Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) is sitting on 200 million doses of Covishield that were manufactured in December and are set to expire in September. The company is likely to destroy these vaccines if nothing works out, Sohini Das reports.
The Hyderabad-based firm completed clinical trials of the nasal vaccine with about 4,000 volunteers and there is no side effect or adverse reaction reported so far, company sources had said.
Though there is no official word, the sources said the government is not ready to give in to the indemnity demands of the US drug manufacturers against liabilities in case of adverse effects.
As per a statement issued by the civic body, the vaccination drive will resume once it receives a fresh stock of vaccines.
UN General Assembly President Philemon Yang will visit India from February 4 to 8, his first official trip as President of the 79th session. Yang highlighted India's "remarkable transformation" over the past decade, particularly in digital and technological innovation, and plans to see how these advancements have reached the grassroots level during his visit. He also praised India's contributions to peacekeeping, humanitarian efforts, and its voice for the Global South.
Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Tuesday suggested that stickers for houses to notify completion of both doses of COVID-19 vaccines should be given to fully vaccinated families to encourage uptake of vaccine among the population.
Dominic Xavier ponders the Vaccine Dilemma: Should he take the shot or not?
"Why did Modi ji's government send more vaccines abroad, while vaccinating less people in India?"
A June 11 survey by cLocalCircles across 299 districts puts overall vaccine hesitancy levels at 18 per cent, with 11 per cent of the respondents saying they were not convinced if the currently available vaccines would protect them against the new strains; and 5 per cent said they do not plan to take the vaccine at all.
'There are only two bottlenecks for universal vaccination.' 'One, is availability of the vaccine.' 'Two, is the logistics for administering the vaccine.'
This perversity in vaccine distribution needs immediate correction. It requires a complete withdrawal of the 'Liberalised Vaccine Policy', and a 100 per cent takeover of the vaccine procurement by the GoI, asserts R Ramakumar.
Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw countered Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg on Monday on his claim that after the COVID-19 pandemic, most incumbent governments, including the one in India, lost elections in 2024, asserting that his statement was 'factually incorrect'.
The cumulative number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country crossed 82 crore on Tuesday, the Union health ministry said.
Some residents also wondered if this was a bid to "divert people to private hospitals" for paid jabs rather than getting free vaccine doses at government centres.
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.
'...What is at stake, however, is his ability to assess the need for vaccinations or whether the vaccine has been tested for a sufficient period of time. And ... he has neither the knowledge nor the studies nor the research work that would allow him to form an opinion about it.'
In a letter to the prime minister, the Congress chief alleged that the new vaccine policy implies that the central government has abdicated its responsibility of providing free vaccine to all Indians between 18 and 45 years of age.
Districts with a higher literacy level tend to perform better in vaccination than districts with low levels of school-going population, finds Ishaan Gera.
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.
India achieved a "historic milestone" of administering 88.09 lakh coronavirus vaccine doses in a single day on June 21, but the numbers dipped to over 53.4 lakh on Tuesday.
'I hope that as an association we make the best decision for our business, for our health, for the tournaments, for public.'
According to Union health ministry officials, over 84.8 per cent of the adult population in India has been administered the first dose.
The Sports Ministry slammed organisers of the Australian Open, saying they have wrongfully denied Indian tennis player Aman Dahiya an opportunity to compete in the junior Grand Slam by rejecting his application for vaccine exemption.
The Centre has ruled out door-to-door vaccination of people and said the inoculation will be done at identified COVID Vaccination Centres, both government and private, registered on COWIN for 'good, germane and rational reasons'.
Seeking an apology from social media giant Meta for 'tarnishing' India's image, Bharatiya Janata Party MP Nishikant Dubey, who heads the Parliament's Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology, said on Tuesday that the panel will summon the firm following its chairman's comments that India's ruling dispensation lost the Lok Sabha election last year.
Here's a look at just some of the bigwigs who took the anti-Covid jab.
The Congress on Wednesday attacked the government over the dip in vaccination numbers after a record high earlier this week with former party chief Rahul Gandhi saying the country is not safe unless vaccination is done on a large scale but sadly the government is "unable to move beyond a PR event".
Vaccine major Serum Institute of India on Tuesday said the approval for the COVID-19 vaccine 'Covovax' would strengthen immunization initiatives across India and various lower and middle income countries across the world.
In a first of its kind, the Indian Council of Medical Research, ICMR, delivered COVID-19 vaccines via drone from the Bishnupur District Hospital to Karang island in Loktak lake in Manipur, a distance of 26 kilometres.
'If a fourth wave comes it will be a total surprise to me'
Several vaccination centres across Mumbai, including a jumbo COVID-19 facility in business district BKC, suspended inoculation on Friday morning due to a shortage of doses, BMC sources said.
We should be relieved that we got the doses but we must also know where they came from and who was and who was not responsible for this achievement, notes Aakar Patel.
To contact MyGov Corona Helpdesk chatbot, citizens can save the WhatsApp number +91 9013151515 on their phones; start a chat by typing 'Book Slot' and send it to the number.
What is foreign policy worth if it stands disconnected from domestic realities? Make no mistake, the horrifying visuals of the human suffering in metropolitan India is only the tip of the iceberg. The vast swathes of the hinterland are heaving with untold sorrows, notes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Waltz after being elected as the Co-Chair of India Caucus in January last year had said that India is the world's largest democracy and an important strategic partner for the United States.
An alert government in Delhi should have begun government-to-government discussions with Moscow the moment it came to know that Russians were developing a vaccine. That is to say, almost an year's time has been lost, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
"The vaccination schedule is considered complete 28 days after the administration of a dose for Janssen vaccine and 7 days after administration of a second dose for other vaccines (Pfizer / Comirnaty, Moderna, AstraZeneca/Vaxzevria/Covishield)," the statement added.
More than 200 million Pfizer doses have been administered in the US, and hundreds of millions more worldwide, since December.
A back of the envelope calculation shows that India has roughly over 680 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines consisting primarily of Covishield doses.
Azarenka said she believed getting vaccinated was the socially responsible thing to do
