The novel mRNA vaccine candidate, HGCO19, is supported with seed grant under the Ind-CEPI mission of the Department of Biotechnology. The mRNA vaccines do not use the conventional model to produce immune response. Instead, they carry molecular instructions to make the protein in the body through a synthetic RNA of the virus.
Anybody over 50 years of age or with co-morbidities can get a date, place and time of choice for getting the vaccine shots.
Politics, bureaucracy, ineptitude, double-standards and an attempt to politicise the fight in pseudo-nationalistic terms have all hampered the fight against this deadly virus, says Vir Sanghvi.
This will boost availability of these items as well as make them cheaper, it said, adding that Modi also directed the revenue department to ensure seamless and quick custom clearance of such equipment.
The PM-CARES fund, which has been set up to provide relief during the coronavirus pandemic, has contributed over Rs 2,200 crore for the first phase of vaccination drive, which is looking to inoculate frontline healthcare workers, the Expenditure Secretary said on Tuesday.
The Serum Institute of India, the largest vaccine maker in the world, has been chosen by Oxford and its partner AstraZeneca to manufacture the vaccine once it is ready. Trials results for the first two phases were published earlier this month.
These vaccines have not yet been approved by the World Health Organization
The government is hopeful of a speedy launch of single-dose COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik Light in India and all stakeholders, including the Russian manufacturer and its Indian partners, have been directed to fast-track the application and regulatory approval procedures for the jab to boost the country's vaccination drive, sources said.
Modi is also likely to launch the Co-WIN (COVID Vaccine Intelligence Network) App, a digital platform created for real-time monitoring of COVID-19 vaccine delivery and distribution.
'The Indian Academy of Sciences, strongly believes that any hasty solution that may compromise rigorous scientific processes and standards will likely have long-term adverse impacts of unforeseen magnitude on citizens of India'
Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Friday said the COVID-19 vaccination drive will be extended in the coming days and asserted that there should not be any misconceptions about the two Indian vaccines being administered in the country.
The first dry run of the vaccination drive took place across 125 districts covering all States/UTs on January 2. The dry run was also conducted to familiarise the state, district, block, and hospital-level officers on all aspects of the COVID-19 rollout.
'This government did not have any plan for safety stocks of essential medicines.'
While virologists say theoretically the vaccine that works on Delta should work on the Delta Plus variant as well, more research is needed.
On Wednesday, the Maharashtra government had said that it would not be able to launch the 18-45 age group vaccination drive from May 1 due to the shortage of vaccines.
Gates, who is to attend the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting, on Monday said there is reason to be optimistic than ever about the future progress using vaccines to give all children a healthy start to life.
Dr Rai, who is also a principal investigator of the Bharat Biotech Covaxin clinical trial at AIIMS, said that COVID-19 preventive measures like wearing masks, hand hygiene should be followed till there is an effective vaccine.
The Centre has also contacted five domestic and three multinational vaccine makers to understand how soon a candidate vaccine against Covid-19 will be ready.
Five vaccine candidates are in advanced stages of development in India, out of which four are in Phase II/III and one is in Phase-I/II trials.
The endemic stage is when a population learns to live with a virus.
Providing data, it said UK's Public Health England has reported high vaccine effectiveness (87.9 per cent) against the B.1.617.2 variant, most reported in India, in an observational study (concluded on May 22, 2021).
'The Union government has discouraged state and local governments from imposing restrictions on their own.' 'That advice should be withdrawn,' asserts Mihir S Sharma.
The procurement and distribution will be centralised though the government is yet to take a call on the initial number of doses that will be procured.
India is emerging as a major hub for global clinical trials and this new sector is poised to generate more revenue than the information technology industry by 2010, an industry leader has forecast.
Millions of people across the country stayed indoors on March 22, 2020 in an unprecedented and overwhelming response to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's appeal for the nationwide curfew. People used to come out briefly at 5 pm to show their gratitude to healthcare and other essential service providers with sounds of bells, conches and claps.
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.
'Nobody is attacking the company or the vaccine.' 'The concerns are about the process and the lack of transparency.'
Serum Institute of India CEO Aadar Poonawalla has said that the production of Covid-19 vaccine Covishield is in full swing in Pune and he will review the operations once he is back in the country in a few days. Poonawalla is currently in the UK to meet his family members.
During the webinar, 'COVID-19: Vaccination and Potential Return to Normalcy - If and When', Dr Hotez, an internationally-recognised physician-scientist in neglected tropical diseases and vaccine development, said that the COVID-19 vaccine rollout is "India's gift' to the world in combating the virus.
The Padma Bhushan was conferred on 17 personalities including N Chandrasekharan, chairman of Tata Sons, Krishna and Suchita Ella of Bharat Biotech, Cyrus Poonawalla, Satya Nadella, chairman of Microsoft, Sunder Pichai, chairman of Google.
Since India is one of the largest vaccine producers in the world, it is the country's 'moral responsibility' to fast-track vaccine development process to break the chain of coronavirus transmission, ICMR Director General Dr Balram Bhargava said referring to the two vaccine candidates developed indigenously.
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The Indian Council of Medical Research will start national-level sero surveys to assess the spread of Covid-19 and all states/Union territories should also be encouraged to conduct them so that information from all geographies can be collected, the Union health ministry said on Friday.
At $37 per dose, the Pfizer vaccine is much more expensive compared to $3 per dose for the Covishield.
A steady decline in new COVID-19 cases has been recorded in India for the last 20 days, with 24 states witnessing a dip in active cases since the last week, the Union health ministry said.
'We know, from our experience of this virus, that there's something known as long COVID-19, where you have this persistent fatigue and some people have lost their neurological acuteness and they are not as sharp as they used to be.'
A 40-year-old man who was a volunteer in the third phase of the ''Covidshield'' vaccine trial in Chennai has alleged serious side effects, including a virtual neurological breakdown and impairment of cognitive functions.
The Bengal outcome can have a marginal impact on national politics. Whereas elections in UP next year might still change the course ahead of the parliamentary poll in 2024, observes Virendra Kapoor.
Eminent virologist Shahid Jameel COVID-19 cases in the second wave also won't come down in as steady a fashion as they did after the first wave.
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