News Analysis India

Tag: Coronavirus Outbreak

  • Covaxin being used cautiously in first phase?

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI:  The Centre appears to be taking a wait and watch approach on Covaxin going by its limited use in vaccination of healthcare workers in the first phase of the Covid immunisation drive so far.

    As 110 million doses of Serum Institute of India’s Covishield and 55 million doses of Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin were ordered for the first phase of the nationwide drive, the numbers suggest that the two vaccines were to be used in a 2:1 ratio. 

    The Centre has said that all 1.65 crore doses of the two vaccines have been sent to the states for the first phase of the exercise.

    ALSO READ: People with fever, pregnant and breastfeeding women avoid Covaxin – Bharat Biotech

    While Covishield was sent across India, Covaxin was dispatched to 12 states —Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Delhi, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana and Tamil Nadu.  

    But officials in several states this newspaper checked with confirmed that they have each received only 20,000 doses of Covaxin to begin with.

    ALSO READ: Centre issues Letter of Comfort to Bharat Biotech for 45 lakh doses of Covaxin

    “The supply of the vaccines is being totally controlled by the Centre and even though we have not been given an explanation, it looks like the Health ministry wants to see how the immunisation with this vaccine goes before launching it in a major way,” said a senior Bihar official.

    A health bureaucrat in Haryana too confirmed it. “Since Covaxin is being launched in clinical trial mode, the government wants to keep an eye on adverse events and that’s why only a limited number of people will get it during this phase.”

  • People with fever, pregnant and breastfeeding women avoid Covaxin: Bharat Biotech

    By PTI
    HYDERABAD: Bharat Biotech’s fact sheet on COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin, has advised pregnant or breastfeeding women, besides people with high fever or bleeding disorders, not to take the antidote.

    The vaccine maker in the fact sheet on Covaxin, posted in its website, said the clinical efficacy of the vaccine is yet to be established and is being studied in Phase 3 clinical trial and hence it is important to appreciate that receiving the vaccine does not mean other precautions related to COVID- 19 need not be followed.

    “You should not get Bharat Biotech’s COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin if you have any history of allergies. Have high fever. Have bleeding disorder or are a blood thinner. Immune compromised or are a medicine that affects your immune system. Are pregnant. Are breastfeeding. Have received another COVID-19 vaccine. Any other serious health related issues, as determined by the vaccinator/ Officer supervising vaccination,” the fact sheet said.

    ALSO READ: Centre issues Letter of Comfort to Bharat Biotech for 45 lakh doses of Covaxin

    The fact sheet also asked people to inform the vaccinator or a supervising official about their medical condition before taking the vaccine.

    Bharat Biotech said in an ongoing clinical trial Covaxin has been shown to generate immunity following two doses given four weeks apart.

    Covaxin is a vaccine with approval for restricted use in emergency situations that may prevent COVID-19.

    ALSO READ: India records 10,064 new COVID-19 cases, deaths lowest in eight months

    The Central Licensing Authority has granted permission for the sale or distribution of the antidote for restricted use in emergency situations in public interest as an abundant precaution, in clinical trial mode, the fact sheet said.

    Covaxin is a highly purified and inactivated two-dose SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, manufactured in a Vero cell manufacturing platform with an excellent safety track record of more than 300 million doses, the company had said.

    Covaxin is India’s totally indigenous COVID-19 vaccine developed in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research and National Institute of Virology.

    ALSO READ: Pandemic response probe team says WHO, China could have acted faster

    The inactivated vaccine is developed and manufactured in Bharat Biotech’s BSL-3 (Bio-Safety Level 3) biocontainment facility, one of its kind in the world.

  • COVID-19 vaccination resumes in Mumbai, Pune after two days

    By PTI
    MUMBAI: After a gap of two days, the COVID-19 vaccination drive resumed in Mumbai and Pune on Tuesday morning, but unlike the first day, there was hardly any rush of beneficiaries for taking jabs in the metropolis.

    A doctor at a vaccination centre in Mumbai said the response was slow in the morning, but the process was gradually picking up.

    The inoculation drive resumed at nine centres in Mumbai and 28 centres in the neighbouring Pune district, officials said.

    ALSO READ: People with fever, pregnant and breastfeeding women avoid Covaxin – Bharat Biotech

    The Maharashtra government had suspended the inoculation process on Sunday and Monday due to some problems in the Co-WIN app, created by the Centre for managing registration for the vaccination.

