COVID-19: India crosses 19-lakh mark

Covid update: India vaccine progress; another minister infected; IMF on economy

From another minister in the Narendra Modi cabinet testing positive for infection, to the progress report of India's indigenously-developed vaccine candidates - here are the top news updates on the Covid-19 pandemic. Union minister of petroleum and natural gas, and steel, Dharmendra Pradhan, tested positive days after Union Home minister Amit Shah confirmed his positive diagnosis. Meanwhile, other members of the Union cabinet, like Ravi Shankar Prasad and Babul Supriyo, are quarantining themselves as a precaution. On the medical front, India's two vaccine candidates have completed phase 1 of human clinical trials. The vaccines have been developed by Bharat Biotech, ICMR and Zydus Cadila. The Jammu and Kashmir administration has decided to allow all places of worship to reopen from August 16. Earlier, the authorities had decided to cancel the annual Amarnath Yatra due to the Covid pandemic. In economic news, the International Monetary Fund has said that Covid might exacerbate the narrowing of global current account imbalances which was happening due to trade slowdown in 2019. Watch the full video for the other updates on the spread of the Sars-CoV-2 coronavirus.

Covid | 'Oxford vaccine's late stage trials to start in a week in India': ICMR

At present country has three Indian COVID-19 vaccines which are in different phases of clinical testing, said Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) Director General Dr Balram Bhargava on Tuesday. Addressing a press conference in the national capital, he said, "At the present moment, we have three Indian vaccines which are in different phases of clinical testing. The 2 vaccines- Bharat Biotech vaccine and DNA vaccine of Zydus Cadila have completed phase 1 and will begin phase 2 while third is Oxford vaccine." "Oxford vaccine, being manufactured by Serum Institute of India (SII) got approval for phase 2 and 3 clinical trials, which are starting within a week at 17 sites," he added. Dr Bhargava, however, said that social distancing and proper hygiene are the best "vaccine" available now and even after. "Physical Distancing, wearing a mask, proper hand hygiene are the best vaccine available at the moment and even after. We will have to continue with these measures," he said. India has so far recorded over 18 lakh cases and more than 38,900 deaths.