Bharat Biotech had said last month that it expects approval for its COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin from the World Health Organisation for emergency use listing during July-September.
The coronavirus variant B.1.617 first identified in India last year has been classified as a "variant of global concern", with some preliminary studies showing that it spreads more easily, a senior WHO official had said on Monday.
While a recent study has claimed that dining out, and grocery shopping could be more dangerous than air travel during the COVID-19 pandemic, partly due to special ventilation systems in airplanes, some scientists say such a comparison cannot be made without knowing if mask-wearing and social distancing norms are properly followed in each of these scenarios.
The Centre has asked states and union territories witnessing surge in new COVID-19 cases and high active caseload to continue with the strategy of 'test, track and treat' that had yielded rich dividends at the height of the pandemic and accelerate vaccination for priority population groups in districts reporting higher infections on mission mode.
Since jobs will remain scarce for the foreseeable future, an unemployment allowance should be the next big social-security initiative, suggests T N Ninan.
'Whenever you roll out: effectiveness is important, operational logistics are important, side effects are important and vaccine hesitancy is important.'
The study estimates that the risk of reinfection with the Omicron variant is 5.4 times greater than that of the Delta variant.
The decision to allow general public to travel on Mumbai's local trains will be taken after a week, depending on the COVID-19 situation in the city, Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar said.
Dr Anthony Fauci has been named as Chief Medical Adviser to the President on COVID-19, while Dr Rochelle Walensky has been named as Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; and Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith as COVID-19 Equity Task Force Chair.
India is struggling with a second wave of the pandemic with more than 3,00,000 daily new coronavirus cases being reported in the past few days, and hospitals are reeling under a shortage of medical oxygen and beds.
In a series of tweets on Friday, the Indian-American physician said that his 4-year-old daughter last week tested positive for the virus first with fever and sore throat.
Experts said the strain has not propelled a surge in cases like Omicron, but advised strict adherence to COVID-19-appropriate behaviour.
For the first time in seven years, respondents expressing dissatisfaction with the Modi government's performance outnumbered those satisfied with it.
Green think tank Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) said the ongoing smog episode is a public health emergency.
A third wave of COVID-19 -- if it occurs -- is unlikely to be as severe as the second wave given the extent of spread of coronavirus infections that has already taken place in the country, according to a study.
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.
The UK on Saturday detected two cases of the new COVID-19 variant, Omicron, according to health secretary Sajid Javid as he added four more African countries to Britain's travel red list.
The WHO has countries to enhance surveillance and sequencing efforts to better understand circulating SARS-CoV-2 variants, submit complete genome sequences and associated metadata to a publicly available database.
Amid increasing cases of monkeypox being reported in non-endemic countries, the government on Tuesday issued guidelines directing district surveillance units to consider even one such case as an outbreak and initiating a detailed investigation through the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme.
As per the Breast Size Satisfaction Survey (BSSS), 48% women wanted larger breasts, 23% wanted smaller breasts.
It is necessary to have a dramatic increase in the number of rapid tests for COVID-19 conducted on a large number of people and that should become the basis for estimating the morbidity and mortality due to COVID-19, not relying only on hospital reports, says Professor K Srinivasan.
Rai said as informed by the health ministry, the central government has been providing required technical and financial assistance to all states and Union Territories (UTs) for strengthening their healthcare system, including management of the COVID-19 public health challenge, from time to time, and the financial assistance to states and UTs is provided under the National Health Mission (NHM).
Researchers at Public Health Scotland and the University of Edinburgh, UK, found that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine offered better protection against the Delta variant compared to the Oxford-AstraZeneca preventive, known as Covishield in India.
Scientists have identified and tested an antibody that limits the severity of infections from a variety of coronaviruses, including those that cause COVID-19 as well as the SARS illness.
Japan's Asahi Shimbun, an official partner of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, called for the Summer Games to be cancelled in an editorial
The perception is rapidly gaining ground that though the chief minister is from the Shiv Sena, the government is being run by the NCP.
The Centre on Thursday advised states slated to hold assembly polls in the next few months to ramp up COVID vaccination exponentially to protect the vulnerable population given the steady rise in cases of the Omicron variant of coronavirus in India.
Only Indian players can get vaccinated here, the BCCI source said.
The decision to prohibit people, who were yet to receive both doses of COVID-19 vaccine, from using public transport in the state had been taken to ensure those unvaccinated do not endanger the lives of others, it said.
The guidelines note that while there is not enough evidence yet to measure the impact of school closures on the disease transmission rates, the adverse effects of school closures on children's safety and learning are well documented. Gains made in increasing access to children's education in recent decades risk being lost and, in the worse cases, reversed completely.
The temporary ban begins on Monday and applies to any travellers who have visited India within 14 days of their intended arrival date in Australia.
'If you don't have a strong political leadership, however much expertise a country may have, in pandemic preparedness or infectious disease, will not matter.' 'It's really about having strong political leadership, that is proactive, that prioritises taking the right action.' 'And if you don't have that, then you will have a much worse pandemic experience.'
With the Omicron variant of coronavirus slowly spreading its tentacles in the country, a number of states enhanced surveillance to trace, track and quarantine contacts of COVID-19 positive persons while Delhi began genome sequencing of samples of all infected people and has prohibited Christmas and New Year gatherings.
A set of seven symptoms, considered together, can be used to maximise detection of COVID-19 in the community, according to a study.
ICMR says it is following all globally accepted norms to fast-track vaccine and wants to 'cut red tape'.
'The question is really can we prevent half a million deaths.' 'We are fast approaching that number.'
PHE estimates that the vaccination programme in England has prevented 22 million infections, around 52,600 hospitalisations and between 35,200 and 60,000 deaths.
There is no proof at the moment. Even vegetarians have been affected because this is a virus which travels through droplet infection and enters the body, say experts. However, people who are taking a lot of fruits and vegetables as part of their natural diet have better innate immunity.
'Our city is still in a public health crisis and this behaviour is wholly unacceptable'
England Test captain Joe Root is keen to play international cricket this summer but not by compromising on quality of the game or its intensity, the 29-year-old has said. With professional cricket suspended because of the coronavirus pandemic, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is considering playing the series against West Indies and Pakistan behind closed doors.
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