    On the first day of the vaccination on Saturday, only 1,923 out of 4,000 registered beneficiaries got the doses in Mumbai, as per the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

    On Tuesday, the vaccination process started around 9 am at all the centres in Mumbai, as per BMC officials.

    ALSO READ: Centre issues Letter of Comfort to Bharat Biotech for 45 lakh doses of Covaxin

    However, unlike Saturday, there was hardly any rush of registered beneficiaries at the vaccination centres.

    The waiting room at a vaccination centre in the civic-run KEM Hospital was almost empty at around 10.30 am.

    “Only 15 to 20 people have come since the start of the process today,” a staffer at the vaccination centre said.

    ALSO READ: India records 10,064 new COVID-19 cases, deaths lowest in eight months

    One or two registered beneficiaries are coming at a gap of 5 to 10 minutes, he said.

    “The response was slow in the morning, but it is slowly picking up,” a doctor at the facility said, adding that the centre will remain open till 5 pm.

    Some health care workers, who were asked to go to the KEM Hospital for inoculation, told PTI that they received calls for vaccination from the BMC’s war room between 8.30 pm and 11.30 pm on Monday.

    Besides, some registered beneficiaries also said they either did not receive any message, while a few said they received the message early Tuesday morning.

    “I got a call for vaccination at 11.30 pm on Monday, which was very late, but haven’t received any message,” said a health care worker from the KEM Hospital’s microbiology department, who came to take the vaccine shot.

    In Pune, the vaccination resumed at 28 out of the 31 centres on Tuesday, a senior district health official said.

    There are 31 vaccination centres in the district- eight each in Pune city and Pimpri-Chinchwad civic limits and 15 in rural areas.

    Pune Municipal Corporation’s health chief Dr Ashish Bharti said the vaccination could not be started at three centres due to some technical issues.

    “We are trying to rectify the issues at the three centres. The vaccination at the remaining five centres in the city started at 10 am,” he said.

    He also said the administration is trying to conduct more vaccinations than the designated target of 100 per day at bigger medical facilities in Pune, like the Sassoon Hospital and the Kamla Nehru Hospital.

    On the first day of the inoculation on Saturday, a total of 1,802 beneficiaries out of the targeted 3,100 were given vaccine doses in Pune.

    Over 300 people had later complained of minor side- effects, as per the district administration.

  • Centre issues Letter of Comfort to Bharat Biotech for 45 lakh doses of Covaxin

    By PTI
    HYDERABAD: Bharat Biotech has secured a fresh Letter of Comfort from the Centre for another 45 lakh doses of its COVID-19 vaccine, Covaxin, sources said.

    Out of the 45 lakh doses, the city-based vaccine maker will be supplying over eight lakh to some of the friendly countries such as Mauritius, Philippines and Myanmar, free of cost as good will gesture sources added.

    ALSO READ: India records 10,064 new COVID-19 cases, deaths lowest in eight months

    “The company was given a fresh letter of comfort recently for supplying another 45 lakh doses of Covaxin. The doses will be dispatched as when the Ministry places orders with the company,” sources told PTI.

    After having received the government purchase order for 55lakh doses, BharatBiotechshipped the first batch of vaccines (each vial containing 20 doses) to Gannavaram (Vijayawada), Guwahati, Patna, Delhi, Kurukshetra, Bangalore, Pune, Bhubaneswar, Jaipur, Chennai and Lucknow, it said.

    ALSO READ: Pandemic response probe team says WHO, China could have acted faster

    Bharat Biotech said it has also donated 16.5 lakh doses to the Government of India.

    Sources further said the supplies from the company depend on the orders being placed by the government.

  • India records 10,064 new COVID-19 cases, deaths lowest in eight months

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: India reported the lowest number of daily coronavirus infections in over seven months with 10,064 new cases, which took the caseload to 1,05,81,837, while recoveries have surged to 1,02,28,753, according to Union health ministry data updated on Tuesday.

    The country’s death toll increased to 1,52,556 as 137 fatalities, the lowest in around eight months, were recorded in a span of 24 hours, the data updated at 8 am showed.

    The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 1,02,28,753, pushing the national COVID-19 recovery rate to 96.66 per cent, while the COVID-19 case fatality rate stands at 1.44 per cent.

    ALSO READ: Pandemic response probe team says WHO, China could have acted faster

    The COVID-19 active caseload remained below three lakh.

    There are 2,00,528 active COVID-19 cases in the country which comprise 1.90 per cent of the total caseload, the data stated.

    India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed 20 lakh on August 7, 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 October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19.

