Vaccination

Hospitals check equipment, trial run of oxygen plants ahead of mock drills

Amid a gradual increase in Covid-19 cases in Delhi in recent days, some medical experts say the new XBB.1.16 variant could be driving the rise in cases but add there's no need to panic and people should follow Covid-appropriate behaviour and get booster shots if they have not already. They also say this rise could be a result of more people getting themselves tested for Covid as a precaution when they actually get infected with the influenza virus and develop fever and related ailments. Over the past week, Delhi has seen a rise in daily Covid cases amid a sharp increase in H3N2 influenza cases in parts of the country, including the national capital. On Friday, Delhi recorded over 150 fresh Covid cases with a positivity rate of 6.66 per cent. A day before that, it logged 117 cases with a positivity rate of 4.95 per cent. The number of daily Covid cases has nearly doubled since Tuesday when 83 fresh Covid cases were reported with a positivity rate of 5.83 per cent and one fatality. T

The government on Friday said around 24 crore cattle and buffaloes have now been covered under Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) vaccination drive. FMD is a major disease of livestock especially in cattle and buffaloes in India and causes huge economic loss to livestock owners due to a reduction in milk yield. "During the second round of the Foot and Mouth Disease vaccination drive, around 24 crore cattle and buffaloes in the country have now been covered out of a targeted population of 25.8 crore cattle (as per data furnished by states); reaching a near universal coverage of over 95 per cent which is well beyond the herd immunity level," an official statement said. The milestone has been achieved because of the relentless efforts of the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying (DAHD), State/ UT Governments administration, and support of the livestock owners, it added. The programme is 100 per cent funded by the Centre which is centrally procuring vaccines against FMD and supplying t

On National Vaccination Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday lauded all healthcare workers for their efforts towards keeping India healthy and reaffirmed the commitment to building a healthy country. His remarks came after a tweet by Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, who said that on National Vaccination Day, the entire nation salutes the hard work of frontline healthcare workers to ensure the vaccination of every child. Tagging his tweet, Modi said, "Compliments to all our healthcare workers for their efforts towards keeping India healthy. On National Vaccination Day we also recall India's strides in vaccinating people and reaffirm our commitment to building a healthy India." Also tagging a tweet by the V O Chidambaranar Port Authority which said that this fiscal year, the port has handed 36.03 million tonnes of cargo, Modi said, "Good! India's port sector is growing rapidly and contributing to economic progress." Responding to another tweet by the Ministry of Ports, ...

National Vaccination Day celebrates Pulse Polio Immunization Programme launched in 1995 to fight a disease that has now been eradicated in the country

The government is likely to begin administering anti-cervical cancer vaccine in girls aged nine to 14 years in six states in June, official sources said on Sunday. In the first phase of the vaccination campaign, 2.55 crore girls are targeted to be administered the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Mizoram, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, an official source told PTI. The Union Health Ministry has drawn a roadmap to roll out HPV vaccine in the universal immunisation programme and is likely to float a global tender in April for 16.02 crore doses to be procured by 2026, official sources said. The Serum Institute's made-in-India vaccine against cervical cancer, CERVAVAC, was launched last month. Prakash Kumar Singh, Director of Government and Regulatory Affairs at the Serum Institute of India (SII), has written a letter to the Health Ministry its first indigenous HPV vaccine will be available in the private market at an MRP of Rs 2,000 per dose, i

Carrying vaccination cards of children and pregnant women, struggling to keep a tab on the next jab and other such hassles may soon become a thing of the past. After the success of the Co-WIN platform, the government has now replicated it to set up an electronic registry for routine vaccinations. Named U-WIN, the programme to digitise India's Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP) has been launched in a pilot mode in two districts of each state and Union Territory. The platform will be used to register and vaccinate every pregnant woman, record her delivery outcome, register every newborn delivery, administer birth doses and all vaccination events thereafter, official sources told PTI. The platform that replicates Co-WIN, which has served as the "digital backbone" for India's COVID-19 vaccination programme, was launched on January 11 in 65 districts. The U-WIN is going to be the single source of information for immunisation services, updating vaccination status, delivery outcome, .

Acceptance of COVID-19 vaccines increased globally, from 75.2 per cent in 2021 to 79.1 per cent in 2022, according to a survey in 23 countries that represent more than 60 per cent of the world's population. The study underlines a wide variability among countries and the need for tailored communication strategies in addressing vaccine hesitancy. It was led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), Spain, and the City University of New York Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy (CUNY SPH), US. However, vaccine acceptance decreased in eight countries and almost one in eight vaccinated respondents, particularly younger men and women, were hesitant about receiving a booster dose, the study said. The findings have been published in Nature Medicine. "The pandemic is not over, and authorities must urgently address vaccine hesitancy and resistance as part of their COVID-19 prevention and mitigation strategy," says Jeffrey V Lazarus, Head of the Health Systems ...

This is despite the prevalence of a much larger population in the country's villages and a greater number of vaccination centres in these areas, compared to urban

Around 50 per cent of people over 60 years of age are fully vaccinated. Vaccination is significantly lower for the rest of the country

Specific focus on oxygen plants, ventilators, logistics and human resources; aim is to check whether the equipment is in running condition, or needs refurbishment

Less than 30,000 booster doses daily in December, vaccine coverage flat for two months

A new and highly transmissible BF.7 strain of the Omicron variant is behind a widespread surge of Covid infections in China

A meta-analysis of 23 studies, including 854 patients aged 12 to 20 years with mRNA vaccine-associated myopericarditis, has found that the incidence was higher in males after the second dose

Demand for flu vaccine weak in India; US facing worst season in a decade

Outbreaks have been reported in several states including Maharashtra, Kerala, Bihar, Jharkhand, Gujarat and Haryana

According to US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data, currently India has the highest number of cases in the world at 9,489

With over 90% of population being vaccinated, it is okay at a policy level to relax the mandatory vaccination norm for entering India, they say

The requirement of random post-arrival testing of 2 per cent of arriving passengers too has been done away with in the new guideline

Firm is develop recombinant products in hormones, eyes acquisitions in South East Asia