Coronavirus vaccine news highlights: Yogi Adityanath likens Covid-19 vaccine to ‘Sanjeevani Booti’

In India's ambitious vaccination drive against Covid-10, over 15.2 lakh people have been inoculated so far. This comes amid hesitancy among health workers to get vaccinated due to reports of side effects and deaths, although authorities have said that there is no vaccine link in the latter. India has approved two vaccines — Bharat Biotech's Covaxin and Serum Institute of India's Covishield — for emergency use in the country. Stay tuned for updates.

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US passes 25 million coronavirus cases: Johns Hopkins

More than 25 million Covid-19 cases have been recorded in the United States since the pandemic began, Johns Hopkins University said Sunday, just days after President Joe Biden's inauguration.

The milestone was reached only five days after the US, the world's wealthiest and hardest-hit nation, recorded 400,000 deaths from the disease.

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Covid-19: At current rate, India may take 3 years to vaccinate 30 crore people

Even though India inoculated its first one million individuals faster than the US and UK, the country may take up to three years to vaccinate the prioritised 300 million population going by the current rate, experts have estimated.

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France faces 3rd lockdown if curfew not enough

France's government may impose a third lockdown in the coming days if an existing 12-hour-a-day curfew doesn't significantly slow virus infections.

Exactly a year after France announced Europe's first confirmed case of the coronavirus, Health Minister Olivier Veran said in an interview published Sunday in the Le Parisien newspaper that if infections don't drop, and “if the variants start to spread everywhere, we will take extra measures. And that's called confinement. ... We will close down.”

Italy to take legal action over Covid vaccine delays to secure doses, says minister

Italy will take legal action against Pfizer and Astrazeneca over delays in deliveries of Covid-19 vaccines with the aim of securing the doses rather than to seek damages, Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said on Sunday.

Egypt begins coronavirus immunisation campaign

Egypt began its Covid-19 immunisation program Sunday, becoming one of the first countries in Africa to vaccinate its citizens, with a doctor and a nurse receiving the Chinese-made Sinopharm jab.

Egypt, the Arab world's most populous country with over 100 million people, received its first batch of the vaccine in December.

The inoculation will be available to all health workers for free, Health Minister Hala Zayed said Sunday.

No Europe deaths directly tied to Covid-19 jabs: Experts

Despite dozens of deaths of people shortly after they were vaccinated against coronavirus, scientists say the evidence available so far does not incriminate the new anti-Covid vaccines.

Health agencies stress however that the vast majority of post-vaccination fatalities were elderly, already vulnerable and often sick.

EU: Drug firms must fulfill vaccine contracts

The president of the European Council vowed on Sunday to make drug companies fulfill their vaccine contracts with EU countries, but acknowledged it will be hard for the bloc to meet its goal of vaccinating 70 per cent of the adult population by late summer.

Amid criticism in EU countries of disruption of vaccine deliveries from Pfizer, Charles Michel said on France's Europe-1 radio: “We plan to make the pharmaceutical industry respect signed contracts.” He said EU officials “pounded our fist on the table” with Pfizer last week to ensure the delays end by this coming week.

Germany buys same Covid-19 medication used to treat Trump

Germany will become the first European Union country to start using the same experimental antibodies treatment credited with helping Donald Trump recover from Covid-19, health minister Jens Spahn said Sunday.

"The government has bought 200,000 doses for 400 million euros ($486 million)," Spahn told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper, working out at 2,000 euros per dose.

Patients will receive them free of charge, a health ministry spokeswoman told news agency AFP.

PM exhorts youths to defeat 'network of lies and rumours' on Covid-19 vaccination with right information

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said Indian scientists have done their duty by developing the Covid-19 vaccine and "now we have to fulfil ours" by defeating through the right information every network spreading lies and rumours.

Addressing NCC cadets, NSS volunteers and artists who would be participating in the Republic Day parade, Modi said such organisations have always played their role in dealing with challenging times.

"In Covid-19 times also, the work done by you is laudable. When the government and administration needed it, you came forward as volunteers and provided help," he said.

Yogi Adityanath likens Covid-19 vaccine to ‘Sanjeevani Booti’

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday compared the Covid-19 vaccines given by India to Brazil to 'Sanjeevani Booti', a mythological life-saving herb figuring in the Hindu epic Ramayana.

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Israel includes teens in vaccination drive, eyeing exams

Israel expanded its Covid-19 vaccination drive on Sunday to include 16- to 18-year-olds in what the government described as an effort to enable their attendance at school exams.

Israel, which has the world's fastest vaccine distribution rate, is hoping to begin reopening its economy next month.

