Heena Sharma Blog

  Amid the scare from the Omicron variant of COVID-19, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Monday said there is need to take a decision at the national level on whether a booster dose of the vaccine is required to curb the pandemic. Speaking after paying tribute to legendary social reformer Babasaheb Ambedkar at Chaityabhoomi in Dadar here, he said information available showed that those who had taken both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine had also got infected with the Omicron variant. Is booster dose required then? We have doses available today. There is a need to take a decision at the national level in this regard I think. There are different opinions about it. So, it should be told why it needs to be given or why it shouldn't. Only experts who have researched it (the infection) can talk about it," Pawar said. Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and the state administration are keeping a close tab on the current situation, the senior NCP leader said. Read More ...

  India added 18,833 new coronavirus infections taking the country's tally of COVID-19 cases to 3,38,71,881, while the active cases declined to 2,46,687, the lowest in 203 days, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Wednesday. The death toll climbed to 4,49,538 with 278 fresh fatalities, according to the data updated at 8 am. The daily rise in new coronavirus infections remained below 30,000 for the 12th straight day. The active cases comprise 0.73 per cent of the total infections, the lowest since March 2020, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 97.94 per cent, the highest since March 2020, the ministry said. A decrease of 6,215 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours. India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 2020, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16. It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on O...

  India's COVID-19 vaccination coverage has crossed the 84 crore mark, the Union Health Ministry informed on Friday. "With the administration of 72,20,642 vaccine doses in the last 24 hours, India's COVID-19 vaccination coverage crossed the landmark of 84 crores (84,15,18,026) as per provisional reports till 7 am today. This has been achieved through 82,33,242 sessions," the ministry said in a press release. As per the data from the ministry, Uttar Pradesh is leading in the vaccination coverage with 9,88,83,207 doses administered in the state. Meanwhile, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh have administered 7,69,21,190 and 5,98,81,731 vaccine doses respectively so far. Further, it has been informed that 32,542 patients have recovered from COVID-19 infection in the last 24 hours, increasing the cumulative tally of recovered patients to 3,28,48,273. Consequently, India's recovery rate stands at 97.78 per cent, the highest since March 2020. Read More

  The World Health Organisation has said that it is closely monitoring a new coronavirus "variant of interest" named Mu, warning that the new variant shows signs of possible resistance to vaccines. Mu - also known by its scientific name as B.1.621 - was first identified in Colombia in January 2021, and since then, there have been "sporadic reports" of cases and some larger outbreaks in South America and Europe, the UN health agency said in its weekly bulletin on the pandemic on Tuesday. The cases of the Mu variant have also been reported in the UK, Europe, the US and Hong Kong. The new 'variant of interest' is being closely monitored, the UN health agency said. Although the global prevalence of the Mu variant among sequenced COVID-19 cases is currently below 0.1%, its prevalence in Colombia (39%) and Ecuador (13%) has consistently increased, it said. The new variant was added to the WHO's watchlist on August 30 after it was detected in 39 cou...

  An Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) study conducted in Chennai has found that the Delta variant has the potential to infect both vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals, but it reduces mortality among the former group. According to a study published in the Journal of Infection on August 17 and approved by the Institutional Ethics Committee of ICMR-National Institute of Epidemiology, Chennai indicates that the prevalence of the Delta variant or B.1.617.2 was not different between the vaccinated and unvaccinated groups. "B.1.617.2 has the potential to infect both vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals. However, the progression of illness seems to be prevented by vaccination. Therefore, non-pharmaceutical interventions must continue to slow down the transmission. Additionally, the pace and scale of vaccination have to be increased to mitigate the further waves of the pandemic," the report read. "Systematic genomic surveillance must be carried out to moni...

  Even as foreign Covid-19 vaccines get the Indian regulator’s nod, actual availability may be still some time away. Sources claim that India is not keen to ‘bow down’ to demands related to indemnity against legal liabilities in case any vaccine recipient develops severe adverse reactions post inoculation. “Talks are on with foreign vaccine makers. However, there is a general consensus that if indemnity is given, then it will be for all vaccine players, not just a handful,” said a senior government official who added that no final decision has been taken on the matter yet. US vaccine makers including Pfizer, Moderna have sought indemnity against adverse side effects following vaccination. One source in the government pointed out that indemnity sought in the ‘current form’ may not be granted, and India has proposed some changes in the clauses. “There are enough options available before India now, and supplies are expected to increase from September-October onwards. Unless the...

  Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged 2 billion doses of Chinese vaccines would be supplied to the world through this year, an increase that would add to country's efforts as the largest global exporter of COVID-19 vaccines . Xi's announcement was delivered at the International Forum on COVID-19 Vaccine Cooperation, state media reported Wednesday, which China hosted virtually. That figure likely includes the 770 million doses China has already donated or exported already since September last year, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Most of the Chinese shots have been exported under bilateral deals. It is unclear if the figure also includes the agreements with the COVAX mechanism where two Chinese vaccine manufacturers will provide up to 550 million doses. Xi also promised to donate $100 million to the UN-backed COVAX program, which aims to distribute vaccines to low- and middle-income countries, the official Xinhua News Agency said Wednesday night. Vaccine ...

  Vaccine maker Novavax announced Thursday it has asked regulators in India, Indonesia and the Philippines to allow emergency use of its COVID-19 vaccine -- offering its shot to some low-income countries before rich ones with ample supplies. US-based Novavax partnered with the Serum Institute of India to apply in the three countries, and plans later this month to also seek the World Health Organization review needed to be part of the COVAX global vaccine programme. Novavax CEO Stanley Erck called the submissions an important step toward access to millions of doses of a safe and effective vaccine for countries with an urgent need to control the pandemic. The company announced it also plans to submit applications in Britain soon, followed by Europe, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, but not in the US until later in the year. The Novavax two-dose shot is made with lab-grown copies of the spike protein that coats the coronavirus. That's very different than other widely used ...

  The COVID-19 vaccination drive was suspended at civic and government-run centres in Mumbai on Wednesday due to paucity of vaccine doses, according to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. In a statement issued on Tuesday, the BMC said the inoculation drive will resume once it receives a fresh stock of vaccines. "Citizens of Mumbai are constantly informed about the vaccination, depending upon the stock of vaccines received, and an appropriate decision is taken," it said. This is the first time that the city civic authority has suspended the inoculation drive this month due to shortage of vaccines. Last month, it had suspended the vaccination drive in the city at least thrice because of the same reason. According to the BMC, so far 73,36,171 citizens have been inoculated in the metropolis. Out of them, 18,09,075 beneficiaries have received both the doses. Read More

  India logged 43,509 new coronavirus infections taking the total tally of COVID-19 cases to 3,15,28,114, while the active cases registered an increase for the second consecutive day, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Thursday. The death toll climbed to 4,22,662 with 640 fresh fatalities. The active cases have increased to 4,03,840 and comprise 1.28 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 97.38 per cent, the data updated at 8 am showed. An increase of 4,404 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours. The weekly positivity rate was recorded at 2.38 per cent, according to the ministry. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 3,07,01,612, while the case fatality rate stands at 1.34 per cent, the data stated. Cumulative vaccine doses administered so far has reached 45.07 crore under the nationwide vaccination drive. Read More

  India on Monday recorded 39,361 cases of Covid-19 and 416 deaths, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare data showed. The country now has 4,11,189 active cases and has witnessed a total of 4,20,967 deaths so far. According to the government, a total of 35,968 people were discharged from hospitals and health centres in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of cured to 3,05,79,106 till date as the virus continued to infect less than one lakh people over the last 48 days. According to the health ministry data, a total of 43,51,96,001 Covid vaccine doses have been administered in India so far, including 18,99,874 in the last 24 hours. The total number of samples tested so far has reached 45,62,89,567 as on July 24, including 17,18,756 samples tested on Saturday. Read More

  More than 1.54 crore balance and unutilised COVID-19 vaccine doses are still available with the states, UTs and private hospitals to be administered, the Union Health Ministry said on Monday. Over 38.86 crore vaccine doses have been provided to states and UTs so far through all sources and a further 63,84,230 doses are in the pipeline, it said. Of this, the total consumption including wastage is 37,31,88,834 doses, according to the data available at 8 am. The new phase of universalisation of COVID-19 vaccination commenced from June 21. Read More  

