India crossed the milestone of 100 crore doses in Covid-19 vaccination on Thursday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi called it "historic". (Photo: ANI)Coronavirus Variants and Vaccinations, Coronavirus Active Cases in India Today News, October 22 Live Updates: Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the nation at 10 AM today. During his address, Modi said India’s vaccination programme was science-born, science-driven and science-based. He also said there was no “VIP culture” in the drive and everyone is treated equally. “India’s vaccine campaign is a living example of ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas aur Sabka Prayas, he said.
His address comes a day after India crossed the milestone of 100 crore doses in Covid-19 vaccination. The country achieved the feat in just about nine months after the beginning of the nationwide vaccination drive in January. The country has so far vaccinated 75% of its adult population with the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine and 30% with both doses (fully vaccinated). He described India’s Covid-19 vaccination drive as a journey from “anxiety to assurance” that has made the country emerge stronger, and credited its success to people’s trust in the vaccines despite “various efforts to create mistrust and panic”.
What Next? According to Union Health Ministry data, India has administered an average of 59.29 lakh doses of the Covid-19 vaccine daily in the month of August. It increased to 78.69 lakh doses in September. But, the pace of vaccination dropped in October. In the first 20 days of the month, the average daily vaccinations have fallen to 46.68 lakh doses.
Vaccines are the main weapon in the fight against the Covid-19. It provides significant protection against severe Covid-19 infections, hospitalisation, and death. But, even almost after nine months of the launch of the vaccination drive, approximately 20% of the population above 60 years is yet to receive the first dose, according to data. Nearly 10.62 crore persons in the 60-plus age group have been administered the first dose and 6.20 crore are fully vaccinated.
Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan on Monday held a review meeting on the progress of the nationwide vaccination drive and he asked states/UTs to increase the pace of vaccination. Early this week, the Union Health Ministry has urged all states/UTs to focus on administering the second dose of the Covid-19 vaccine as supply improves. India is aiming to finish vaccinating all its eligible population by the year-end.
Meanwhile, India reported 15,786 new Coronavirus infections in the last 24 hours, taking its overall Covid-19 tally to 3,41,43,236, while the active cases have declined to 1,75,745, the lowest in 232 days, according to data from the Union health ministry on Friday. With 231 fresh fatalities, the Covid-19 death toll has climbed to 4,53,042, the Health Ministry said. The daily rise in new coronavirus infections has been below 30,000 for 28 straight days and less than 50,000 daily new cases have been reported for 117 consecutive days now.
Here are the latest, verified news from India and across the world on the Coronavirus pandemic:
Highlights
Millions more Americans can get a COVID-19 booster and choose a different company's vaccine for that next shot, federal health officials said Thursday. Certain people who received Pfizer vaccinations months ago already are eligible for a booster and now the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says specific Moderna and Johnson & Johnson recipients qualify, too. And in a bigger change, the agency is allowing the flexibility of "mixing and matching" that extra dose regardless of which type people received first. The Food and Drug Administration had already authorized such an expansion of the nation's booster campaign on Wednesday, and it was also endorsed Thursday by a CDC advisory panel. CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky had the final word on who gets the extra doses. "These past 20 months have taught us many things, but mostly to have humility," she told the panel. "We are constantly learning about this virus, growing the evidence base and accumulating more data." There still are restrictions on who qualifies and when for a booster. Starting six months past their last Pfizer or Moderna vaccination, people are urged to get a booster if they're 65 or older, nursing home residents, or at least 50 and at increased risk of severe disease because of health problems. (AP)
Mexico registered 322 more confirmed coronavirus deaths and 4,798 new cases, bringing the overall death toll to 285,669 and the total number of cases to 3,772,556, the Health Ministry said on Thursday. (Reuters)
Even as the country is ecstatic after achieving the milestone of 100 crore Coronavirus vaccine doses, it is vital to tone down the euphoria a bit and focus dedicatedly on the task ahead. The country needs to administer another 88 crore additional vaccine doses to fully vaccinate the adult population of the country, the Indian Express reported. It is utterly significant for the country to retain the momentum and continue to vaccinate the partially vaccinated adult population and left out people with double doses of Coronavirus vaccine. READ FULL REPORT HERE
Ukraine attained a second successive daily record of new coronavirus infections and deaths, the health ministry said on Friday, despite tighter curbs last month as infections have risen for weeks among the population of 41 million. Ministry data showed 23,785 new cases over the past 24 hours, up from 22,415 a day earlier, while 614 new deaths related to COVID-19 exceeded Thursday's figure of 546. Vaccinations have been made compulsory for government employees such as teachers and the unvaccinated face curbs on visits to restaurants, sporting and other public events. The western city of Lviv may beef up curbs again after doing so this month, while the mayor of Kyiv has said his city will enter the "red" danger zone this week, leading to restrictions. (Reuters)
