The Union government's role and the prices announced by the vaccine makers raises far too many disquieting questions, observes Prosenjit Datta.
The Johnson and Johnson vaccine, which works with one dose instead of two, got approval on Saturday, the third vaccine cleared in the country after emergency use authorisation (EUA) was given to two-dose shots from Pfizer and Moderna in December last year.
'If a fourth wave comes it will be a total surprise to me'
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
Dominic Xavier offers his take on the vaccine crisis angering India's youth.
India is committed to supplying COVID-19 vaccines to other nations and such supplies are likely to begin by the end of this year, as the abundant production will not just meet domestic needs but also generate surplus for exports a top government official said on Monday.
Hockley was thankful they did not have to introduce vaccine mandates for players and that the idea was "almost irrelevant" due to the vaccination rate.
'Antiviral treatment will have no change. Spike protein change may affect the immunity protection.'
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will flag off the first phase of the pan India roll-out of COVID-19 vaccination drive at 10.30 am via video conferencing.
There is confusion over the United Kingdom government's vaccine recognition process for Indian travellers as even though Oxford/AstraZeneca Covishield, the India-manufactured Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, is on an updated international travel advisory, India is not yet on a list of 17 approved countries.
'Promises of free vaccination, it appears, are good only for winning elections, and dumping the people thereafter'
"Proud of all those who are making our vaccination drive a success," Modi said.
There was the mistaken belief that there was no risk of a second wave anytime soon.
For vaccination, online registration is mandatory. Thereafter, eligible beneficiaries will be informed on their registered mobile number about the nearest vaccination facility, and the date and time of vaccination.
Novak Djokovic, the world number one ranked men's player, has reiterated his stand about freedom of choice over taking the COVID-19 vaccine as suspense grows over his participation at the Australian Open in January.
'In a world which is full of categories, hatred and ideologies, there was this basic decency.'
'People on the wait list will be accommodated for vaccination when the scheduled beneficiaries don't turn up.'
The Centre is looking to procure around 1 billion syringes between September and December to support the COVID-19 vaccination drive.
Adar Poonawalla says it took a five-minute chat with his father Cyrus before making the decision to manufacture Covishield. The bet paid off, and handsomely. Serum Institute now has the capacity to make 4 billion doses of Covishield annually.
The production of Covaxin will increase from the current 10 million doses per month to 60 million-70 million by July-August.
The researchers analysed 2580,021 test results from nose and throat swabs taken from 384,543 participants aged 18 years or older between December 1, 2020 and May 16, 2021.
Novak Djokovic has so far declined to disclose whether he is vaccinated and his father told Serbia's TV Prva that governing body Tennis Australia's stance on players being vaccinated was tantamount to "blackmail".
The National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune under the ICMR has isolated the monkeypox virus from the clinical specimen of a patient, which can pave the way for development of diagnostic kits and vaccines against the disease, officials said on Wednesday.
The costs of providing free vaccines are way lower than the costs of a freewheeling epidemic.
'The key purpose of vaccination is to prevent hospitalisation, severe disease, and death.' 'All vaccines work equally, although mild disease cannot be prevented.'
As India begins vaccinating the younger population, the most vulnerable remain largely unvaccinated.
Kanpur city Magistrate Himanshu Gupta confirmed that Kuldeep had received his first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine at the Jogeshwar Hospital in Govind Nagar.
Djokovic has refused to take the vaccine and appears set to miss out on the year's last Grand Slam
SII would be scaling up its AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine manufacturing capacity to 200 million doses a month from 100 million a month now, reports Sohini Das.
According to the study, 'mixed' schedules of these vaccines induced high concentrations of antibodies against the SARS-CoV2 spike IgG protein when doses were administered four weeks apart.
'Our study shows a greater risk reduction for people who received an mRNA vaccine after having received a first dose of a vector-based, as compared to people having received the vector-based vaccine for both doses,' Nordstrom said.
Smriti Mandhana, on Tuesday received the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine.
'In India, there's currently evidence the Centre has not managed a smooth vaccine rollout.' 'It is now falling back on blaming states, which are facing vaccine shortages,' points out Devangshu Datta.
'I want to send a positive message to people that they should not fear the Covid vaccine.'
He said that he has got a reply that "chief secretary will look into the matter."
Delhi on Monday sounded an alert of its depleting vaccine stock, with Health Minister Satyendar Jain saying that the national capital has only one day's Covaxin jabs left and its Covishield doses will last for just three to four days.
The West Bengal government is issuing certificates of COVID-19 vaccination to the people in the age group of 18-44 sponsored by the state with the photograph of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
A team at Bristol University used recently developed techniques to validate that the vaccine accurately follows the genetic instructions programmed into it by the Oxford University team.
'There is more likelihood of dying from lightning than from vaccine induced blood clots.'
