Coronavirus live updates: India has administered over 22 crore vaccine doses since January.
India will receive Covid vaccines from the US as part of the first 25 million doses that country plans to supply under a larger framework, US Vice President Kamala Harris told Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a call. US President Joe Biden on Thursday announced that the US will allocate 75 per cent - nearly 1.9 crore of the first tranche of 2.5 crore doses - of unused COVID-19 vaccines from its stockpile through the UN-backed COVAX global vaccine sharing programme to countries in South and Southeast Asia as well as Africa as part of his administration's framework for sharing 80 million (8 crore) vaccines globally by the end of June.
"Spoke to Kamala Harris a short while ago. I deeply appreciate the assurance of vaccine supplies to India as part of the US Strategy for Global Vaccine Sharing. I also thanked her for the all the support and solidarity from the US government, businesses and Indian diaspora," PM Modi tweeted. "We also discussed ongoing efforts to further strengthen India-US vaccine cooperation, and the potential of our partnership to contribute to post-Covid global health and economic recovery," he added.
With 1.34 lakh fresh Covid cases, the "declining trend continues" in India, the Health Ministry said on Thursday, adding that "active caseload has further declined to 17,13,413". The positivity rate was recorded below 10 per cent for the tenth straight day on Thursday.
The country has administered over 22 crore vaccine doses since January and aims to vaccinate all eligible people by the end of this year.
Here are the Live Updates on Coronavirus:
Japan to provide 1.2 million doses of coronavirus vaccine to Taiwan
Japan will provide Taiwan with 1.24 million doses of AstraZeneca PLC's coronavirus vaccine for free, Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said on Friday, just hours before the shipment was due to be delivered.
Taiwan is battling a spike in domestic infections and has vaccinated less than 3% of its population. Japan has contracted to procure more than 300 million doses of coronavirus vaccines from Pfizer Inc, Moderna Inc and AstraZeneca, more than enough to cover its entire population.
"The relationship between Taiwan and Japan has always been extremely close, and our friendship is firm and deep," Taiwan's Foreign Ministry said in a statement. "Whenever disasters or accidents occur, both sides immediately lend a helping hand to each other and send help in the hour of need."
US eager to involve Indian investigators in clinical trials on COVID-19: Dr Fauci
America's top infectious disease specialist Dr Anthony Fauci on Thursday said his country is eager to involve Indian investigators in global clinical trials to evaluate the safety and efficacy of COVID-19 therapeutics.
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has a long history of collaboration with its counterpart agencies in India, Dr Fauci said during a conversation organised by the US-India Strategic and Partnership Forum.
"Under the long-standing Indo-US vaccine action programme, we will continue to work with India on research related to SARS-CoV-2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2) vaccines. We also are eager to involve Indian investigators in sites in global clinical trials to evaluate the safety and efficacy of various COVID-19 therapeutics," he said.
The partnerships between the NIH and India's Department of Biotechnology as well as what the Indian Council of Medical Research have helped produce important scientific and public health discoveries in the past.
Unvaccinated people at risk of getting seriously ill: White House officialWhite House COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients said that unvaccinated people are at risk of getting seriously ill or spreading the disease to others. "Here's the bottom line: The bottom line is that if you are unvaccinated, you are still at risk of getting seriously ill or spreading the disease to others," said Jeff Zients.
US lawmakers welcome decision on global COVID-19 vaccine distributionTop US lawmakers have welcomed the decision of the Biden Administration to ship 25 million COVID-19 vaccines abroad, including India. "I welcome the news that the Biden Administration will be sending 25 million vaccine doses to our partners abroad to help them combat their COVID-19 outbreaks, but this is an unfortunately small step forward when drastic, rapid action is needed," Indian-American Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi said.
US President Joe Biden on Thursday announced that the US will allocate 75 per cent - nearly 1.9 crore of the first tranche of 2.5 crore doses - of unused COVID-19 vaccines from its stockpile through the UN-backed COVAX global vaccine sharing programme to countries in South and Southeast Asia as well as Africa as part of his administration's framework for sharing 80 million (8 crore) vaccines globally by the end of June.
US Vice-President Kamala Harris Calls PM Modi, Discusses US' COVID-19 Vaccine Sharing Plan