Swiss voters look set to support the government's pandemic response plan in a binding referendum next month, a poll for broadcaster SRG showed on Friday. The gfs.bern survey found 61% backed a law passed in March that expanded financial aid to people hit by the COVID-19 crisis and laid the foundation for certificates the government requires to facilitate travel abroad and allow certain events to be held. The survey found 36% opposed and 3% were undecided before the Nov. 28 referendum under the Swiss system of direct democracy. The poll's margin of error was 2.8 percentage points. In two other votes that day, the Swiss would easily support a labour union-backed proposal to boost the nursing profession, the poll found. A vote on whether to select federal judges by lottery from a pool of candidates proposed by experts was still too close to call. The government opposes the idea, which aims to reduce political pressure on the judiciary. (Reuters)
In the backdrop of India crossing the 100 crore vaccination mark, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today addressed the nations virtually. During his address, PM Modi said that India’s vaccination programme was science-born, science-driven and science-based. PM Modi said that the 100 crore Covid vaccine dose landmark is not merely statistics but a new chapter in the history of the country. He also said that the CoWin platform has made life easier for health workers. The Prime Minister also reiterated his vocal for local vision. READ FULL REPORT HERE
We have re-opened theatres with 50% capacity from today. The theatre owners are demanding to reopen with 100% seating capacity but we have told them to wait till Diwali. After Diwali, if situation is under control, then we'll increase the capacity: Maharashtra Dy CM Ajit Pawar (ANI)
China's capital Beijing has begun offering booster shots against COVID-19, four months before the city and surrounding regions are to host the Winter Olympics. Anyone 18 or older who have received two-dose Chinese vaccines and belong to at-risk groups, including those participating, organising or working on games facilities, would be eligible for the additional shot, state media reported Friday. The booster has been rolling out in cities across the vast nation since late September, but Beijing authorities have been extra cautious in who receives the extra jab. The games are set to begin on Feb 4 with only residents of China allowed in the stands. Indoor events with sliding, skiing and jumping will be held in the suburb of Yanqing and the neighbouring city of Zhangjiakou. China has been largely successful in preventing local transmission through strict requirements on mask wearing, quarantining and contact tracing. Cases continue to pop up however, with 28 new ones reported Friday, including one in the Beijing suburb of Fengtai. (AP)
More than 104.5 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses have been provided to states and union territories so far, the Union health ministry said on Friday. Over 11.65 crore balance and unutilised vaccine doses still available with states/UTs, it said. The vaccination drive has been ramped up through availability of more vaccines, advance visibility of vaccine availability to states and UTs for enabling better planning by them, and streamlining the vaccine supply chain, the ministry said. A total of 1,04,58,46,415 vaccine doses have been provided to states and union territories so far through the government of India (free of cost channel) and through direct state procurement category, the ministry said. (PTI)
Puducherry registered 57 fresh cases of coronavirus, 56 recoveries and one related fatality in the last 24 hours ending 9 am on Friday. The cumulative positives rose to 1,27,621 with the addition of the new cases that were identified at the end of examination of 3126 samples. The new cases were spread over Puducherry 31, Karaikal 14 and Mahe 12. Yanam an enclave of Puducherry in Andhra Pradesh did not report any new case of infection. The total active cases were 454 of whom 93 patients were in hospitals and the remaining 361 patients were in home isolation. Director of Health G. Sriramulu said that while 56 patients recovered and were discharged from hospitals during last twenty-four hours the overall recoveries stood at 1,25,314. (PTI)
China reported 43 new confirmed coronavirus cases for Oct. 21 compared with 21 a day earlier, the country's health authority said on Friday.Of the new infections, 28 were locally transmitted cases, according to a statement by the National Health Commission, compared with 13 a day earlier.The new local cases were reported in the provinces of Gansu, Shaanxi, Guizhou and Qinghai, the autonomous regions of Inner Mongolia and Ningxia and the city of Beijing. China reported 26 new asymptomatic patients, which it classifies separately from confirmed cases, compared with 27 a day earlier. There were no new deaths, leaving the death toll unchanged at 4,636.As of Oct. 21, mainland China had 96,665 confirmed coronavirus cases. (Reuters)
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Finance ministers from the Asia-Pacific trade group APEC met on Friday and agreed to step up efforts to expand vaccine manufacture and supply, and support global vaccine sharing, the host nation New Zealand said in a statement. New Zealand's Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson chaired the virtual APEC Finance Ministers’ meeting from Wellington. The meeting was closed to the media. The ministers also agreed to use all available policy tools to address COVID-19 and said they would maintain macroeconomic and financial stability and refrain from competitive exchange rate devaluations. (Reuters)
