Sonia called for cancelling all public gatherings and poll rallies in view of the rising number of coronavirus cases.
In his remarks in New Delhi at an all-party meeting held virtually, Modi said healthcare workers involved in treating COVID-19 patients, frontline workers, who include police personnel and municipal staff, and old people suffering from serious conditions would be inoculated on priority.
The COVID-19 vaccine of Biological-E is currently undergoing phase-3 clinical trial after showing promising results in phase 1 and 2 trials.
Asha Parekh seemed to be in good humour as she took her first dose of the COVID vaccination at a Mumbai hospital.
According to the organisers, based on the feedback from the NOCs and NPCs, it is expected that a significant proportion of Games participants will have been vaccinated before arriving in Japan. The new MoU adds to these efforts.
Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama was administered the first dose of anti-coronavirus vaccine at Zonal Hospital Dharamsala on Saturday morning.
With the administration of 23,46,176 vaccine doses in the last 24 hours, the cumulative COVID-19 vaccine doses administered has exceeded 90.79 crore as per provisional reports till 7 am.
India is engaged with American entities for procurement of COVID-19 vaccines from the United States and their possible manufacturing in the country subsequently, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Thursday.
The coronavirus pandemic has taught that viruses cannot be taken lightly, and the unpredictability in emerging scenarios of health have to be respected and addressed, Paul noted.
India has the capacity to store vaccines that may require a lower temperature in the range of -15 to -20 degrees Celsius and there are over 29,000 cold chain points (CCPs) across the country where vaccines are stored at the recommended temperatures, the Centre has told the Supreme Court.
After reports claimed that filings in patent offices in India, the US, and Europe did not mention ICMR or its scientists, but only BBIL and its scientists, the Hyderabad-based biotechnology (biotech) company clarified that in the "rush" to develop vaccines and file appropriate patents, BBIL had missed adding ICMR's name in the original filings.
Addressing a press briefing, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said Zydus Cadila, Sputnik V, Biological E and Gennova are other vaccines also in the pipeline which are in advanced clinical trials in India.
'Supplies should start moving to the Serum Institute without any impediments.'
'We have 25,000 private hospitals participating in this exercise and if each of these hospitals does 200 vaccinations per day, that makes it 50 lakhs.'
RIL, Capgemini, IndiGo among companies which have offered to pay their employees' vaccination cost.
Booster doses of COVID-19 vaccines are the easiest barrier that must be created immediately against Omicron, according to eminent virologist Dr T Jacob John, who noted that it may not seed the third wave of the pandemic, but breakthrough infections may be common due to the new variant.
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 immune protection may well wane somewhat, and that's what we have to monitor.' 'Should it wane to the point where vaccinated individuals are getting severe disease, then we really will need to give them booster shots and that'll apply regardless of what vaccine they've got the first time.'
As the rural areas account for more than 40% of the country's population, they need to receive at least 41.7 per cent of the doses to make vaccine administration more equitable, reports Ishaan Gera.
rediffGURU Dr Deepa Suvarna offers advice on how to protect your children from illnesses.
Russia's Sputnik V vaccine is currently being manufactured in India by Dr Reddy's Laboratories.
The official expressed hope on the success of the five vaccines that are under different phases of trial in the country.
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.
Dominic Xavier offers his take on the controversy over the cost of the COVID-19 vaccine post May 1.
When several opposition MPs expressed their desire to ask questions about the Centre's vaccination policy such as increasing the gap between two doses, the BJP MPs strongly opposed it and few of them even demanded postponement of the meeting and walked out, the sources said.
Jadhav said the country should have followed the WHO guidelines and prioritised vaccination accordingly.
'You will not have a vaccine for everyone initially.'
The vaccination rate needs to go up by three to four times, assert Ajay Shah and Amrita Agarwal.
World leaders thanked India for its help and support in combating the coronavirus pandemic through "early and meaningful" shipments of COVID-19 vaccine doses, as they addressed the high-level UN General Assembly session this year.
Around 25,000 total of all paramilitary paramedics and doctors will be vaccinated in the first phase.
'Pfizer India has submitted an application on December 4 to the DCGI seeking emergency use authorization for its COVID-19 vaccine in India'
New infections have spiked ahead of the Olympics, which are set to start in July
All players who want a visa to compete in the Australian Open will need to be fully vaccinated for COVID-19, the country's immigration minister said on Wednesday, putting Novak Djokovic's title defence and Grand Slam record bid in doubt.
The states and Union territories were also urged not to store, reserve, conserve or create a buffer stock of the COVID-19 vaccines, the Union health ministry said in a statement, a day after the start of the second phase of India's inoculation drive in which the coverage has been expanded to include everyone above 60 and those over 45 with specified co-morbidities.
'The residents are a bit apprehensive about the lack of complete trial in case of Covaxin and might not participate in huge numbers thus defeating the purpose of vaccination. We request you to vaccinate us with Covishield which has completed all stages of trial before its roll-out'
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.
Police have arrested a shopkeeper in Gujarat's Kutch district for not taking vaccine against COVID-19, against the backdrop of the state government setting July 31 as the deadline for people in such businesses to get their first jab.
The Pune-based vaccine major has entered into a collaboration with the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca to manufacture the vaccine.
Scientists around the world, including in India, suggest it hasn't been tested properly given the time constraint and there may not be enough evidence to prove its efficacy.
The CM urged the Centre to provide it 85 lakh doses per month so that all the Delhiites could be vaccinated in the next three months.
