Health

At Prakhar hospital in Kanpur, phase 2 trials of India’s first intranasal vaccine against Covid, which is being developed by Bharat Biotech in conjunction with Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis, have begun.

Continuing its series of activities under the ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’, the Ministry of Ayush launched a campaign of distributing Ayush prophylactic medicines and written guidelines on diet and lifestyle today at New Delhi. The drive was jointly kick-started by Minister of Ayush and Port, Shipping & Waterways Shri Sarbananda Sonowal and Minister of State for Ayush and Woman and Child Development Dr Munjpara Mahendrabhai.

RT-PCR tests for Covid — mandatory for travel in some states within India and when travellers go abroad — will be linked to the government’s CoWIN app, the way vaccination certificates are attached now, RS Sharma, chief of the National Health Authority, told NDTV in an interview today. This, he said, will help travellers prove that they have undergone authentic tests, certified by the government.

Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare and Chemical and Fertilizer Shri. Mansukh Mandaviya on 29th August 2021 released the first commercial batch of COVAXIN from Chiron Behring Vaccines facility of Bharat Biotech in Ankleshwar, Gujarat. Shri C R Patil, MP, Navsari, Shri Ishwarsinh Patel, MLA, Ankleshwar, Shri. Dushyant Patel, MLA and Dr. Krishna Ella, Chairman & Managing Director, Bharat Biotech were also present at the event.

The ICMR in its recent study has found that the people already infected with Covid-19 while taking a dose of Covaxin have the same or increased antibody response as unaffected people taking two doses of Covaxin.

Now almost 37% of India’s 1.3 billion population is covered with at least one dose, whereas 10 % have received both doses. In terms of the 94 crore adult or 18-plus population currently eligible to receive shots, 51% have been covered with at least one dose. Of these, 15% have got both doses.

Gennova Biopharmaceuticals, the Pune-based biotechnology company, working on the nation’s first mRNA-based Covid vaccine, submitted the interim clinical data of the Phase-I study to the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO), the government’s National Regulatory Authority (NRA).