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Arunachal Pradesh's COVID-19 caseload rose to 55,065 as 22 more people tested positive for the infection, a senior health official said here on Friday. The COVID-19 death toll in the frontier state remained at 280, as no new fatality was reported in the last 24 hours, the official said. Arunachal Pradesh now has 140 active COVID-19 cases, while 54,645 people have recuperated from the disease thus far including 20 on Thursday, State Surveillance Officer (SSO) Dr Lobsang Jampa said. The COVID-19 recovery rate in the state now is 99.24 per cent while the percentage of active cases is 0.25, he said. West Kameng district has the highest number of active cases at 42, followed by Tawang (20), Namsai (18) and East Siang with 11 cases, the SSO said. (PTI)
As a decision is awaited on the Emergency Use Listing of Covaxin being manufactured in India, a top WHO official has said the process of thoroughly evaluating a vaccine for use and recommending it sometimes takes longer time but it has to be ensured that the right advice is given to the world "even if it takes another week or two". The World Health Organisation "is very clear that we want all countries to recognise vaccines that have been given an Emergency Use Listing (EUL) by the WHO advisory process. But it's also very important that WHO, when it makes a recommendation like that, is making that globally," WHO Health Emergencies Programme Executive Director Dr Mike Ryan said. Ryan was responding to a question during a recent virtual Q&A on whether there will be a definitive answer on Covaxin EUL by October 26. WHO Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan had said in a tweet earlier that the technical advisory group at WHO will meet on October 26 to consider the Emergency Use Listing for Covaxin being manufactured by India's Bharat Biotech. Earlier this week, the global health organisation had said in a tweet that it is expecting one additional piece of information from Bharat Biotech regarding COVAXIN. "We are aware that many people are waiting for WHO's recommendation for Covaxin to be included in the #COVID19 Emergency Use Listing, but we cannot cut corners - before recommending a product for emergency use, we must evaluate it thoroughly to make sure it is safe and effective," WHO had said. (PTI)
New Zealand's government on Friday set an ambitious target of fully vaccinating 90% of all eligible people to end coronavirus lockdowns. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern had been under pressure to provide a pathway to freedom for people living in Auckland, who have been in lockdown for more than two months. Under the new framework, people living in the largest city will regain many of their freedoms once 90% of people 12 and older across each of three districts are fully vaccinated. Other parts of the country without community spread of the virus will gain even broader freedoms once they hit the 90% target. However, people will be required to use new vaccine certificates to visit places like bars, restaurants and gyms. The government also promised more money to help businesses struggling under the lockdown restrictions and to boost vaccinations among Indigenous Maori, whose rates have been lagging. New Zealand's vaccination target is set higher than in many other countries, but Ardern said Auckland could reach it within weeks. However, as vaccination rates have risen, health officials have found it increasingly difficult to convince remaining holdouts to get jabbed. Currently 89% of eligible Aucklanders have had at least one dose and 73% have had both doses, a rate slightly ahead of the national average. (AP)
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A man in Latur district of Maharashtra has claimed to have received the final COVID-19 vaccination certificate without actually getting the second dose. Vijaykumar Kakade (29), a resident of Jawalga village in Ausa tehsil of the district said he has received the certificate which says that he has been fully vaccinated although he was not administered the second shot. Health officials said that it could have happened due to some human error. Kakade said he was allotted time slot for his second vaccination on Wednesday. He said that without getting vaccinated, he received a text message on his mobile phone, which read - "You have been successfully vaccinated with the second dose of Covishield at 4.17 pm. You may download your vaccine certificate." "When I opened the given link, I saw the certificate of myself being fully vaccinated. The place of vaccination mentioned was Nath Sabhagrah, Ausa. However, the management of the Sabhagrah claimed that no vaccination camp was conducted there on Wednesday," he said. - PTI
The COVID-19 tally of Andaman and Nicobar Islands remained unchanged at 7,646 as no fresh case was registered on Friday, a health bulletin said. The Union territory now has seven active cases, while 7,510 people have been cured of the disease, and 129 patients have succumbed to the infection so far. The administration has thus far tested over 5.84 lakh samples for COVID-19, and inoculated over 2.92 lakh people, of whom 1.81 lakh have been fully vaccinated. PTI
India reports 15,786 new cases and 231 deaths in the last 24 hours; Active caseload stands at 1,75,745 - ANI
US President Joe Biden botched the numbers behind the COVID-19 vaccine rollout as he stretched to take all the credit for the surge of shots once he was in office. A look at his remarks Thursday during a CNN town hall event:
BIDEN: "When I first was elected, there were only 2 million people who had COVID shots in the United States of America, and the vaccine. Now we got 190 million, because I went out and bought everything I could do and buy in sight and it worked."
