Coronavirus News Live Updates: India exporting COVID-19 shots to 14 countries, set to meet 70% of world's needs, says Amit Shah

Coronavirus LIVE Updates | Govt launches COVID-19 vaccination awareness campaign through mobile vans

Union minister Prakash Javadekar has unveiled a mobile exhibition to spread awareness about COVID-19 vaccination and Aatmanirbhar Bharat in Pune on Sunday. "Under this campaign, 16 specially fabricated vans will travel across 36 districts of Maharashtra to spread awareness among people," according to the official statement by the ministry.

The campaign has been designed and implemented by the regional outreach bureau, Pune of ministry of information and broadcasting in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF and the Information, Education and Communication (IEC) Division of the Maharashtra Health Department. The vans will also display messages through LED screens and these vans will be live tracked through GPS.

"The whole world is fighting COVID-19. However, even with a population of 130 crores, India has managed to keep its losses lesser than Latin America, Europe, or America," Prakash Javadekar said. "India’s vaccine roll out has begun. Ever since the launch of COVID vaccination programme, more than 50 lakh health and frontline workers have been vaccinated in the country. After frontline health workers, people who are over 50 years of age will be vaccinated and thereafter whole population will be vaccinated " Javadekar said.

Coronavirus LIVE Updates | UK minister confident all over-50s will be vaccinated by May

The UK is on track to vaccinate all over-50s by May, with almost 1,000 people a minute receiving shots during the peak period on Saturday, Health Minister Nadhim Zahawi said. Zahawi, the minister responsible for vaccine strategy, said the rate of 979 doses a minute was reached between 11 a.m. and 12 p.m. on Saturday.

Speaking to Sky News, he said he was “confident" the government would meet its target to offer vaccines to the 15 million most vulnerable people by Feb. 15 and to have rolled out doses to everyone over the age of 50 by May. The government is now starting to stockpile shots for the second doses that will be rolled out from March, Zahawi said in an interview with Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday.

The UK is a month into its third national lockdown, with businesses shuttered and schools closed. The economy is suffering the worst hit to growth in the Group of Seven after its deepest recession in 300 years, and ministers see the vaccination program as the key to lifting restrictions and reviving businesses.

Coronavirus LIVE Updates | Coronavirus vaccines from China arrive in Cambodia

The first 600,000 doses of coronavirus vaccines donated by China to Cambodia arrived in Phnom Penh on Sunday by special plane, with the doses earmarked to vaccinate health workers and the military. The Southeast Asian nation of about 16 million people is one of the least impacted by the coronavirus, with just 474 infections and no deaths. But it saw a rare cluster of cases in November.

One of Asia's poorest countries, Cambodia has been an important ally to China in recent years. Beijing has said it will send 1 million Sinopharm vaccines to Cambodia, which will be used to inoculate 500,000 people. Australia said on Feb. 1 that it will provide a $28 million grant for World Health Organization-approved vaccines in Cambodia.

In a welcome speech at Phnom Penh's international airport, Prime Minister Hun Sen thanked China for the vaccines. "Good friends help each other in times of need, in this sense, and this vaccine aid is another important new testimony that reflects the steel ties and strong cooperation between our country and our people, Cambodia and China," Hun Sen said in a speech broadcast on national television.

Coronavirus LIVE Updates | India exporting COVID-19 shots to 14 countries, set to meet 70% of world's needs: Amit Shah

India is set to fulfil 70% of the world's coronavirus vaccine needs, said Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday, adding that two vaccines are currently being exported to 14 countries. Speaking at the inauguration of a private medical college, Shah said: "India is set to fulfil 70% of the world's coronavirus vaccine needs. Two vaccines are being exported to 14 countries."

He stated that 55 lakh people in the country have been given Covid-19 vaccine in the last 21 days and the Centre is working to expedite vaccination process. According to him, four more anti-Covid vaccines are in the pipeline. "India's line of treatment during the pandemic is being followed by 170-odd countries in the world," he said.

"The big difference in the fight against Covid-19 was that in India, the central government, the state governments, doctors, health workers and 130 crore people together handled the situation, unlike other countries," Shah added. "Our (Covid-19) death rate is low and our recovery rate is the best," he said, adding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi prepared the country to handle the situation. He said that the Modi government has worked to upgrade the health infrastructure in the country in the last six-and-a-half years.

Coronavirus LIVE Updates | AstraZeneca vaccine being tweaked to fight South Africa variant

Developers of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine expect to have a modified jab to cope with the South Africa coronavirus variant by autumn, the vaccine's lead researcher said Sunday. Health officials in Britain are trying to contain the spread of the variant first identified in South Africa amid concerns that it is more contagious or resistant to existing vaccines. More than 100 cases of the South African variant have been found in the UK.

