In India, SII which sought EUA from the Drugs Controller General of India (DGCI) on December 10 was asked to submit safety data on Phase 2/3 clinical trials in India of its vaccine candidate named Covishield, developed by Oxford-AstraZeneca.Covid-19 India Live Updates: India reported 20,021 new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours ending 8 Monday, taking the country’s total tally past 1.02 cr. Of the total cases, 2.77 lakh cases are currently active while over 97.82 lakh people have recovered. With 279 deaths reported on Sunday, the death toll now stands at over 1.47 lakh. At 7.15 lakh samples, the country tested one of the lowest samples yesterday. As a result, new infections are likely to be low on Monday as well. Delhi is now consistently reporting below 1,000 cases, a level that was last seen in August.
The Covid-19 dummy vaccination drive, aimed at testing India’s vaccine delivery system and other logistics is set to commence today. The dry run, the largest mass immunisation programme in the country’s history will be carried out in four states- Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Punjab, and Assam.
European countries including Italy, Germany and France kicked off their vaccination campaign Sunday as a growing list of countries in the continent have identified their first cases of coronavirus’s new strain. Till December 25th, over 3,500 people have been infected from the virus variant, mostly in the UK, but steadily growing in France, Ireland, Israel, Hong Kong and Singapore. South Korea became the latest country to record its first case of the new variant on Monday. Read our explainer on the UK Covid-19 variant here.
In other news, on the eve of the three-day session of the Madhya Pradesh Assembly, 61 employees and officials of the Assembly secretariat and five MLAs tested positive for Covid-19.
209 COVID-19 patients are presently undergoing treatment in Intensive Care Units (ICU) in the State. (Express Photo)
India reported 20,7021 new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours ending 8 Monday, taking the country’s total tally past 1.02 cr. Of the total cases, 2.77 lakh cases are currently active while over 97.82 lakh people have recovered. With 279 deaths reported on Sunday, the death toll now stands at over 1,47 lakh.
South Korean officials are vowing to speed up efforts to launch a public coronavirus vaccination programme as the country on Monday announced it had detected its first cases of the virus variant linked to the rapid rise in infections in Britain.
The new variant, thought to be more transmissible than others currently circulating, was found in three people who had entered South Korea from London on Dec. 22, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said on Monday. (Reuters)
After the discovery of a new strain of coronavirus in the United Kingdom and other European countries, 12 persons who came from those countries tested positive for Covid-19 in Gujarat, out of the 1,720 people who landed between November 25 and December 23, a release from the state government said on Sunday.
RT-PCR tests were conducted on all of them and samples of 12 who tested positive for Covid-19 have been sent to the National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune and Gujarat Biological Research Centre (GBRC) in Gandhinagar to ascertain if they have the symptoms of the new strain, the release added.