THE FACTS: No, that's not how the vaccine rollout in the US happened. Biden is overstating his part. First, it's not true that 2 million people had shots when he was elected in November. The COVID-19 vaccines were still awaiting emergency authorization then. The first shots were administered to the public in mid-December. Nearly 16 million doses had been administered by Jan 20, the day Biden took office. And Biden didn't buy up all the doses - the Trump administration had purchased 300 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna in December, weeks before Biden was inaugurated. (AP)
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US health officials expand COVID-19 booster campaign to include all authorized vaccines, mixing of brands: The Associated Press (ANI)
Top US lawmakers have congratulated India after the cumulative COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country surpassed the 100-crore milestone, saying India’s success will help the world defeat the pandemic. Congressman Gregory Meeks, Chairman of the powerful House Foreign Affairs Committee on Thursday said: “Congratulations to India on reaching this important milestone in the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.” “As a global leader in pharmaceutical and vaccine manufacturing, India’s success will help the world defeat this pandemic,” he said. “Great to see that India has reached 1 billion doses of the COVID-19 vaccination. What an achievement!” Senator Steve Daines from Montana said. READ FULL STORY
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday described India's COVID-19 vaccination drive as a journey from 'anxiety to assurance' that has made the country emerge stronger, and credited its success to people's trust in the vaccines despite "various efforts to create mistrust and panic". In an opinion piece a day after the cumulative vaccine doses crossed the landmark figure of 100 crore, Modi noted that the feat was achieved in nine months despite many doubting the country's capability, and asserted that his government ensured that, like its other schemes, there is no "VIP culture" in the vaccination drive either. There was a lot of pressure from different interest groups to give preferential treatment to them in vaccination, he said, while giving credit to Indian scientists and entrepreneurs for rising to the occasion to make the country 'aatmanirbhar' (self-reliant) in producing vaccines. Outlining the enormity of the challenge, from producing the vaccine in plants of Pune and Hyderabad to ensuring last mile delivery across the country with seamless logistics, Modi said the drive has been an unprecedented effort in the history of independent India. "When everyone takes ownership, nothing is impossible. Our healthcare workers traversed hills and crossed rivers across difficult geographies to vaccinate people. Our youth, social workers, healthcare workers, social and religious leaders, all deserve credit for the fact that India faces minimal vaccine hesitancy when compared to even developed nations," he wrote in the piece 'Team India-Responding to Adversity with Achievement'. Administering 100 crore doses of vaccines in just about nine months since the vaccination started has been a tremendous journey in dealing with the disease, the prime minister said, noting that humanity was dealing with such a pandemic after 100 years and no one knew much about the virus following its outbreak in early 2020. (PTI)
With the addition of 148 coronavirus positive cases, the infection count in Thane district of Maharashtra mounted to 5,64,123, an official said on Friday. These cases were reported on Thursday, he said. As the virus claimed the lives of two persons, the death toll in the district grew to 11,470. Thane's COVID-19 mortality rate is 2.03 per cent, he added. In neighbouring Palghar district, the caseload stood at 1,37,677 and the fatality count at 3,282, another official said. (PTI)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the nation at 10 AM on Friday, his office said. His address comes a day after the cumulative COVID-19 vaccine doses crossed the landmark figure of 100 crore in India. The prime minister had hailed it as history being scripted and, in an opinion piece on Friday, he described India's COVID-19 vaccination drive as a journey from "anxiety to assurance" that has made the country emerge stronger, and credited its success to people's trust in the vaccines despite "various efforts to create mistrust and panic". (PTI)