India has approved its first nasal Covid vaccine. Made by Bharat Biotech, iNCOVACC is administered in the form of drops and stimulates an immune response in the tissues that line the nasal cavity.
JULY 28: The incident took place in a school in Sagar district where children were being given Covid-19 vaccines.
India's health ministry mandates a "one needle, one syringe, only one time" protocol for Covid-19 vaccines.
India has administered over 2.03bn Covid-19 vaccines so far.
Single-use disposable syringes are widely used in India to avoid the spread of deadly diseases like HIV. However, there have been multiple incidents in the past where a single syringe has been reused in hospitals due to a shortage of equipment.
Jitendra Rai, who was vaccinating the children, told the media that he was only given one syringe by the health department and he was just following orders.
Parents who had accompanied their children spotted the issue and reported it to the school authorities.
When state officials reached the school, Mr Rai was missing from the school and his phone was turned off.
The state's health department has registered a case of negligence against him. Meanwhile, it has also started an inquiry against the official responsible for dispatching equipment for the vaccination drive.
A spokesperson from the opposition Congress party has demanded that the state's health minister should resign over the incident.
India is the second country after China to have crossed the two-billion Covid vaccines mark. In July, the government announced a 75-day free Covid booster dose programme for all adults to mark India's 75th independence anniversary.
According to India's health ministry, 98% of adults have received at least one dose of the Covid vaccine, while 90% have been fully vaccinated.
On Wednesday, the country reported 18,313 daily cases for the past 24 hours and 57 Covid-related deaths.
With inputs from BBC.
APRIL 27: Covaxin, made by Bharat Biotech, has been granted emergency use permission for the six-12 age group, health minister Mansukh Mandaviya tweeted.
It is already administered to children aged 12-18, and adults.
Two other vaccines have also been given emergency approval - Corbevax for children aged five-12; and Zydus's two-dose jab for children above 12.
Corbevax is also currently being administered to children in the 12-14 age group.
The emergency-use nod doesn't mean India will immediately start vaccinating children younger than 12 - that can only begin once the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation gives a green signal.
India has so far administered over 1.87 billion doses since it began Covid vaccinations in January 2021.
The country has recorded a small rise in new Covid cases over the past week, with the capital Delhi accounting for almost half of the 2,500 new infections on Tuesday.
About 80% of eligible adults have been fully vaccinated and more than 99% have received at least one jab so far.
Since 10 January, India has also been administering booster shots to healthcare and frontline workers, and those above 60 with comorbidities.
It also started vaccinating 15-18-year-olds the same month, and later expanded the drive to include children over the age of 12.
India has approved nine Covid vaccines, five of which have been locally made. Only two have been widely used.
What vaccines had India approved before this?
India is currently using four vaccines - Covishield, Covaxin, Sputnik V and Corbevax - for its drive. Of these, Covishield accounts for over 81% of the doses given so far.
In February the government had granted emergency use permission to Sputnik Light, a component of the Russian-made Sputnik V vaccine, which India had approved last year.
The Sputnik V vaccine, developed by Moscow's Gamaleya Institute, had generated some controversy initially after being rolled out before the final trial data had been released. But scientists say its benefits have now been demonstrated.
It uses a cold-type virus, engineered to be harmless, as a carrier to deliver a small fragment of the coronavirus to the body. After being vaccinated, the body starts to produce antibodies especially tailored to the virus.
Sputnik Light comprises the component used in the first dose of the Sputnik V vaccine.
In December, the country approved the Serum Institute of India's Covovax and Biological E's Corbevax for emergency use.
It also approved ZyCoV-D vaccine - the world's first DNA vaccine against Covid - by Zydus, but it's not available yet.
The government had also approved Johnson & Johnson's single-dose vaccine, which was to be introduced in India through a supply agreement with Biological E; and it had authorised Indian pharma company Cipla to import the Moderna vaccine.
But it's unclear when either of those will be available in India.
What do we know about the vaccines?
The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, locally known as Covishield, is made from a weakened version of a common cold virus (known as an adenovirus) from chimpanzees. It has been modified to look more like coronavirus - although it can't cause illness.
Covaxin by Indian firm Bharat Biotech is an inactivated vaccine which means that it is made up of killed coronaviruses, making it safe to be injected into the body.