  The global death toll from COVID-19 eclipsed 4 million Wednesday as the crisis increasingly becomes a race between the vaccine and the highly contagious delta variant. The tally of lives lost over the past year and a half, as compiled from official sources by Johns Hopkins University, is about equal to the number of people killed in battle in all of the world's wars since 1982, according to estimates from the Peace Research Institute Oslo. The toll is three times the number of people killed in traffic accidents around the globe every year. It is about equal to the population of Los Angeles or the nation of Georgia. It is equivalent to more than half of Hong Kong or close to 50% of New York City. Even then, it is widely believed to be an undercount because of overlooked cases or deliberate concealment. Read More

  Hospitality firm OYO on Tuesday said it will show COVID-19 vaccination status of the staff of its partner hotels on its app as it believes that such initiative will be a key factor in building trust and confidence among consumers when they are ready to travel again. The initiative, 'VaccinAid' is crucial to aid the recovery of the impacted tourism and travel industry, OYO said. "Vaccination is the most important intervention against COVID-19. We are launching an industry-first feature, VaccinAid, to show self-reported vaccination status of hotel staff across OYOs," OYO Founder and Group CEO Ritesh Agarwal said in a tweet. OYO's guest surveys show that 87 per cent will prefer hotels with immunised staff when they plan to travel again. "Vaccination visibility when self-reported timely and accurately will become a confidence builder for travel recovery," he added. "VaccinAid is our small attempt to promote the larger cause of vaccination am...

  In a much-awaited move, India has allowed Covid vaccination for all above 18 years of age, starting May 1. The decision, taken at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday, is expected to change the course of the pandemic currently raging through the country. India Inc and political parties have for long demanded the opening up of vaccination for all adults. In a departure from the current policy, the government has also allowed states to procure additional vaccine doses directly from the manufacturers. Vaccine supply to open market and industries has been permitted as well with conditions. In fact, the government will allow the imported ready-to-use vaccines to be entirely utilised in the open market. While the pricing arrangements have not been revealed, the latest announcement clubbed with the recent proposal to fast-track clearances could attract a host of foreign vaccine-makers, according to officials. Vaccination would continue free of cost in governm...

  More people were diagnosed with Covid-19 during the past seven days than any other week since the start of the pandemic — topping 5.2 million globally — with the worst outbreaks accelerating in many countries that are ill-equipped to deal with them. The worrisome trend, just days after the world surpassed 3 million deaths, comes as countries are rolling out vaccinations in an effort to get the virus under control. The data from Johns Hopkins University showing a 12 per cent increase in infections from a week earlier casts doubt on the hope that the end of the pandemic is in sight. The weekly increase surpassed the previous high set in mid-December. While infection rates have largely slowed in the US and UK, countries in the developing world — India and Brazil in particular — are shouldering surging caseloads. Read More

  Almost a year into the pandemic and India has reported over 11 million Covid cases so far. However, with the roll-out of the second phase of the Covid vaccination drive for the general public, the pandemic could finally be coming to an end. The podcast tracks India's journey from the first Covid case, talks of the second wave, vaccine efficacy to 24x7 vaccination drive, in an interesting and simplest way possible. Read More

With the Covid-19 cases zipping past five million people globally last week and rocketing towards six million, the search for a vaccine and a therapy has become more and more urgent. Some statisticians say the case count could be at least 5 to 20 times higher due to inconsistencies and variations in testing and testing protocols in different countries. A paper published by the Imperial College London estimated that the number of people infected by Covid-19 in the UK as of March 30 was between 800,000 to 3.7 million. The official case count then was just 22,141. Even the more conservative actual estimate of 800,000 is 36 times higher than the reported count. Without a vaccine and an effective treatment, we may never get back to life as it used to be. Read More

Oxford University will start human testing with a Covid-19 vaccine they developed from Thursday, the UK government said in a coronavirus press conference. The Oxford team – led by Professor Sarah Gilbert, is testing ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, a candidate based on a chimpanzee adenovirus modified to include the spike or ‘S’ protein on the surface of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19. The government funded the vaccine project with 20 million pounds to Oxford University and another 22 million pounds to a second vaccine project at Imperial College, London, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on Wednesday, adding the project will help support phase 2 trials and help prepare for a larger phase 3 study. Read More