Six Covid-19 cases were reported on Wednesday after screening 3,476 passengers of 11 flights that arrived in India from "at-risk" countries and the samples have been sent for genomic sequencing, the Health Ministry said amid concerns over the 'Omicron' variant of coronavirus.
Given the robust and statute-based death registration system in India, while some cases could go undetected as per the principles of infectious disease and its management, missing out on the deaths is unlikely, the Union health ministry said.
According to CoWIN data, only 73 vaccination centres are currently active in India, of which 32 are government-run.
The vaccine option for this age group would only be Covaxin, according to guidelines issued by the Union Health Ministry on December 27.
The end-to-end exercise was undertaken in Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh, Rajkot and Gandhinagar of Gujarat, Ludhiana and Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar of Punjab, and Sonitpur and Nalbari districts of Assam on Monday and Tuesday.
More than 1.82 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses are available with states and union territories, and over 4 lakh will be received by them within the next three days, the Union health ministry said.
The Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium is closely tracking the new variant of COVID-19 called B.1.1.529 and its presence has not been detected in the country yet, officials said on Friday.
The decision empowers pregnant women to make an informed choice on taking the Covid vaccination, the ministry said, adding these women can now register on CoWIN or walk-in to the nearest Covid vaccination centre to get themselves inoculated.
A bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and M R Shah took serious note of Maharashtra government's shifting patients lodged in mental health institutes to homes for beggars and asked it to discontinue the practice immediately saying it is counter-productive and runs against the provisions of Mental Health Act.
Authorities in Kuwait have launched a crackdown on illegal property extensions in the wake of a devastating fire at a seven-storey building that claimed the lives of 50 people, including 46 Indians, according to a media report on Saturday.
The death toll mounted to 4,75,128 with the addition of 393 fatalities, according to the data updated at 8 am.
This is the fourth such recruitment drive proposed to be undertaken by the Narendra Modi government which had in 2018 initiated lateral entry.
Finance ministry considers tax sops, regulation of hospitals to make health care affordable.
The death toll has climbed to 5,26,600 with 70 new fatalities, the data updated at 8 am stated.
The Jharkhand government has asked health officials to remain on alert and arrange isolation beds in all district hospitals after a seven-year-old girl was detected with symptoms similar to monkeypox in Garhwa, an official said on Wednesday.
Ayushman Bharat aims at providing a cover of Rs 5 lakh per family annually and is aimed at benefitting more than 10 crore poor families across the country.
A rise in the number of daily COVID-19 cases and mortality has been observed in Assam, West Bengal, Odisha, Bihar and Jharkhand, indicating the pandemic is moving eastwards, the Union health ministry said.
'These number surges will be the outcome of emerging virus variants, loss of vaccine- or infection-acquired protective immunity in people, and environmental factors'
Maharashtra continues to be the worst affected by the pandemic with 2,52,721 active cases, 11,62,585 cured and discharged cases and 38,347 deaths.
The government would be setting up a National Health Protection Council, National Governance Board and National Health Agency before roll-out of the scheme on August 15.
The states and Union territories were also urged not to store, reserve, conserve or create a buffer stock of the COVID-19 vaccines, the Union health ministry said in a statement, a day after the start of the second phase of India's inoculation drive in which the coverage has been expanded to include everyone above 60 and those over 45 with specified co-morbidities.
In a letter to all states and Union territories, the ministry highlighted that under the emergency use authorisation, coronavirus vaccination is indicated only for 18 years and above. If required, COVID-19 vaccine and other vaccines should be separated by an interval of at least 14 days.
The Union Health Ministry has admitted that the present pictorial warnings on tobacco products have not been effective as people did not understand their message of caution.
The ministry, however, said it could not be sufficiently established yet if these variants were behind the recent spike in COVID-19 cases in some states.
The Union health ministry said 6 persons who returned to India from the UK have tested positive for the new strain of the virus.
Kuwaiti authorities have identified the bodies of 45 Indians and three Filipino nationals killed in the tragic fire incident in a building housing foreign workers in the Gulf Kingdom, a top official said on Thursday.
The relaxation has been given to facilitate "smooth conduct of air operations", the ministry's order stated.
In a letter to states and UTs on Monday, Additional Secretary in the Union Health Ministry Arti Ahuja advised them to pay attention to this aspect immediately and increase the testing in a strategic manner keeping in view the trend of case positivity in specific areas.
According to Ashraf Al Qudra, the health ministry spokesperson in Gaza, 4,104 children, 2,641 women and 611 elderly individuals are among the casualties.
Rai said as informed by the health ministry, the central government has been providing required technical and financial assistance to all states and Union Territories (UTs) for strengthening their healthcare system, including management of the COVID-19 public health challenge, from time to time, and the financial assistance to states and UTs is provided under the National Health Mission (NHM).
According to the sources, there are limited prospects of J&J exporting its vaccine from the US to other countries in the near future and the "entire production" at the BE facilities in India, beginning July/August, will be handed over to the pharma giant under a contract between the companies.
The Centre on Friday deputed multi-disciplinary teams to Kerala, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Manipur in view of the high number of COVID-19 cases being reported by these states.
On-site registration and appointment has now been enabled for the 18-44 years age group on the CoWin platform for COVID-19 vaccination, the Union health ministry said.
According to the sources, the vaccine will be much more affordable than existing ones manufactured by two foreign companies. India's drug regulator in July had granted market approval for the Pneumococcal Polysaccharide Conjugate vaccine, after reviewing the phase 1, 2 and 3 clinical trial data submitted by the Pune-based firm.
Amid a spike in Covid-19 infections in some parts of the country, the Centre on Wednesday asked states and Union territories to consider imposing local restrictions in public observance of the upcoming festivals and limit or do away with mass gatherings for effective control of the pandemic.
The government on Friday approved an electric-vehicle policy, under which duty concessions will be given to companies setting up manufacturing units in the country with a minimum investment of $500 million, a move aimed at attracting major global players like US-based Tesla. According to an official statement, the companies setting up manufacturing facilities for e-vehicles will be allowed to import a limited number of cars at lower customs duty. The policy seeks to promote India as a manufacturing destination for EVs and attract investment from reputed global EV manufacturers, it added.
The Centre on Tuesday placed orders for 44 crore doses of Covishield and Covaxin, a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the Centre would take over the state procurement quota and provide free jabs to state governments for inoculation of all above the age of 18.
His tenure was till December 5, 2027, and he would have become Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) after incumbent Rajiv Kumar retired in February next year.
In the event of a war with China, AMCA deep strikes would target China's rail and road links with Tibet, isolating PLA divisions there.
As the CBI continues to probe into the NEET-UG paper leak case, career experts help us understand what the future holds for undergraduate medical aspirants.
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