    According to the Indian Council of Medical Research, 18,78,02,827 samples have been tested up to January 18 with 7,09,791 samples being tested on Monday.

    ALSO READ: WHO chief lambasts vaccine profits, demands elderly go first

    The 137 new fatalities include 35 from Maharashtra, 17 from Kerala, 10 from West Bengal, nine from Karnataka, and eight each from Delhi and Tamil Nadu.

    A total of 1,52,556 deaths have been reported so far in the country, including 50,473 from Maharashtra followed by 12,272 from Tamil Nadu, 12,175 from Karnataka, 10,754 from Delhi, 10,063 from West Bengal, 8,580 from Uttar Pradesh, 7,141 from Andhra Pradesh and 5,509 from Punjab.

    The health ministry stressed that more than 70 per cent of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities.

    “Our figures are being reconciled with the Indian Council of Medical Research,” the ministry said on its website, adding that state-wise distribution of figures is subject to further verification and reconciliation.

  • Over 3.81 lakh receive COVID jabs, 580 adverse events reported

    By Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: A total of 3,81,305 beneficiaries have so far been vaccinated for Covid-19 and 580 adverse events following immunisation were reported in the first three days of the inoculation drive in the country, the Union Health Ministry said on Monday. 

    It also said of the two deaths reported, the death of 52-year-old Mahipal Singh from Moradabad in UP (who was vaccinated on January 16 and died on the evening of January 17) was not related to vaccination as per the post mortem report.

    “The postmortem report by a board of three doctors revealed death due to reveals the immediate cause of death as a cardio-pulmonary disease (pockets of pus in lungs, enlarged heart)- not related to vaccination,” Manohar Agnani, additional secretary in the health ministry, said at a press briefing.Agnani said 1,48,266 beneficiaries were vaccinated across 25 states and Union Territories till 5 pm on Monday.

    The second person to die was a 43-year-old man in Karnataka’s Bellary. The government said “the cause of death anterior wall infarction with cardio-pulmonary failure”.

    The postmortem is yet to be done, it said.Of the 1,48,266 beneficiaries who were administered the vaccine on Monday, 8,656 were from Bihar, 1,822 from Assam, 36,888 from Karnataka, 7,070 from Kerala, 6,665 from MP, 7,628 from Tamil Nadu, 10,352 from Telangana, 11,588 from West Bengal and 3111 were from Delhi.

    Agnani said seven hospitalisations have so far been reported in the country since the nationwide drive began on January 16.

    In Delhi, three hospitalisations were reported, out of which, two have been discharged, and one with fainting is under observation at Max Hospital in Patparganj.

    In Uttarakhand, one of the beneficiaries is stable and under observation at AIIMS Rishikesh, the official stated.

    In Chhattisgarh, one beneficiary is under observation, while in Karnataka, two cases of hospitalizations were reported, he said.“No case of serious/severe AEFI attributable to vaccination till date,” he added.

  • COVID-19: India records lowest fatalities in eight months

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The daily coronavirus infections fell below 14,000 for the second time this month taking India’s COVID-19 caseload to 1,05,71,773, while 145 new fatalities were recorded, the lowest in around eight months, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Monday.

    A total of 13,788 infections have been reported in a day.

    The country’s death toll increased to 1,52,419 with 145 daily new fatalities, the data updated at 8 am showed.

    The recoveries have crossed 1.02 crore.

    The daily COVID-19 infections were 12,548 on January 12.

    ALSO READ: Rising COVID infection in students raises concern in Odisha

    The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 1,02,11,342 pushing the national COVID-19 recovery rate of 96.59 per cent, while the COVID-19 case fatality rate stands at 1.44 per cent.

    The COVID-19 active caseload remained below 3 lakh.

    There are 2,08,012 active cases of coronavirus infections in the country which comprises 1.97 per cent of the total caseload, the data stated.

    India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 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 October 29,  90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19.

    ALSO READ: Will COVID-19 vaccine achieve herd immunity? Jury is out

    According to the ICMR, 18,70,93,036 samples have been tested up to January 17 with 5,48,168 samples being tested on Sunday.

    The 145 new fatalities include 50 from Maharashtra, 21 from Kerala, 12 from West Bengal and 8 from Delhi.

    A total of 152419 deaths have been reported so far in the country including 50,438 from Maharashtra followed by 12,264 from Tamil Nadu, 12,166 from Karnataka, 10,746 from Delhi, 10,053 from West Bengal, 8,576 from Uttar Pradesh, 7,140 from Andhra Pradesh and 5,504 from Punjab.

