Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan reviewed the process in GTB Hospital in Delhi.Coronavirus India Live Updates: Rajasthan government Saturday imposed night curfew from 8 pm to 6 am in 13 districts in the state. Curfew has been imposed within the urban limits of district headquarter towns in 13 districts – Kota, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Bikaner, Udaipur, Ajmer, Alwar, Bhilwara, Nagore, Pali, Tonk, Sikar & Ganganagar, news agency ANI said.
An expert panel of India’s central drug authority on Saturday recommended granting permission for restricted emergency use of the indigenously developed COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin with certain conditions, a day after giving similar direction for the Oxford COVID-19 vaccine, sources said.
Covaxin has been indigenously developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
As many as 19,079 new Covid cases were recorded on the first day of the new year, taking the total number of infections recorded so far to over 1 crore and 3 lakh. Out of these, 2.5 lakh are active cases. A total of 224 deaths were reported on Friday, the lowest since June 2 last year. More than 99 lakh people have recovered from the disease so far.
A dry run to check the best way to administer Covid-19 vaccine and plug loopholes in logistics and training was held across all states on Saturday. Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan reviewed the process in GTB Hospital in Delhi and said the government would not compromise on any protocol before approving a vaccine for the novel coronavirus. He appealed to people not to be misguided by rumours regarding the safety and efficacy of vaccines. “Vaccine hesitancy was an issue even when we started the polio immunisation drive. We must remember its success,” Vardhan said. “I appeal to the people not to be misguided by rumours regarding safety and efficacy of Covid-19 vaccine. We will not compromise on any protocol before approving a vaccine.
In a virtual review meeting with Delhi government officials on Friday, Vardhan said, “Let us attempt to implement it as a real exercise with attention to the minutest detail. Proper coordination will go a long way in building mutual understanding…” Drawing from the pulse polio drive of 1994 in Delhi, he said that relevant stakeholders, NGOs, civil society organisations and others need to be mobilised. He also stressed on the need for adequate security arrangements at session sites, cold chain points and during vaccine transportation.
An expert committee under Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) on Friday recommended that Covishield, the Indian version of the Covid-19 vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca, should be approved with certain conditions, The Indian Express has learnt. The recommendation is enormously significant, as it paves the way for India to get its first vaccine against the novel coronavirus that has killed almost 1.5 lakh and sickened more than 1 crore Indians. The recommendation of the Subject Expert Committee (SEC) has come two days after regulators in the United Kingdom approved the use of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine among the British public.
India has successfully cultured the new coronavirus strain, which originated in the UK, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said on Saturday.
In a tweet, the ICMR claimed that no country has yet reported successful isolation and culture of the UK-variant of SARS-CoV-2.
Culture is the process by which cells are grown under controlled conditions, generally outside their natural environment.
Cricket Australia confirmed on Saturday that five India players, Test vice-captain Rohit Sharma included, were placed in isolation after they committed a possible breach in biosecurity protocols by eating at a Melbourne restaurant earlier this week.
Australia and India are in the middle of a four-match Test series with both sides currently staying in Melbourne before travelling to Sydney for the third Test from January 7.
Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant, Shubman Gill, Prithvi Shaw, and Navdeep Saini were purportedly seen eating at an indoor restaurant in Melbourne in a video posted on social media. The fan, who was apparently seated close to them, had tweeted about getting a hug from Pant but later retracted the claim after it raised serious questions on a breach of protocol.
COVID-19 vaccines do not belong to any political party, but humanity, National Conference leader Omar Abdullah said on Saturday, hours after Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav termed coronavirus vaccines to be rolled out in the country as “vaccine of the BJP”.
Taking to Twitter, the former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister said, “I don’t know about anyone else but when my turn comes I’ll happily roll up my sleeve & get a COVID vaccine.”
Rajasthan government Saturday imposed night curfew from 8 pm to 6 am in 13 districts in the state. Curfew has been imposed within the urban limits of district headquarter towns in 13 districts - Kota, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Bikaner, Udaipur, Ajmer, Alwar, Bhilwara, Nagore, Pali, Tonk, Sikar & Ganganagar, news agency ANI said.
Three persons, who returned from the United Kingdom (UK) to Karnataka recently, have been found to be infected with the mutated strain of coronavirus, state Health and Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar said Saturday. Karnataka now has a total of ten patients infected with the new Covid-19 strain.
“All of them are being treated and isolated in Government hospitals. The infection is not severe in any of them,” Sudhakar said.
To ensure that the Pune administration is ready to undertake a massive Covid-19 vaccination programme in the near future, a dry run of the process was held at three health centres in Pune on Saturday.
A dry run — the process of calling the vaccine receiver and going through the entire process until the patient’s discharge from the vaccination centre — was held at three sites (health centres) in the district, Sub-District Hospital in Aundh, the primary health centre in Maan near Hinjewadi, and the Jijamata Hospital in Pimpri-Chinchwad.
An expert panel of India’s central drug authority on Saturday recommended granting permission for restricted emergency use of the indigenously developed COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin with certain conditions, a day after giving similar direction for the Oxford COVID-19 vaccine, sources said.
Covaxin has been indigenously developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
The Gujarat government will try to bear the cost of coronavirus vaccination "as far as possible" so that people get it free, Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel said on Saturday, PTI reported.
Patel, who holds the Health portfolio, said the state is fully prepared to administer vaccination to the priority groups as soon as doses are received from the Centre.
"We have been discussing this (free vaccination) with the chief Minister from time to time that as far as possible, we shall not let the citizens bear the cost of vaccination," he told reporters in Ahmedabad.
