A health worker administers a dose of a Covid-19 vaccine in Chennai. (File/PTI)Coronavirus India Live updates: Drug firm Zydus Cadila on Saturday said they hope to produce 1 crore doses of its Covid-19 vaccine ZyCoV-D by October, news agency PTI reported. It further said that the company is hoping to start supplying vaccine doses by the middle to end of September, adding that the pricing of the dose will be announced in the next one or two weeks.
“Post the emergency use authorisation, now we will work closely with the regulatory authorities to work on the pricing and modality of delivery of the doses of our vaccine. In next one or two weeks we will have better clarity on the pricing,” Zydus Group Managing Director Sharvil Patel said in a virtual press conference, PTI reported. The company hopes that “by middle to end of September, we can start supplying the vaccines, and as I said we need to scale up to 1 crore doses and we believe by October we can achieve this. We believe by October we will start producing 1 crore doses and that would mean by end of Jan we can have 4 to 5 crore doses,” he added.
Gujarat-based Zydus Cadila’s three-dose Covid-19 vaccine was on Friday granted emergency use authorisation for use in adults and children above 12 years, making it potentially the first vaccine to be administered to the adolescent population in India. ZyCoV-D is set to become the first Covid vaccine candidate developed on a plasmid DNA platform to be commercially introduced anywhere in the world. The vaccine, jointly developed in partnership with the Department of Biotechnology, had demonstrated a primary efficacy of 66.66 per cent in phase 3 clinical trials. It was the first Covid-19 vaccine in India to be tested in the adolescent population — those in the 12-18-year age group.
Meanwhile, India reported 34,457 new cases of coronavirus infections and 375 deaths on Friday, according to data from the Union Health Ministry. Active cases in the country have come down to 3.61 lakh. Out of the new cases, Kerala reported 20,224 cases, and 99 deaths while Maharashtra had 4,365 new infections and 106 fatalities. The total death toll has reached 4.34 lakh.
Kerala reports 17,106 new Covid-19 cases, 20,846 recoveries, and 83 deaths in the last 24 hours.
A day after Zydus Cadila received approval for Emergency Use Authorization from DCGI for ZyCoV-D, Dr Sharvil Patel, MD, Zydus Group, said no severe side-effect associated with the vaccine was seen.
“Trials were conducted in 50 centres in the country. Overall, the trials on 28,000 volunteers were conducted. We've done the trials on 1400 adolescents of 12-18 yrs. In all the trials, we've not seen any severe side effects related to the vaccine,” he was quoted as saying by ANI.
“The full phase 3 data doesn’t only shows efficacy but also means safety and long-term immunogenicity which is at least followed up for next 3-6 months. So, for the full report to be published in a peer-reviewed journal will take at least 4-5 months,” he added.
He further said, “We haven't started studies for the younger age group (2-12 yrs). We're working with regulators to work on a program to do a study in the younger age group also. We're going to the regulator with the proposed trial in next 5-7 days. We hope to do trials very soon.” (ANI)
A total of 1,21,318 people were vaccinated against COVID-19 in the national capital on Friday, according to the Delhi government's vaccination bulletin.
The bulletin issued on Saturday showed that 90,882 people received their first dose while 30,436 were administered the second dose of COVID-19 vaccine on Friday.
The city has administered 1,22,37,895 vaccine doses so far, of which 87,77,612 were first doses and 34,60,283 second doses, it showed.
As of Saturday morning, the national capital had only four days of vaccine stock left, the bulletin claimed. (PTI)
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday said people should not let their guard down as the threat of a third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic still looms.
Talking to the media after inaugurating a paediatric COVID-19 care centre in suburban Santacruz, he said the pandemic is not over yet, and "people should behave responsibly".
"Don't forget that COVID-19 restrictions have been eased to keep the economic cycle moving. People should not fall prey to any kind of provocation which may endanger their lives and those of others," the chief minister said.
The daily rise in infections and the deaths due to COVID-19 need to be brought down, he said. (PTI)
The Assam government has set a target to vaccinate the entire population of Kamrup Metropolitan district, under which the state's largest city Guwahati falls, by end of this month, Health and Family Welfare Minister Keshab Mahanta said on Saturday.
The vaccination drive on a mission mode will be conducted at the polling booth level of the district, with field teams already starting work on collection of data on non-vaccinated people, he said. (PTI)
The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) will be holding COVID-19 inoculation drive at the city's health clinics all seven days a week, starting Monday, chairman of the civic body's board of administrators, Firhad Hakim, said, while also observing that the rush for the first jab is "far more" than that of the second.
Hakim, who is also the state's transport minister, further said that the civic body has the infrastructure to vaccinate as many as one lakh people in a day.
Earlier, the drive was held on specific days in a week. (PTI)
One new Covid infection has been reported in Mumbai's Dharavi area today; active cases in the area stand at 10, says Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. (ANI)
Delhi reports 19 new cases and 48 recoveries. The positivity rate is at 0.03% now.
Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal on Monday said that restrictions on timings for markets to stay open have been done away with now.
“Markets of Delhi were allowed to function till 8 pm due to COVID-19. In wake of decreasing cases, this restriction will be removed starting Monday. Now the markets can open as per their normal time,” he said. (ANI)
Drug firm Zydus Cadila on Saturday said it is looking to supply its COVID-19 vaccine ZyCoV-D by the middle to end of September, adding the pricing of the dose will be announced in the next one or two weeks, PTI reported.
The company's indigenously developed needle-free three-dose COVID-19 vaccine ZyCoV-D was granted emergency use authorisation (EUA) by the drug regulator on Friday, making it the first vaccine to be administered to beneficiaries in the age group of 12-18 years in the country.