    The health ministry stressed that more than 70 per cent of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities.

    “Our figures are being reconciled with the Indian Council of  Medical Research,” the ministry said on its website, adding that state-wise distribution of figures is subject to further verification and reconciliation.

  • 2.2 lakh jabs, 447 adverse events by day-2 end

    By Express News Service
    NEW DELHI:  The second day of Covid-19 vaccination saw over 17,000 people getting their first shot across six states. According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare,  17,072 people were vaccinated across Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Manipur, and Tamil Nadu.

    By Sunday evening, 2,24,301 people had been inoculated, of whom 447 reported adverse events following immunisation but only three required hospitalisation, the ministry’s Additional Secretary Manohar Agnani said. Most of the adverse effects reported so far are minor like fever, headache, and nausea. While two Delhi patients have been discharged, one person is under observation at AIIMS Rishikesh.

    Agnani said a meeting was held with all states and UTs on Sunday to review the progress of the drive, identify bottlenecks, and plan corrective actions. Saturday’s was “the highest day-one vaccination number (2,07,229) in the world. The figures are higher than the US, UK, and France”, he said.

    Most states have also put out a clear weekly schedule for Covid vaccine delivery so as not to disrupt their routine health services.  

    Barring Andamans (three days) and Andhra (six days), a majority of the states, including Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Telangana, opted for a four-day schedule.

  • One-fourth of Indian population likely infected by coronavirus: CSIR study

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: As India launched the world’s largest Covid-19 vaccine exercise, a pan-India sero surveillance said that about a quarter of Indian population is expected to be already infected by SARS-CoV2 and that could be behind declining number of positive cases in the country.

    The Council of  Scientific and  Industrial  Research (CSIR) piloted an assessment of seropositivity against SARS-CoV2 in over 40 labs and centres spread across 24 Indian cities. The aggregate seropositivity of 10.14 per cent suggested that more than a  hundred million  Indians were infected by September 2020, primarily in larger cities but rapidly spreading all over the nation.

    “By September 2020, there were likely more than a hundred million infected and recovered Indians with effective neutralising antibodies with a life of 6 months or more. Probably 2-3 times of that by now,” said Anurag Agarwal, Director, CSIR-Institue of Genomics and Integrative Biology. 

    It confirms that by September 2020, there was wide but uneven spread of the pandemic,  with the epidemic, subsequently growing more rapidly in regions with low seropositivity in September.

    “We find that large cities have high seropositivity rates, consistent with local surveys, but the majority of India continues to have low to moderate seropositivity. Most seropositive individuals had occupational exposure risk and significant symptoms were recalled by only 25 per cent, with 75 per cent recalling no symptoms at all,” it added. 

    About 10,427 adult individuals working in CSIR laboratories and their family members based on voluntary participation were assessed for antibody presence and stability was analyzed over  6  months.

    As many as 1058 individuals (10·14 per cent) had antibodies against SARS-CoV2.  A follow-up on  346 seropositive individuals after three months revealed stable to higher antibody levels against  SARS-CoV2 but declining plasma activity for neutralizing  SARS-CoV2 receptor binding domain and ACE2 interaction. 

    A repeat sampling of 35 individuals,  at six months,  revealed declining antibody levels while the neutralizing activity remained stable compared to three months. The majority of seropositive individuals (75 per cent) did not recall even one of nine symptoms.

    “Such information is invaluable towards a well-informed vaccination program, especially in a setting where shortages are expected.  Although  India has been among one of the most affected nations in this SARS-CoV2 pandemic, such data is not yet available. The present study, which recruited individuals from  24  cities,  provides an important and timely snapshot across multiple geographies,” said the study.

  • Vaccination, big chapter in Atmanirbhar Bharat: Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan

    By Express News Service
    BHUBANESWAR: Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Saturday said that India has demonstrated its prowess to the world in the field of healthcare by launching the largest ever vaccination programme.

    “India under the dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has added the biggest chapter in ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’. This event marked an epoch in the history to be remembered by generations,” Pradhan said.

    Congratulating the Prime Minister for rolling out one of the largest vaccination drive in the world, Pradhan said this is a momentous occasion in the fight against coronavirus. This was possible because of the decisive leadership of the Prime Minister.

    He added that the country has fought the most successful battle against coronavirus and this was possible because of cooperation of the people and undiluted faith in the leadership of Modi. 

    Pradhan also expressed his gratitude to the scientific communities for making the vaccine in record time and the frontline health workers and Covid warriors for their dedication.