Page 4 - Coronavirus Vaccine

China faces challenge due to flawed Covid policies, vaccines: Report

China is facing a significant challenge in the form of Covid-19, due to the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) flawed and regressive containment policies and ineffective domestically produced vaccines

Health Minister Mandaviya launches Bharat Biotech's nasal Covid-19 vaccine

Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya and Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh launched Bharat Biotech's nasal Covid vaccine, iNCOVACC, on the occasion of Republic Day on Thursday. The world's first made-in-India intranasal vaccine was launched at Mandaviya's residence here. The nasal vaccine -- BBV154 -- had received the Drugs Controller General of India's (DCGI) approval in November for restricted emergency use among adults as a heterologous booster dose. According to a statement issued by Bharat Biotech earlier, 'iNCOVACC' is priced at Rs 800 for private markets and at Rs 325 for supplies to the government of India and state governments iNCOVACC is a recombinant replication deficient adenovirus vectored vaccine with a pre-fusion stabilised spike protein. This vaccine candidate was evaluated in phase I, II and III clinical trials with successful results, the Hyderabad-based vaccine maker had said. Clinical trials were conducted to evaluate iNCOVACC as a primary dose

No need for fourth dose of Covid-19 vaccine given current evidence: Expert

Dr Raman Gangakhedkar, former head of epidemiology and communicable diseases at the Indian Council of Medical Research, has discounted the need for the fourth dose of COVID-19 vaccine given the current evidence about the coronavirus and its variants. If a person has taken a third dose of the anti-COVID-19 vaccine, it means his T-cell immune response has been trained thrice, Dr Gangakhedkar said on the sidelines of a function on Tuesday. "The core virus (of COVID-19) has not been changed so much that a new vaccine would be needed, so try and have trust in our T-cell immune response," he said. "Looking at the current evidence (of variants of the virus), it is not that big that there is any need for the fourth dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. There are many reasons for that. Currently, whatever vaccines are there, the virus makes the escape mutants over them which causes infections," he said. According to Dr Gangakhedkar, old people and those suffering from chronic morbidities should ...

US health officials propose once-a-year Covid shots for most Americans

The FDA will ask its panel of outside vaccine experts to weigh in at a meeting Thursday

Mumbai logs 4 new Covid-19 cases, zero death; active tally at 31

As per civic data, the city's coronavirus recovery rate was 98.3 per cent, while the case doubling time was 2,02,183 days

Govt launches U-WIN to digitise India's universal immunisation programme

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, .

First Indian intranasal Covid-19 vaccine to be launched on Jan 26

Homegrown vaccine maker Bharat Biotech will launch its intranasal Covid-19 vaccine iNCOVACC, the first of its kind in India, on Jan 26, the company's chairman and managing director Krishna Ella said

Multilateral bodies must join hands to deal with future outbreaks: SII CEO

Vaccine maker Serum Institute of India CEO Adar Poonawalla has called for global harmonisation or regulatory standards and said that cooperation among multilateral organisations is a must for dealing with future outbreaks. Speaking during the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2023, he said he is optimistic about the cooperation. As several leaders here warned against any complacency on the Covid front, Poonawalla said, "We need to keep educating people and dispel vaccine hesitancy". Serum Institute of India (SII) emerged as one of the largest vaccine makers in the world during the pandemic. Poonawalla pitched for advancing vaccine equity and global harmonisation of regulatory standards to allow vaccine manufacturers to make a better real-time impact. "Today, we go through a WHO approval process, you don't want every individual country asking for their own process and clinical trials. We have to be able to accept one level of standard," he added. Poonawalla said he is hopeful th

Coalition sets 100-day goal for faster, equitable pandemic response

They also discussed how to overcome political obstacles to ensure vaccines are made more readily available to all

Covid immunity lasts at least a year after infection plus shots: Study

Boosters conferred an additional 6 months of protection

SII seeks inclusion of Covovax in CoWIN portal as booster dose for adults

Covovax is manufactured through technology transfer from Novavax

Covid-19: Serum's Covovax gets the nod as a mix-and-match booster shot

Experts say no current vaccine protects against sub-lineages of Omicron

Media report on 'side-effects of Covid vaccines' ill-informed: Health Min

Citing an RTI response, a recent news report had claimed that ICMR and CDSCO officials have admitted to side-effects of Covid-19 vaccines, citing a plethora of ramifications arising out of them

SII's Covid vaccine Covovax gets heterologous booster dose approval

Covovax can now be used as a heterologous booster dose for adults who have been administered two doses of Covishield or Covaxin

No new Covid case in Delhi in a day for first time since pandemic began

The two months saw hospitals and family members of patients scrambling for oxygen and doctors being burdened beyond their capacities

Coronavirus XBB.1.5 variant cases rise to 26 in India: INSACOG data

The INSACOG data also showed that 14 cases of BF.7 strain which is apparently driving China's Covid-19 wave have been found in India

Govt exempts customs duty on imports of Covid-19 vaccines till March 31

Currently, Covid vaccines administered in India include Covishield, Covaxin, Sputnik V, Corbevax and Covovax

SII's free Covishield supply to govt: First 8 mn doses set for dispatch

Amid a rise in Covid cases in some countries, Serum Institute of India has started supply of Covishield to the Centre free of cost with the first lot of 80 lakh doses set to be dispatched from Saturday, official sources said. Since the launch of the anti-Covid vaccination drive, SII has so far provided 170 crore doses of Covishield to the government. According to an official source, Prakash Kumar Singh, Director Government and Regulatory Affairs at Serum Institute of India, had written to Union Health Ministry mentioning that the Pune-based firm will provide two crore doses of Covishield vaccine worth Rs 410 crore to the Government of India free of cost. The Health Ministry has issued a consignee list for the supply of 80 lakh doses of Covishield which will be supplied by the company Saturday, an official source said.

Pfizer bivalent Covid shot linked to strokes in ppl 65 & older: Prelim data

The potential risk with Pfizer's vaccine was not seen in other safety databases, nor was it seen with Moderna Inc.'s Covid vaccine, the officials said in a statement

Omicron new subvariant accounts for 43% new Covid-19 infections in US

Omicron new subvariant XBB.1.5 is estimated to account for 43 per cent of the Covid-19 cases in the US for the week ending January 14, according to data released Friday by the US CDC