The vaccine ran into controversy after India's regulators gave it emergency approval in January while the third phase of the trial was still under way, sparking scepticism and questions from experts. Bharat Biotech, which makes the vaccine, has since published data suggesting 78% efficacy.
Corbevax from Indian pharma company Biological E was developed in collaboration with US-based Dynavax and Baylor College of Medicine.
It is India's first indigenously developed recombinant protein sub-unit vaccine. That is, it's made up of the coronavirus' "spike protein", which the virus uses to latch on and enter human cells. When injected, this is expected to trigger an immune response in the body.
Covovax is a local version of the Novavax vaccine, and will be produced by the Serum Institute of India, which is also manufacturing Covishield.
The vaccine was more than 90% effective in a late-stage US-based clinical trial, according to the company.
The ZyCoV-D vaccine uses plasmids - or small rings of DNA that contain genetic information - to deliver the jab between two layers of the skin.
The three-dose ZyCoV-D vaccine prevented symptomatic disease in 66% of those vaccinated, according to an interim study quoted by the vaccine maker Cadila Healthcare.
It is also India's first needle-free Covid-19 jab - administered with a disposable needle-free injector, which uses a narrow stream of the fluid to penetrate the skin and deliver the jab to the proper tissue.
Previous DNA vaccines have worked well in animals but not humans.
The challenge, say scientists, was how to push the plasmid DNA into the human cell so that it gives a durable immune response.
Dr Jeremy Kamil, a virologist at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in Shreveport, told the BBC that it was imperative that the efficacy data of the vaccine "be vetted independently".
Are there any other vaccine candidates?
The other candidates which are in different stages of trials in India to test safety and efficacy include:
-HGCO19, India's first mRNA vaccine, made by Pune-based Genova in collaboration with Seattle-based HDT Biotech Corporation, using bits of genetic code to cause an immune response
-A nasal vaccine by Bharat Biotech
With inputs from BBC
NEW DELHI, Jan 4: India is bracing for the third wave of coronavirus as its largest cities - the capital New Delhi and financial hub Mumbai - see a surge in cases.
India reported 58,097 cases on Wednesday, a six-fold rise in a week that experts say is fuelled by the Omicron variant.
Nearly a third of those infections came from Delhi and Mumbai.
Both cities have brought back curfews and other restrictions to halt the spread of the virus.
Dr NK Arora, head of India's vaccine task force, told NDTV on Monday that the third wave of the pandemic had already begun in the country, adding that the "whole wave seems to be driven by a new variant... Omicron".
The country has reported more than 2,000 Omicron cases - Maharashtra, of which Mumbai is the capital, is leading the tally (653), followed by Delhi (464).
Delhi's health minister Satyendar Jain has said that 81% of Covid samples in the city tested positive for Omicron.
The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) - one of India's major hospitals - in Delhi has canceled winter leave for doctors, according to reports.
The rising infections are a somber reminder of the devastating second wave India faced in April and May - daily averages of about 400,000 cases at the peak of the crisis.
On Tuesday, authorities in Delhi imposed a weekend curfew, with all non-essential activity banned between Friday night and Monday morning. The capital last week closed gyms and cinemas, as well as imposed an overnight curfew in an effort to stem the spread.
The weekend curfew decision was announced hours after the city's chief minister Arvind Kejriwal tested positive, saying he was isolated with mild symptoms.
Mr Kejriwal has been attending massive election rallies in other states, even as cases continue to rise in his city.
On Monday, he attended an event in Uttarakhand where many, including those sharing the stage with him, were seen without a mask.
Several other politicians, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, have held similar rallies in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh in the past few weeks in which thousands - many without masks - have participated with little regard to social distancing.
The three states, along with Goa and Manipur, go to the polls in February and March.
BBC
NEW DELHI, September 14: India reported 25,404 new Covid-19 cases and 339 deaths in the last 24 hours, informed the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Tuesday.
Of these cases, Kerala recorded 15,058 new COVID19 cases and 99 deaths in the last 24 hours. The cumulative COVID-19 cases stand at 3,32,89,579 and death toll increases to 4,43,213.
With a current recovery rate of 97.58 per cent, 37,127 patients recovered in the last 24 hours taking the total COVID-19 recoveries in the country to 3,24,84,159. Meanwhile, the total active caseload in the country reached to 3,62,207.