As many as 85 people, including staff members of ITC Grand Chola in Guindy near Chennai, have tested positive for Covid-19 in the past fortnight. “One staff member tested positive on December 15. A total of 609 samples have been collected till now and 85 of that found to be positive. The Chennai Corporation has advised saturation testing of all the residents of the hotel,” State Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan said on Saturday.
The Greater Chennai Corporation officials confirmed that they will conduct saturation testing in all the luxury hotels. The hotels across the city have been instructed to strictly follow the SOPs issued by the government.
This is the second such cluster in the city after IIT Madras where around 200 students had tested positive for Covid-19 last December.
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has issued the standard operating procedure for epidemiological surveillance and response to the new variant of the novel coronavirus in the context of regulated resumption of flights from the UK to India, January 8 onward.
The Civil Aviation Ministry announced Friday that the flights from the UK, which have been suspended since December 22, will resume on January 8 in a staggered manner.
Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan Saturday said vaccines would be administered free of cost to priority groups in the first phase on India’s inoculation drive. This includes one crore healthcare workers and two crore frontline workers. Vardhan said the details of the second phase, in July, which will include vaccines for 27 crore more beneficiaries, is being worked out.
He also said the government would not compromise on any protocol before approving a vaccine for the novel coronavirus. He appealed to people not to be misguided by rumours regarding the safety and efficacy of vaccines.
The dry run for COVID-19 vaccination in Karnataka was held in Kalaburagi, Shivamogga, Mysuru, Belagavi, and Bengaluru. The mock drill was conducted for two hours from 9 am. According to the health department, 25 beneficiaries, including designated health staff at each of the identified primary health centres(PHC), taluk and district hospitals, participated.
Four people who recently returned to Gujarat from the United Kingdom have tested positive for the new strain of coronavirus, a top state health department official said on Saturday.
The official said results of the 15 samples that had tested positive for coronavirus on arrival in Ahmedabad from the UK are currently pending with the National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune.
"All the passengers who had reached Ahmedabad from the UK were screened, and the samples of those who had tested positive for coronavirus were sent to the NIV. We have received intimation that the UK strain of coronavirus has been detected in four such cases," Principal Secretary (Health), Jayanti Ravi told reporters.
All the four patients are in isolation at Ahmedabad's SVP Hospital.
A 48-hour lockdown began in Pithoragarh town in Uttarakhand from 7 am on Saturday to contain the spread of Covid-19, PTI reported.
All offices and business establishments in the town will remain closed for 48 hours, subdivisional magistrate Tushar Saini said. Medical shops will remain open as usual and vegetable shops can operate only till 10 am, he said.
The district administration decided to impose the restrictions after Covid-19 cases recorded a rise in the town and some other parts of the district, officials said.
Speaking at Delhi’s vaccination dry run at Maternity Mother and Child Welfare Centre (MCW), Daryaganj, Health Minister Satyendar Jain said that the Delhi government is prepared to vaccinate 1 lakh city residents everyday, once the vaccination process begins.
A dry run was held at three locations on Saturday morning; a private hospital, a government hospital and at the MCW. As many as 25 beneficiaries were present at each location, where the run was held to check the efficiency of the process.
In anticipation of a vaccine for the novel coronavirus that is just one step away from being approved by India’s top drug regulator, select hospitals across the country conducted an inoculation dry run Saturday. The nationwide rehearsal was to understand the best way to administer the vaccine and plug loopholes in logistics and training. India, which has more than one crore three lakh cases of the infection, will conduct the largest vaccination drive in the world.
The first dry run was held in four states — Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Punjab, and Assam — earlier this week. Here’s a look at how the nationwide exercise went.
Dry run for COVID-19 vaccination administration underway at Venkateshwar Hospital in Delhi.
As part of the national campaign, the Tamil Nadu government Saturday began the process of conducting a dry run for the Covid-19 vaccination in Chennai, Nilgris, Tirunelveli, Poonamalle and Coimbatore. State Health Secretary Dr Radhakrishnan told reporters that the process is being conducted with 25 healthcare workers and no vaccine is administered. State Health Minister C Vijayabaskar Friday said the government needs to administer the vaccine process carefully and hence, a dry run is necessary for proper planning.
Addressing the reporters at the Rajiv Gandhi Government Hospital (RGGH) in Chennai, Radhakrishnan said the purpose of the dry run is to check the various steps of the vaccination process including the efficiency of the CoWIN app, internet accessibility, and the management of any possible adverse events.
He added that the list of beneficiaries for the dry run were not taken randomly and they are part of the priority list of the healthcare workers the state identified to provide the vaccination.
"The vaccination site will be similar to an election booth. There will be a minimum of five health department officials, a chief medical officer and other health care workers. The plan is to vaccinate 25 persons in two hours. The entire process will be under the supervision of the director of public health, following the guidelines issued by the centre and the World Health Organization (WHO). Vaccinator 1 will allow the beneficiary to enter the vaccination site only if his name is on the list provided to them by the state government. The second vaccinator will verify whether the person’s identity matches the information provided on the CoWIN app. And then, they will be accompanied by another vaccinator to the vaccine room. Once the recipient is been provided the vaccine, he will receive an SMS confirming that he has received the vaccine as well as an update about the second dose. The person will then be kept in the observation room for some time to check if he experiences any difficulties,” he added. - Janardhan Koushik reports from Chennai
Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan Saturday said the government would not compromise on any protocol before approving a vaccine for the novel coronavirus. He appealed to people not to be misguided by rumours regarding the safety and efficacy of vaccines. Read more here
Dry run of Covid vaccine at Duttabad Covid vaccination booth. Dry run conducted at three places in West Bengal –– Amdanga, Madhyamgram and Duttabad –– all in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal. (Express photo by Partha Paul)