So vaccinate employees and families, staff at home, rickshaw drivers, milkmen, service providers, shopkeepers and street vendors, says Naushad Forbes.
As India gets ready to roll out one of the largest vaccine programmes, billionaire Mukesh Ambani on Tuesday said his group is working with authorities to provide technology tools and backbone for mass inoculation against COVID-19. Ambani's telecom venture Jio was rolled out four years back, offering free voice calling and dirt-cheap data. Today, Jio is India's largest telecom operator with over 400 million users, each connected to the internet. At a Facebook event, Ambani said the government's digital push kept the country running even during the pandemic and is now helping in the rollout of one of the largest vaccination programmes.
There are a number of vaccine candidates already in clinical trial and a few out of those candidates have completed phase 1/2 status, he said, adding that there are trials that will be going into phase three sometime at the end of July and then others will follow in the months of August, September and October.
When fathers exercise, children are healthier, finds a study!
The ICMR has approved over 200 labs (both public and private) for COVID-19 testing through-PCR machines.
Hari Shukla from Tyne and Wear said he feels it is his duty to receive his first of the two-dose vaccine, a moment UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson hailed as a "huge step forward" as Tuesday was dubbed "V-Day" or Vaccine Day in the UK.
'A third wave is possible, but we must try to restrict it to a low level by adopting all personal protection and public policy measures to prevent viral transmission, while speeding up vaccination.'
'What is happening now is the virus is trying to survive inside us, and we are also trying to survive.' 'It is actually a fight. And the advantage the virus has is it multiplies very, very fast.' 'Within a second it can make 100 copies. Our cells are not like that.'
In an exclusive interview to rediff.com, TnQ Books and Journals Manging Director Mariam Ram speaks about the growth of TnQ.
'The world over, everybody is asking for the same medicines, same APIs, same KSMs.' 'However, there is just one supplier -- China -- for the entire world.'
Experts feel the figures are modest for a count of the size of 1.3 billion and "much more number of tests" are needed to combat COVID-19 outbreak in the country.
A revolutionary new study may boost the effectiveness of chemotherapy drugs and significantly curb the usual, horrible side effects.
Long-term exposure to chronically high PM2.5 levels weakens the ability of the lungs to fend off infections, therefore making people more susceptible to COVID-19, the scientists said.
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.
'People had said it will explode and everyone will die. Nothing of that sort has happened.' 'Our government has done a splendid job so far.'
Pfizer and BioNTech said they have concluded phase 3 study of their mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine candidate BNT162b2, meeting all primary efficacy endpoints.
Pune's Serum Institute of India, the world's largest vaccine maker by volume, is placing its bets on the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine candidate AZD1222 with CEO Adar Poonawalla stating he would start manufacturing at personal risk.
A Swedish footballer has hit out after being sent off for breaking wind during a match.
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.
To enable large-scale vaccine studies to take place across the UK, the aim is to get 500,000 people signed up by October, which is considered vital in the fight against coronavirus.
Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd launched an anti-retroviral product, ABACAVIR, in India. The product, bioequivalent to the innovator brand, will be marketed in India under the brand name VIROL as 300 mg tablet formulation.
The request was conveyed by Chief of the Royal Nepalese Army (RNA) Gen. Pyar Jung Thapa to the Indian Ambassador to Nepal Shiv Shanker Mukherjee.
Dr Prashanth Rangan was among the 22 outstanding early-career researchers who were named Pew Scholars in the Biomedical Sciences. Rediff.com's George Joseph reports
Two kinds of diagnostic tests are being currently used in India -- RT-PCR test and rapid antibodies test -- as per the global health norms.
The ICMR is working on a war footing to develop the testing ecosystem -- especially for the screening blood tests. NIV, Pune, is in the process of validating antibody-based screening kits.
The Indian government and private firms have stepped up efforts to develop a vaccine to halt the spread of COVID-19 which has claimed over 3,700 lives with more than 1,25,000 cases in the country.
What worries health experts is that Bihar's testing rate per million is less than one-third of the national average of 6,622 tests per million, reports M I Khan.
Maggie is among the first set of people contacted in advance by the NHS for the jab based on a pre-determined health risk criteria and will include 87-year-old British Indian grandfather of nine Hari Shukla, who will get his first dose at a hospital in Newcastle.
Not to say that India couldn't have handled the situation better, but on average, it didn't do anywhere near as badly as the naysayers make it out argues Rajeev Srinivasan.
Prior to his speech Trump tossed masks into the crowd.
Joint Secretary in the Health Ministry Lav Agarwal claimed that India has been doing better than many other countries on the outcome ratio, which is the number of recoveries from coronavirus infection versus the number of deaths.
'If people use the mask properly, we can confidently say that this is as protective as the best mask in the market.'<
'I can say with confidence that any future SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, developed anywhere in the world, would have to be manufactured in India, if it is to be affordable and of high quality.'
'You will still want to take all the necessary precautions, which is the right thing to do.'
'The fruition of Nobel's hope lies in the response of a caring government that can rise above politics and propaganda, not in the frenetic raptures of a public that worships fame for fame's sake,' says Sunanda K Datta-Ray.
'Wastewater containing excreted material can tell us how a community is doing in a particular area pertaining to any epidemic, pandemic, and other bacterial and viral diseases.'
'If we wear a mask, social distance and vaccinate as many people, we may come out of this pandemic in 6 months' time.' 'If we decide to be disciplined, we can get out of this pandemic in the next 6 months.' 'If not, it is any body's guess.'
'Whenever you roll out: effectiveness is important, operational logistics are important, side effects are important and vaccine hesitancy is important.'
'What proportion of the people require the vaccine for us to manage this entire COVID-19 situation?'
'But to see the effects of that, it will take a week or two more.'