Sarah Gilbert, lead researcher for the Oxford team, told the BBC on Sunday that “we have a version with the South African spike sequence in the works." “It looks very likely that we can have a new version ready to use in the autumn," she added. Her comments came as Oxford University said that early data from a small study suggested that the AstraZeneca vaccine offers only “minimal protection" against mild disease caused by the South Africa variant. The study, which has not yet been peer reviewed, involved 2,000 people, most of whom were young and healthy. The volunteers' average age was 31.

Coronavirus LIVE Updates | France begins distributing AstraZeneca COVID vaccine amid UK variant warning

France began distributing the AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine on Saturday as epidemiologist Arnaud Fontanet warned the coronavirus variant B.1.1.7 -- first identified in the UK - could be dominant in the country by March. "Between January 7-8, [the B.1.1.7 Variant] accounted for 3.3 per cent of new contaminations; on January 27, it was 14 per cent according to preliminary results from the second flash study," Fontanet, who is also a member of the Scientific Council advising the French government on the pandemic, said in an interview with Le Journal du Dimanche quoted by CNN.

"This progression confirms it is 50 to 60 per cent more transmissible than the 2020 virus. If we continue on this trajectory, with an R number of 1.5 for the English variant, we will reach 30-35 per cent by mid-February and the number of hospital admissions will be around 2,000 a day. This variant will become dominant around March 1," he added. CNN reported that the warning comes after an announcement by the French Ministry of Health on Saturday that the first shipments of the AstraZeneca vaccine had been delivered to healthcare professionals.

Coronavirus LIVE Updates | India now 3rd topmost country to give highest doses of vaccine

India has become the third topmost country in the world in terms of the number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered, the Union Health Ministry said on Sunday. Only the United States and the United Kingdom remain ahead of India. The ministry said 12 states in India have vaccinated more than 2 lakh beneficiaries each. Uttar Pradesh alone accounts for 6,73,542 of all vaccinated beneficiaries.

Till February 7, 8 am, a total of 57.75 lakh beneficiaries have received thevaccine under the countrywide COVID-19 vaccination exercise. The cumulative vaccination coverage includes 53,04,546 healthcare workers and 4,70,776 frontline workers, the ministry said. In a span of 24 hours, 3,58,473 beneficiaries were vaccinated across 8,875 sessions. Also, a total1,15,178 sessions have been conducted so far.

Coronavirus LIVE Updates | Business confidence improves with rollout of vaccines: NCAER

The Business Confidence Index (BCI) developed by the Delhi-based economic think tank NCAER rose 29.6 per cent between second and third quarter of the current financial year on the back of rollout of COVID-19 vaccines in different countries, including India. The proportion of respondents expecting that ''overall economic conditions will improve in the next six months'' increased by 4.8 percentage points, from 29.8 per cent in 2020–21:Q2 to 34.6 per cent in 2020–21:Q3, said the NCAER''s Business Expectations Survey (BES).

The proportion of respondents expecting that the ''financial position of firms will improve in the next six months'' increased by 3.1 percentage points, from 27.7 per cent in 2020–21:Q2 to 30.8 per cent in 2020–21:Q3. The National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) said the BES findings are based on responses from 500 firms.

Coronavirus LIVE Updates | More than 58 lakh healthcare, frontline workers vaccinated against COVID-19 across India: Government

The number of healthcare and frontline workers vaccinated against coronavirus crossed the 58 lakh-mark on the twenty third day of the countrywide inoculation program, the Union Health Ministry. 

Coronavirus LIVE Updates | Hungary approves Sputnik V vaccine

The National Public Health Center, Hungary's top regulatory body, approved Russia's Sputnik V vaccine for use. The Center concluded the official study, and arrived at the conclusion that the vaccine complies with quality requirements and can be administered on humans, reported Russian news agency TASS.

Coronavirus LIVE Updates | Tom Hanks' COVID-19 diagnosis shaped public perception of virus: Study

When award-winning actor Tom Hanks announced his Covid-19 diagnosis last year, many Americans were still learning about the virus and its severity. However, Hanks' social media posts shaped people's behaviour toward the virus, a new study suggests. The researchers, including Jessica Gall Myrick from the Pennsylvania State University in the US, surveyed around 700 people about their attitudes and behaviours toward the virus the day after Hanks posted the news on social media on March 11, 2020.

Just under 90 per cent of the people surveyed had heard about Hanks' social media posts saying he contracted the virus, and approximately half of that group reported it changed their attitudes and behaviours. "There is a growing body of research about how celebrity behaviour and social media posts can affect public health," Myrick said in the study published in the journal Health Communication.

"Celebrities can have a huge reach, often more so than typical scientists or doctors or the health department. If they are encouraging positive health behaviour change, then it can serve as a de facto public health intervention," Myrick added.

Coronavirus LIVE Updates | Hello and welcome to Moneycontrol’s LIVE coverage of the novel coronavirus pandemic and its socio-economic impact.

The COVID-19 outbreak has spread across 191 countries and territories. Today is the 320th day since India implemented a nationwide lockdown.

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