Three vaccines — Covishield, Covaxin and Sputnik V — are being administered in India at present.
New Delhi:
Four COVID-19 vaccine candidates are at different stages of human trials, while one, developed by Genique Life Sciences, is in the advanced pre-clinical stage, Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh has said. In a written response to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Mr Singh said Cadila Healthcare Ltd’s DNA-based vaccine candidate is in phase three clinical trial and it has submitted the interim data for emergency use authorisation.
Biological E Ltd’s vaccine candidate and Bharat Biotech International Ltd’s adeno intranasal vaccine candidate are in phase three clinical trials, while Gennova Biopharmaceuticals Ltd mRNA-vaccine candidate is in phase one clinical trial. Gurgaon-based Genique Life Sciences Pvt Ltd’s vaccine candidate is in the advanced pre-clinical stage, he said.
India administered more than 31.79 lakh COVID vaccine doses on Tuesday, taking the cumulative vaccination coverage to nearly 41.52 crores.
Meanwhile, the Centre’s statement on the lack of data on deaths due to oxygen shortage turned into a flashpoint between the BJP and the Congress. Shortage of oxygen became a huge issue during the second wave. As hospitals struggled to cope, deaths of patients were reported from parts of the country and the matter ended up in several courts. In Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, the Centre said that it has received no data from the states regarding any death due to oxygen shortage.
Here are the Live Updates on Coronavirus:
A vaccinated White House official in the US has tested positive for Covid-19, a spokeswoman said Tuesday, adding that the person had not had contact with President Joe Biden or other top-level staff. “I want to confirm that yesterday a fully vaccinated White House official tested positive for Covid-19 off campus,” Biden’s press secretary Jen Psaki said at a briefing, adding that the official, who has not been identified, had mild symptoms.
She said that in accordance with “rigorous” protocols, the official is staying away from the White House pending more testing, and that contact tracing had been carried out.
Assam | We have detected double infection of #COVID19 by two different variants of concern– Alpha & Delta. A lady doctor was found to be infected simultaneously with both the variants: Dr. BJ Borkakoti, Senior Scientist, Regional Medical Research Centre, Dibrugarh (20.07) pic.twitter.com/NJZH41hw3X
– ANI (@ANI) July 21, 2021
More than half of Australia’s 25 million population came under hard COVID-19 lockdowns on Wednesday as the highly infectious Delta variant of the coronavirus spread across three of the country’s major cities. With South Australia state joining all of Victoria and Sydney in lockdown on Tuesday, strict stay-home orders have been enforced for large swathes of the country as officials rush to stem the worst coronavirus outbreak of the year.
Sydney, Australia’s largest city, is in the fourth week of a five-week lockdown while Victoria and its capital Melbourne extended stay-home restrictions for seven days until early next week. South Australia announced week-long tough curbs on Tuesday as cases spread across its capital Adelaide.