While the weekly positivity rate stands at 2.07 per cent and has been less than 3 per cent for the last 81 days, the daily positivity rate stands at 1.78 per cent and has been less than 3 per cent for the last 15 days.
With India ramping up its COVID-19 testing capacity, a total of 54.44 crore tests have been conducted in the country so far. In the ongoing Covid-19 vaccination drive, a total of 75.22 crore vaccine doses have been administered so far to the eligible beneficiaries in the country.
Meanwhile, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya congratulated the people of the country as India's vaccination coverage crossed the 75 crore mark on Monday.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) South-East Asia Regional Office (SEARO) also congratulated India for accelerating COVID-19 vaccination and achieving the 75 crore mark.
HYDERABAD, TELANGANA INDIA, May 14, 2021 14:35 IST
With the Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine receiving clearance in India, Deepak Sapra, Global Head of Custom Pharma Services at Dr Reddy's Laboratories received the first jab of the vaccine in Hyderabad.
The first consignment of imported doses of Sputnik V vaccine landed in India on May 1 received regulatory clearance from the Central Drugs Laboratory at Kasauli in Himachal Pradesh on May 13. As per a statement, imported doses of the Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine are presently priced at Rs 948 (+5 per cent GST) per dose, with the possibility of a lower price point when local supply begins.
Further consignments of imported doses are expected over the upcoming months, the company said in a statement.
Subsequently, the supply of the Sputnik V vaccine will start from Indian manufacturing partners.
The company is working closely with its six manufacturing partners to fulfill regulatory requirements to ensure a smooth and timely supply.
Dr Reddy's said it will work closely with stakeholders in the government and private sector to ensure the widest possible reach of the Sputnik V vaccine as part of the national inoculation effort.
"With the rising cases in India, vaccination is our most effective tool in our battle against Covid-19. Contributing to the vaccination drive in India is our biggest priority right now to help Indians be healthy and safe," said G V Prasad, Co-Chairman and Managing Director.
India star spinner Ravichandran Ashwin withdrew from the Indian Premier League on Sunday to support his family during the Covid-19 pandemic, dealing a significant blow to the glitzy tournament which is taking place despite the country battling rising death rates.
Ashwin, 34, a key Test and ODI player, said he would be taking a break from playing in the lucrative T20 franchise tournament with the Delhi Capitals team.
"My family and extended family are putting up a fight against #COVID19 and I want to support them during these tough times," Ashwin tweeted. "I expect to return to play if things go in the right direction. Thank you @DelhiCapitals."
Ashwin's decision is a major blow for the money-spinning event which is being held behind closed doors and runs until May 30.
On Sunday, a leading Indian newspaper group suspended coverage of the IPL, calling the tournament "commercialism gone crass" and "incongruous" as the record-breaking pandemic surge grips the country.
Express Publications said in a front-page editorial of its flagship English-language daily, the New Indian Express, that the paper was halting reporting on the Twenty20 event until a "semblance of normalcy is restored".
Delhi said they supported the decision taken by Ashwin. "Extending our full support to you in these difficult times, @ashwinravi99 Sending you and your family all the strength and prayers from all of us at Delhi Capitals," the team tweeted.
Ashwin has played 77 Tests in a 10-year international career as well as 111 ODIs and 46 T20 Internationals. He has 409 Test wickets, one of just 16 bowlers in history to break the 400-mark.
Ashwin's Twitter account has over 10 million followers. His profile page contains the plea: "Stay home stay safe! Take your vaccine."
Prime Minister Narendra Modi took his second dose of COVID-19 vaccine at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi on Thursday.
"Got my second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine at AIIMS today. Vaccination is among the few ways we have, to defeat the virus. If you are eligible for the vaccine, get your shot soon," tweeted PM Modi. The two nurses who administered the vaccine to PM Modi at AIIMS, Delhi are -- P Niveda from Puducherry and Nisha Sharma from Punjab.
Prime Minister took his first dose of vaccine on March 1.
India, in a landmark achievement, has vaccinated over 9 crore Covid-19 vaccine doses till now.
PM Modi flagged off the first phase of the pan-India rollout of the COVID-19 vaccination drive on January 16.
