Union ministers Prakash Javadekar and Giriraj Singh, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and Maharashtra Governor B S Koshyari were among those who got the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine on the fifth day of the second phase of vaccination on Friday.
As on date, there has been no report of any suspected or confirmed case of Monkeypox in Mumbai, an official from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's (BMC) public health department said.
Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope warns that the state government will go aggressive if appeals to reduce social distancing are not adhered to.
The PM directed officials to evaluate various technology tools to ensure efficient and timely vaccination in due course of time. He also emphasised that detailed planning for such large scale vaccination should be undertaken immediately.
Neutralising antibody levels waned after six months in those who were fully vaccinated against the coronavirus with Covishield, Covaxin and a mix of both.
According to sources, so far only one traveller from Canada having symptoms of monkeypox infection had been isolated.
Three passengers, including a British national of Goan-origin, who arrived at the international airport near here on a flight from the United Kingdom on early Friday, tested positive for COVID-19, state Health Minister Vishwajit Rane said.
Twenty-two confirmed cases of chikungunya have been reported from 12 villages of Maharashtra's Kolhapur following fever outbreak, the state's health authorities said on Wednesday.
Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu, who hails from Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh, on Monday spoke with Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan after scores of people including children were hospitalised with an undiagnosed illness.
"Currently, 187 of the 590 passengers who returned from the UK last week are placed under institutional quarantine at various hotels," Dr Gomare said.
There are now 1,348 testing labs in the country comprising 914 in the public sector and 434 private labs.
Last year Dr Fauci had largely dismissed the theory that the deadly COVID-19 virus, due to which over 165 million people have been infected worldwide and over 3.5 million peope died so far, was genetically engineered and had leaked from a lab in Wuhan, China.
Bharat Biotech recruited 13,000 participants for the Phase-3 clinical trial of Covaxin. This is one of the largest efficacy trials held in the country.
These 25 people include the 20 who were found positive with the mutated strain on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Scientists associated with Indian SARS-CoV-2 Consortium on Genomics (INSACOG), the government panel that conducts research on different variants of the coronavirus, said they were surprised at noted virologist Shahid Jameel's decision to quit the group and wondered whether he was disillusioned with the government's handling of the pandemic.
The passenger was isolated and shifted to the civic-run Naidu Hospital after the flight arrived at the Pune airport around 7 am, an Air India official said.
As India holds its breath for the Covid vaccination to be begin, Sudhir Bisht provides a quick checklist of what you must know about the vaccines that will be administered to citizens.
The weather conditions in Pune could be conducive to the swine flu virus, which is spreading rapidly in the city, the National Institute of Virology said on Tuesday. "Pune's climate at present is not too hot nor too cold, which may be conducive for the survival of the swine flu virus," NIV Director A C Mishra said. The NIV has issued guidelines to authorities in Pune on how to deal with patients and on screening of suspected cases.
One has to stay in isolation for 21 days from the last contact with a monkeypox patient or their contaminated materials, they said.
'Never believed that we humans have the capability at this time to create such a virus'
However, the disease, a milder form of dengue, has nothing to do with bird flu, the officials said.
Over 200 migratory birds were found dead in a lake at Gandheli in Aurangabad district of Maharashtra, official sources said in Aurangabad Friday.
"We raced against time and were the first country to report cases to the world," Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi said in interviews to the official media over the weekend.
After confirmation of the first monkeypox death in the country by the National Institute of Virology, health experts advised strengthening the surveillance to avoid silent transmission of monkeypox.
The ICMR-NICED authorities said it could be possibly because the kits "have not been standardized"
"The compensation for serious adverse event will be paid by sponsor (BBIL) in case if the SAE is proven to be causally related to the vaccine," the consent form said.
They said after examining and analysing the adverse event reports, causal relationship and all related details shared by or to be shared by the WHO, the committee will advise and recommend further course of action to the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI).
'Forcing the development of an indigenous vaccine as a cure for COVID-19, bypassing all health & safety norms, to be announced by PM Modi on Independence Day is fraught with horrendous human costs'
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
'FBI Director Christopher Wray confirmed that the Bureau has assessed that the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic likely originated from a lab incident in Wuhan, China,' tweeted the FBI.
The US Food and Drug Administration had in February approved Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine that works with just one dose for emergency use.
US intelligence agencies said they will 'rigorously' examine the emerging information to determine if the COVID-19 outbreak began through contact with infected animals or due to an accident at a laboratory in China.
A 31-year-old man from Kannur in Kerala tested positive for monkeypox on Monday, making it the second confirmed case of the disease in India, a Union health ministry official said.
The outbreak of the infection, a newly emerging zoonosis that causes severe disease in both animals and humans, is suspected to be from an unused well in Perambra which was infested with bats.
The officials of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) also said there are now 1,065 testing labs in the country -- 768 in the public sector and 297 in private.
'The lockdown was for both: To flatten the curve or more correctly, delay the rapid spread of COVID outbreak, and to create healthcare infrastructure.'
Phase-I clinical trials have revealed "excellent safety" of the two candidate vaccines indigenously developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with Indian Council of Medical Research and Cadila Healthcare Ltd and their immunogenicity testing is now in progress, minister of state for health Ashwini Choubey informed the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.
