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Coronavirus News LIVE Updates: India has put a temporary hold on all major exports of the AstraZeneca coronavirus shot made by the Serum Institute of India (SII), the world’s biggest vaccine-maker, to meet domestic demand as infections rise, two sources told Reuters. The move will also affect supplies to the GAVI/WHO-backed global COVAX vaccine-sharing facility, through which 64 lower-income countries are supposed to get doses from SII, the programme’s procurement and distributing partner UNICEF said. “We understand that deliveries of COVID-19 vaccines to lower-income economies participating in the COVAX facility will likely face delays following a setback in securing export licences for further doses of COVID-19 vaccines produced by the Serum Institute of India (SII), expected to be shipped in March and April,” UNICEF said in an email. “COVAX is in talks with the Government of India with a view to ensuring deliveries as quickly as possible.”
COVAX has so far received 17.7 million AstraZeneca doses from the SII, of the 60.5 million doses India has shipped in total, and many countries are relying on the programme to immunise their citizens. There have been no vaccine exports from India since Thursday, the foreign ministry’s website shows, as the country expands its own immunisation effort. “Everything else has taken a backseat, for the time being at least,” said one of the sources. Both sources had direct knowledge of the matter, but declined to be named as the discussions are not public. “No exports, nothing till the time the India situation stabilises. The government won’t take such a big chance at the moment when so many need to be vaccinated in India.”
Meanwhile, India continued to report a surge in daily infections, with a novel “double mutant” strain of the virus becoming a cause for concern in the country. The Indian SARS-CoV-2 Consortium on Genomics (INSACOG), a grouping of 10 National Laboratories that was established by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfares, found the variant while carrying out genomic sequencing and analysis of circulating Covid-19 viruses.
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While several parts of the world, including India, have been dealing with new waves of the coronavirus.
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Mumbai broke another record today as it reported 5,185 new Covid-19 cases in 24 hours.
BJP MLC Pravin Darekar slams Maharashtra government on Covid-19 situation in the state, says 9 of the 10 worst-affected districts in Maharashtra shows how the govt has failed.
देशातील १० सर्वाधिक कोरोनाग्रस्त जिल्ह्यांमध्ये महाराष्ट्राचे ९ जिल्हे !
— Pravin Darekar - प्रविण दरेकर (@mipravindarekar) March 24, 2021
"महाराष्ट्र थांबला नाही,थांबणार नाही", हे महाविकास आघाडीने इतर कोणत्या नाही, पण कोरोना संसर्गाच्या बाबतीत "करून दाखवले."@CMOMaharashtra @rajeshtope11 @Dev_Fadnavis @ChDadaPatil @BJP4Maharashtra
India to Focus on Domestic Vaccine Demand | India will focus on meeting the domestic demand for coronavirus vaccines in view of a spike in COVID-19 infections in several states and it will not expand export of vaccines for next few months, people familiar with the development said. They, however, said all commercial contracts and export commitments will be honoured and that India will continue to help countries around the world to deal with the pandemic. So far, India has supplied 60.4 million doses of coronavirus vaccines to around 80 countries. The total supplies include vaccine doses sent as grant assistance, under commercial contract and through COVAX, which is a global initiative aimed at equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines.
Brazil 2nd Nation to Top 3L Deaths | Brazil has reached 3,00,000 confirmed COVID-19 deaths and become the second nation to top that figure. The United States hit the same milestone on December 14, but it has a larger population. Yesterday's coronavirus figures from the Brazilian health ministry added another 2,009 deaths to the country's tally, which local media say is an undercount. Brazil added 1,00,000 deaths to its tally in only 75 days, a spike health experts have blamed on a lack of political coordination, new variants that spread more easily and a disregard for health protocols in many parts of the country.
Night Curfew in 2 Odisha Districts | With Odisha's COVID-19 caseload climbing to 3,39,246 after 170 more people tested positive for the virus, the state government has imposed night curfew in two districts bordering Chhattishgarh. The districts where night curfew is imposed are Malkangiri and Nabarangpur. Though Malkangiri remained COVID-19 free since four days, the district administration imposed the night curfew from 9 pm to 6 am keeping in view the volatile situation in neighbouring Chhattisgarh. The authorities of Nabarangpur district also decided to impose night curfew from tonight in order to prevent spread of the infection.
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