Indian Council of Medical Research Director General Balram Bhargava said the purpose of the COVID vaccine drive would be to break the chain of viral transmission.
Currently, the country is using two 'made-in India' jabs -- Covishield and Covaxin -- to inoculate its billion-plus population and has administered 20 crore doses since launching the world's largest vaccination drive in mid-January. A third vaccine, Russian-made Sputnik V, has been approved by the government and is being used on a smaller scale at present.
Those intending to undertake international travel for education purposes, joining employment and as part of the Indian contingent to the Tokyo Olympics will be allowed to take the second dose of Covid vaccine Covishield prior to the prescribed time interval of 84 days after the first dose.
The Kerala high court has directed the Centre to allow scheduling, on CoWIN portal, of second Covishield dose after four weeks from the first for those who want to take it earlier than the present suggested gap of 84 days.
The Centre Thursday issued guidelines for vaccination near home, making it easier for the elderly and the differently-abled to get inoculated against coronavirus close to the places of their residence.
In view of the unprecedented and peculiar circumstances under which vaccination drive is devised as an executive policy, the "wisdom of the executive should be trusted", it said.
Chairperson of the COVID Task Force for All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Dr Naveet Wig on Thursday said that the COVID-19 crisis is 'a dynamic situation' and to prevent a third wave of the pandemic, there is a need to keep changing strategies.
India will share the development story of Co-WIN, the digital platform that helped it launch and implement a nationwide COVID-19 vaccination programme, with more than 20 countries that have shown interest in adopting the portal to run their own inoculation drives.
Stressing on the need to protect both lives and livelihoods, he said public health action in India and across the world must be continually guided by evidence from four key questions -- how transmissible is the variant, severity of the disease it causes, how well vaccines and prior SARS-CoV-2 infection protect and how common people perceive risk and follow control measures.
Mandaviya reviewed the pandemic situation, status of vaccination drive and the global scenario of new variants of Covid.
'Better to prevent than to wait for evidence. Protection delayed can also mean protection denied'
The gap between second dose of COVID-19 vaccine and the third, which is being called a 'precaution dose,' is likely to be nine to 12 months, official sources said on Sunday.
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.
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.
In a letter to the principal health secretary of Maharashtra that was also marked to all states and Union Territories (UTs), the Union Health Ministry said this surge is of particular concern from the public health point of view.
As the global debate on booster shots gathers momentum, several scientists in New Delhi said the priority must be to ensure that more people are inoculated with at least their first jab.
In a virtual roundtable with healthcare workers on COVID-19, Biden alleged on Wednesday that his transition team has not been receiving any cooperation from the Trump administration.
At $37 per dose, the Pfizer vaccine is much more expensive compared to $3 per dose for the Covishield.
China has given conditional approval for a single dose COVID-19 vaccine, touted to be a rival to Johnson & Johnson's one-jab shot cleared by the United States drug regulator on Sunday.
More than 30 vaccine candidates have been supported and they are in different stages of development. Three candidates are in advanced stage of Phase I, II and III trials, and more than four are in advanced pre-clinical development stage, Choubey said.
The warning comes after two National Health Service (NHS) workers experienced 'anaphylactoid reaction' symptoms shortly after being injected, but are now said to be recovering well.
Cases with the Omicron variant have already been detected in Karnataka and Gujarat.
By 2022, there is a plan to make an mRNA-technology vaccine, for which it has tied up with Canadian firm Providence Therapeutics.
The global health agency has asked Chinese health officials to share data on genetic sequencing, hospitalisations, deaths and vaccinations.
In a statement, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said it has issued fresh guidelines for surveillance with regard to COVID-19 that will remain in force till January 31, as it asked the states and union territories to keep a strict vigil to prevent any rise in cases during the New Year celebrations and the winter season.
About 50 countries, including Canada, Mexico, Nigeria and Panama, have shown interest in having a Co-WIN like system to run their vaccination drive, a senior official said on Monday, adding India is ready to share the open source software free of cost.
Poonawalla noted that reducing the timeframe would give "real relief" to the people who want to travel abroad.
Messages of congratulations, doctors posing with a victory sign for the media with their infectious smiles -- visible even under the cover of mask -- and the many 'just got jabbed' selfie by the health workers, it was a rare and happy day at the BLK hospital, which has witnessed many dreary days in the past due to the ongoing pandemic.
'If the government does its job of vaccinating all the population with the booster dose, and also monitoring the virus, and we do our job of wearing a mask and avoiding crowded places, we will be free of this virus in a few months.' time.'
'The roadmap ahead seems very difficult especially in the rural areas where there is very poor infrastructure, vaccine reach and hesitancy.' 'These are a deadly cocktail for the next wave.'
'Despite expanded testing the incidence remains low.' 'Therefore, the focus should be on specific districts where we need to improve the testing.' 'We should have a district-centric strategy.'
'What we are actually missing in India is a platform wherein the government engages with cybersecurity experts, gets them employed and then utilises their capability to deter such attacks.'
The virus continued to spread its tentacles to new states, including Mizoram.
'If you delay the diagnosis even by 24 hours, in that 24 hours individuals would have affected more people.' 'So, contact tracing, testing, isolation, quarantine needs to continue.'
Why did the Chinese military take over the lab in Wuhan in end January? Did something go wrong? Claude Arpi glances at the mystery surrounding the origin of the coronavirus.
'65 per cent were males.' 'Age group of deaths: More were seen from age 51 to 70.' 'Saw some deaths from age 21 to the 40s.' 'About 76 to 77 per cent of patient deaths had some kind of a comorbidity.' 'The main comorbidities were the presence of diabetes, hypertension, some kind of heart diseases.'
In a surprise announcement in April, Sun and Ranbaxy -- at that time owned by Japan's Daiichi -- declared an all-stock deal to create India's largest and world's fifth-largest drugmaker in an over $4 billion deal.
Moving ahead with their new mantra -- Chalein Saath Saath: Forward Together We Go -- Prime Minister Narendra Modi and United States President Barack Obama on Tuesday vowed to deepen cooperation in every sector for the benefit of global stability and people's livelihoods over the next ten years.
This is the joint statement issued by the ministry of external affairs on the visit of US President Barack Obama to India.
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