"Post the emergency use authorisation, now we will work closely with the regulatory authorities to work on the pricing and modality of delivery of the doses of our vaccine. In next one or two weeks we will have better clarity on the pricing," Zydus Group Managing Director Sharvil Patel said in a virtual press conference.
The company hopes that "by middle to end of September, we can start supplying the vaccines, and as I said we need to scale up to 1 crore doses and we believe by October we can achieve this. We believe by October we will start producing 1 crore doses and that would mean by end of Jan we can have 4 to 5 crore doses," he added. (PTI)
A total of 10,885 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered to the inmates of three jails in the national capital so far, the Delhi Prisons Department said on Saturday.
As on Thursday, 1,648 Tihar jail inmates aged above 45 and 5,750 below the age of 45 years were given COVID-19 vaccine. In Rohini jail, 172 inmates above 45 years and 600 below that age were administered the vaccine while in Mandoli jail, 483 inmates aged above 45 and 2,232 below it have been inoculated, according to the data.
"The inmates who received their first dose inside the prisons and released on interim bail or emergency parole were asked to get the second dose in the dispensaries and hospitals nearby their homes. If they face any difficulty in getting the vaccine, then they can approach the jail authorities," Director General (Prisons) Sandeep Goel said.
The prisons department launched a Covid vaccination drive for the inmates in the 45-plus age category on March 18, while the inoculation of the inmates in the 18-44 age group began on May 18. (PTI)
Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday inaugurated a Covid hospital for children at IT Park in Mumbai's Kalina Campus. "I urge all political parties, religious & social organisations not to do anything that endangers lives of citizens. The Covid crisis is not over yet," he said. (PTI)
The total number of COVID-19 cases in Ladakh climbed to 20,483 as three more people tested positive for the disease in the union territory, officials said on Saturday.
With 12 more patients recovering from the disease, the number of active cases dropped to 72, they said.
So far, Ladakh has recorded 207 Covid-related deaths -- 149 in Leh and 58 in Kargil.
The officials said over 3,300 people were tested for COVID-19 in Leh and Kargil on Friday. Of these, two tested positive in Leh and one in Kargil. (PTI)
The union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands reported three new COVID-19 cases, pushing the tally to 7,556, a health official said on Saturday.
The three new cases were detected during testing at the airport. All passengers arriving by flight have to undergo a mandatory RT-PCR test before they are allowed entry into the islands.
The archipelago now has eight active COVID-19 cases and all eight patients are in the South Andaman district. The other two districts - North and Middle Andaman and Nicobar - are COVID-19 free, the official said.
A total of 7,419 people have recovered from COVID-19 so far, he said. (PTI)
Odisha's COVID-19 caseload surpassed the 10-lakh mark on Saturday as 911 more people tested positive for the infection, while 66 fresh fatalities pushed the state's coronavirus death toll to 7,289, a health department official said.
The fresh infections took the state's COVID tally to 10,00,084, he said.
At least 116 new cases were found among people below 18 years of age, the official said.
The daily positivity rate stands at 1.27 per cent as the fresh cases were detected from 71,264 sample tests, he said, adding that the infection ratio among children and adolescents was at 12.73 per cent.
Of the fresh cases, 531 were reported from quarantine centers and 380 detected during contact tracing.
Khurda, which comprises the state capital Bhubaneswar, recorded the highest number of new cases at 352, followed by Cuttack (88) and Balasore (51).
Dr. Sharvil Patel, MD, Zydus Group Saturday said they will have clarity on the price of the ZyCOV-D vaccine, news agency ANI reported.
"The supply of vaccines will start in mid-September. We can scale up production of vaccines to 1 crore a month from October at the new production plant.The efficacy of our COVID19 vaccine is over 66%, and its efficacy against the Delta variant is about 66%," he said.
"ZYCOV-D is a three-dose vaccine given on day zero, day 28th and then on the 56th day. This vaccine is approved for adults and adolescents above the age of 12," Dr Sharvil Patel further said.
Children in Delhi who have been orphaned since March 2020 will be supported through existing freeship provisions, so they can continue studying in the same school.
Following the deadly second wave of Covid-19 in the city, the Union Ministry of Education, and Women and Child Development had written to the chief secretaries of all states, saying that to ensure continuity in the education of children who have lost their parents in the pandemic, all efforts must be made to bring them under the fold of various schemes run by the Department of School Education and Literacy.
India reported 34,457 new cases of coronavirus infections and 375 deaths on Friday, according to data from the Union Health Ministry.
Active cases in the country have come down to 3.61 lakh. Out of the new cases, Kerala reported 20,224 cases, and 99 deaths while Maharashtra had 4,365 new infections and 106 fatalities. The total death toll has reached 4.34 lakh.
With indigenously developed Zydus Cadila's COVID-19 vaccine receiving emergency use authorisation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday hailed it as a "momentous feat" and said the approval to the world's first DNA-based vaccine against the coronavirus is a testimony to the innovative zeal of India's scientists.
"India is fighting Covid-19 with full vigour. The approval for world's first DNA based 'ZyCov-D' vaccine of @ZydusUniverse is a testimony to the innovative zeal of India's scientists," Prime Minister Modi tweeted. "A momentous feat indeed," he added.
Maharashtra reported 4,365 new coronavirus cases and 105 deaths on Friday, while 6,384 patients recovered from the viral infection, a health department official said. The state's infection tally thus rose to 64,15,935, while the death toll reached 1,35,672. Nandurbar district in north Maharashtra did not record a single active Covid-19 case for the fifth day in a row.
As many as 6,384 patients were discharged from hospitals during the day, taking the recovery count to 62,21,305. There are 55,454 active cases in Maharashtra. The state's Covid-19 recovery rate stands at 96.97 per cent, while the fatality rate is 2.11 per cent. (PTI)