The sero-surveillance started on June 3 and 6,936 samples out of an estimated 8,870 were collected from slum and non-slum population of three civic wards -- R-North, M-West and F-North -- in the first half of July.
"It is unrealistic to expect that COVID-19 pandemic can be eliminated at this stage given that community transmission is already well-established across large sections or sub-populations in the country," the report said.
On the ground, rural medical infrastructure and more crucially, women's access to reproductive health services is practically non-existent in Uttar Pradesh, reports Geetanjali Krishna.
India's willingness to play a big role in the manufacturing and to allow some of those vaccines to go to other developing countries will be an absolutely critical part of containing the pandemic, said Gates.
'Politics is in a mess. Good people have to join to clean it up.'
With the virus mutating, can vaccines be assumed safe and effective in the long run?
Three new categories -- all asymptomatic healthcare workers working in non-COVID hospitals/areas of COVID hospitals/blocks, asymptomatic frontline workers such as surveillance workers deployed in containment zones and paramilitary/police personnel involved in COVID-19 related activities -- have now been included.
The Reserve Bank on Monday asked all banks and financial institutions to assess the impact on their balance sheet, asset quality, liquidity, among others, in the wake of the potential threat arising out of the spread of coronavirus disease in India. Several confirmed cases have also been detected in India, which highlight the need of a co-ordinated strategy for handling the emerging situations to protect the resilience of the Indian financial system, RBI said in a notification addressed to banks, urban cooperative banks, NBFCs, payment and small finance banks.
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.
Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Friday said the COVID-19 vaccination drive will be extended in the coming days and asserted that there should not be any misconceptions about the two Indian vaccines being administered in the country.
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 approval by the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) was given on the basis of recommendations submitted by a COVID-19 subject expert committee (SEC) of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO).
Indian economist Kalpana Kochhar, who heads the Human Resources Department of the International Monetary Fund, is leaving the organisation to join the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the IMF announced on Wednesday. Kochhar, who served in various senior positions during her three decades at the IMF, will retire on July 30, it said.
"The concrete actions are a stern indication that Government of India is making all out efforts to increase vaccine production in the country as well as attracting foreign vaccine manufacturers to supply the required vaccine doses for national Covid vaccination programme," the ministry in a statement.
The guidelines note that while there is not enough evidence yet to measure the impact of school closures on the disease transmission rates, the adverse effects of school closures on children's safety and learning are well documented. Gains made in increasing access to children's education in recent decades risk being lost and, in the worse cases, reversed completely.
The COVID-19 vaccination drive was successfully conducted on the first day, Additional Secretary in the Union health ministry Manohar Agnani said during a press briefing. Giving an update on COVID-19 vaccination, the health ministry said 3,352 vaccination sessions were held and 1,91,181 beneficiaries vaccinated.
Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Telangana, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal -- contribute 85.5 per cent of active caseload and 87 per cent of total deaths in India.
The UK government is under increasing pressure on Monday to review its COVID-19 vaccine protocol in place for travellers from India, after its updated rules effective from next month failed to recognise Indian vaccines under an expanded list of countries.
The IMF on Tuesday cut India's economic growth forecast by 0.5 percentage points to 9 per cent for the current fiscal year, with its chief economist Gita Gopinath saying that the slight downgrade is mainly due to the impact of the spread of the Omicron variant. "If you look at the 2021-22 fiscal year, we have a slight downgrade of -0.5 percentage points and for the next fiscal year 2022-23 we have a slight upgrade of 0.5 percentage points. So, growth for the previous fiscal year is now nine per cent and for this year now is at nine per cent. We moved it up slightly," Gopinath told reporters during a news conference in Washington. In its latest update of World Economic Outlook on Tuesday, the International Monetary Fund has cut India's economic growth forecast to 9 per cent for the current fiscal year ending March 31, joining a host of agencies which have downgraded their projections on concerns over the impact of the spread of Omicron on business activity and mobility.
The novel coronavirus has mutated before, and both companies say they've found that their vaccines worked against other variations of the virus.
Facing the twin task of fighting the coronavirus pandemic today and building a better tomorrow, the world is experiencing a new Bretton Woods moment, IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva said
'The lockdown was for both: To flatten the curve or more correctly, delay the rapid spread of COVID outbreak, and to create healthcare infrastructure.'
The experts said there is a need to relook at the testing strategy in a way that it results in guiding the public health response and effectively limiting the spread of the disease.
The trial began at the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute in Seattle as the first participant received the investigational vaccine.
COVAXIN, developed by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech in collaboration with Indian Council of Medical Research and National Institute of Virology, has got the nod for human clinical trials from the Drug Controller General of India
The WHO expert noted that measures taken in India such as the nationwide lockdown have had an impact in slowing transmission but the risk of an increase in cases looms as the country opens up.
The lawsuit seeks an injunction to stop the entire rule from going into effect.
When a person gets an infection even after being vaccinated against it, it is called a breakthrough case.
The aim of the mission is to accelerate the development of at least six vaccine candidates and ensure that they are licenced and introduced in market for emergency use at the earliest.
After the outbreak of Nipah at a hamlet in Perambra last week, 16 people have tested positive, of whom 13 have died so far.
The president said he will be signing a number of executive orders over the next several days of the week.
'Given that the globally most prevalent clade of SARS-CoV-2 is also predominant in India, any vaccine or drug that gets developed in the world should also prove effective in India'
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal urged the Centre to provide medical oxygen to Delhi.
After a meeting of the Group of Ministers on coronavirus, the government has proposed a set of social distancing measures to be in force till March 31, the officials told reporters.
If we are able to provide safe, hygienic toilets, and affordable sanitary napkins, we could stop girls from dropping out of schools and help women feel more confident.
This doctor couple put their faith in India. And in return India has put faith in them.
Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai held a meeting with experts, and senior ministers and officials of his government to assess the COVID-19 situation in the state and curbs that were put in place to control its spread.
The Centre on Saturday issued fresh guidelines relaxing the nationwide lockdown, the fourth phase of which ends on May 31.
The United Kingdom government has pledged 20 million to support the "ChAdOx1 nCoV-19" coronavirus vaccine trial programme, with UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock saying the government would "throw everything at" finding a vaccine against the deadly virus.
