the population is still 'very vulnerable' to the infection.
In response to a question on whether younger population were getting more affected, Indian Council of Medical Research Director General Dr Balram Bhargava said the comparison of data during the first and the second wave of COVID-19 has shown that there is not much age difference.
"Zero is an unlikely figure. The virus is mutating and it is difficult to predict it's future behaviour,
President Ram Nath Kovind presented Padma awards to 73 individuals, some posthumously, at a ceremony held in the Rashtrapati Bhavan here on Monday.
Under Election Commission guidelines, campaigning has to end 48 hours before the close of polls for each phase.
Uttam Prakash Agarwal alleged that Citax and Braich offers were incomplete and did not include firm commitment as to the price, size, timings, confirmation from the banks about availability of the funds.
'The present government swears by Hinduism. But we lost three of our sants during earlier BJP regimes.'
The government also said the coronavirus tracking app Aarogya Setu is secure as it has been designed keeping in mind the privacy of people and is playing a crucial role in India's fight against COVID-19.
An IIT-Kanpur student recited the poem 'Hum Dekhenge' by Faiz against which a complaint was filed by Dr Vashimant Sharma, a temporary faculty member, and 16 others, including faculty members and students.
Though breast cancer is the most common cancer in women, but can rarely occur in males, because of the presence of mammary tissue in males.
As the SARS-CoV2 evolves and mutates further, it is necessary to be prepared for new waves, Principal Scientific Adviser K VijayRaghavan cautioned on Wednesday, even as he said ferocity of the second wave of coronavirus in the country was not predicted.
Addressing a press briefing, health ministry Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal said currently there are no approved therapies for COVID-19 and there is not enough evidence to claim that plasma therapy can be used for treatment of the disease.
Though there is enough anecdotal evidence of COVID-19 catching children -- early teens and younger -- there is little reason to panic, said several doctors and scientists. They also stressed on the urgent need to vaccinate children to stem the spread of the infection.
These testing kits will be used for surveillance and to monitor whether coronavirus hotspots in the country are increasing or decreasing.
Taking exception to Health Minister Harsh Vardhan not mentioning the death of healthcare workers due to Covid-19 in his statement in Parliament, the Indian Medical Association has published a list of 382 doctors who died due to the viral disease and demanded that they be treated as "martyrs".
With these states imposing lockdowns anew, the health ministry emphasised that the restrictions should be utilised to focus on containment, surveillance and testing in the containment and buffer zones as the key strategy for early detection of cases and fatality management.
The untimely Mumbai monsoon threatens to play spoilsport as there is a fair chance of first day's play being affected by rain during the second Test between India and New Zealand, starting on Friday.
'Traders have been the worst hit because of the government's policies, but for some unknown reason, many continue to support the BJP.'
The NTAGI has also stated that those having laboratory test proven SARS-CoV-2 illness should defer COVID-19 vaccination for six months after recovery, the sources said.
Rohit Sharma made a dream start as a Test opener with an unbeaten century to put India in control on the rain-hit opening day of the first Test against South Africa.
Till the lockdown was imposed in March, more than 200 Zee staffers had spent over 2,500 hours across 28 regions in Punjab, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal to understand the audiences. The effort paid off, again and again.
The mantra to live a healthy and extensive life is to stay happy, says Dr Manjusha Agarwal.
Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope had on Tuesday said that plasma therapy is being used in the state on an experimental basis after getting approval from Indian Council of Medical Research
Timely, proactive, and graded strategy initiatives for effective coronavirus infection management in the country, led by the Centre and implemented by the states and Union Territories, have ensured that the actual COVID-19 caseload remains manageable.
he immunity built from the vaccine does little to stop it from transmission, warns Dr Raj Agarwal. You may harbour the virus as a carrier, and be a source of infection to others who are less fortunate and haven't got a chance to get vaccinated yet.
Psychiatrist Dr Kersi B Chavda interacted with our readers on April 3, 2020 and answered their queries on mental stress due to coronavirus outbreak and lockdown. Here is the complete chat transcript of what he told readers.
People with healthy lifestyles can also be at risk of heart diseases.
Bharat Biotech said that it is disheartening to listen to some states complaining about company's intentions regarding supply of COVID vaccine Covaxin.
There is little doubt that Calcutta high court's recent decision to release R S Agarwal, on of the directors of AMRI hospital, on bail would further magnify the extreme puzzlement of the victims, and ordinary people, over the horrendous fire that killed 90 patients in December last, writes Dr Kunal Saha.
'Call it by whichever name, but there is transmission happening between people.'
"We have received complaint from a state yesterday and so far discussed with three states. Too much variations have been reported in results of rapid test kits and RT-PCR kits. We advise states not to use them for the next two days," ICMR's Dr Raman R Gangakhedkar said.
The government said it had been evaluating the implementation of the decentralised model of vaccination since its launch on May 1 and that the decision to centralise it again was taken after detailed deliberations and following requests by some states, amid claims by the Opposition that the policy change was due to the Supreme Court's intervention.
Head of epidemiology and communicable diseases at Indian Council of Medical Research Dr Raman R Gangakhedkar said 80 out of 100 infected people do not show any symptoms.
According to SOP, those testing positive will be isolated in a separate unit of an institutional facility.
As the country battles the second wave of COVID-19, the government Thursday said the virus may emerge again and so preparations have to be made at the national level in collaboration with states, infrastructure needs to be ramped up while curbs and appropriate behaviour must be followed.
The bodies were so badly charred that doctors found it difficult to determine the gender of the victims.
Dubey's wife hold media responsible for the encounter killing of her husband.
The experts agreed that the lockdown has helped in slowing down spread of the virus but insisted that the situation has not reached a plateau and that there was an urgent need to upgrade healthcare facilities to deal with the crisis.
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