With regular imports of Pfizer Inc. vaccines, Israel has administered at least one dose to more than 25% of its 9 million population since Dec. 19, the Health Ministry says.

The vaccines were initially limited to the elderly and other high-risk categories, but are now available to anyone over 40 or - with parental permission - those between 16 and 18.

Around 60 paramedical staff of Delhi prisons dept vaccinated against Covid-19 so far

Around 60 paramedical staff of the Delhi prisons department have been inoculated so far during the Covid-19 vaccination drive, officials said on Sunday.

The vaccination drive began in the national capital on January 16 and the healthcare workers, who were at the forefront of the battle against the Covid-19 pandemic, got the first shots of the vaccine.

"Around 60 paramedical staff of the prisons department have been vaccinated so far. They were vaccinated on different dates at the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital. The vaccination will help boost the morale of the jail officials and security forces personnel, who were at a high risk of catching the virus due to the nature of their job," Director General (Prisons) Sandeep Goel said.

Vaccinated people may still transmit Covid-19, warns England’s chief medic

One of England’s leading medical officers on Sunday urged the public to continue to follow the strict lockdown rules because any vaccine-related immunity from COVID-19 takes at least three weeks to kick in.

Professor Jonathan Van-Tam, England’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer, also warned that there is no clear evidence yet to show that vaccinated people cannot transmit the deadly virus on to others.

“Regardless of whether someone has had their vaccination or not, it is vital that everyone follows the national restrictions and public health advice, as protection takes up to three weeks to kick in and we don’t yet know the impact of vaccines on transmission,” said Van-Tam.

Delhi reports 185 new Covid-19 cases, 315 recoveries and 9 deaths in the last 24 hours

Total cases 6,33,924

Total recoveries 6,21,375

Death toll 10,808

Active cases 1,741

India to give homegrown vaccine in seven more states this week

The Centre said it will administer homegrown coronavirus vaccine Covaxin in seven more states from Monday as it seeks to inoculate 30 million healthcare workers across the country.

The government this month gave emergency-use approval to the vaccine, developed by Bharat Biotech International Ltd and state-run Indian Council of Medical Research, and another licensed from Oxford University and AstraZeneca PLC that is being manufactured by the Serum Institute of India.

If poor countries go unvaccinated rich ones will pay, a study says

In monopolizing the supply of vaccines against Covid-19, wealthy nations are threatening more than a humanitarian catastrophe: The resulting economic devastation will hit affluent countries nearly as hard as those in the developing world.

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One year after Covid-19 lockdown, Wuhan dissident more isolated than ever

One year after lockdown, Wuhan has long since sprung back to life — but Zhu Tao remains bunkered in his 14th-floor apartment, spending his days doomscrolling through news, playing virtual soccer on his PlayStation and feeling China is teetering on the brink of collapse.

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One million Covid-19 vaccine doses administered in India in just 6 days: Health ministry

India took only 6 days to administer one million Covid-19 vaccine doses, a count which is higher than that of countries like the US and the UK, the Union Health Ministry said on Sunday as the number of beneficiaries who have received the anti-coronavirus shots inched close to 16 lakh.

The UK took 18 days whereas the US took 10 days to reach the one million mark, the ministry said. (PTI)

Aviation sector workers be vaccinated on priority after health workers: MoCA to MoHFW

Frontline workers in the aviation sector should be considered for Covid-19 vaccination on priority basis after health workers have been given the jabs, the civil aviation ministry has told the Union health ministry.

As per the guidelines issued by the health ministry on December 28 last year, initially around 30 crore Indians will be vaccinated, including around three crore healthcare and frontline workers, and approximately 27 crore people of over the age of 50 years. (PTI)

Brazil's late and rocky start on vaccinations fuels public ire

Brazil's newly launched vaccination campaign against Covid-19 has gotten off to a late and rocky start -- as the country is hammered by a second wave of the disease, it is already close to running out of vaccine, syringes and other vital equipment, according to scientists who blame the government of Jair Bolsonaro. (AFP)

Ukrainians caught in geopolitical race for Covid-19 vaccines

Vitaly Sokolov, a doctor who has been treating critical coronavirus patients in Ukraine since the start of the pandemic, is anxiously waiting to be vaccinated.

But his ex-Soviet republic is caught in a geopolitical tug-of-war that is delaying a national vaccine rollout in one of Europe's poorest countries.

"We live in constant stress," the surgeon told AFP at the Kiev hospital where he works.

"It's insulting that colleagues in countries that produce vaccines -- and even colleagues in countries where they aren't produced -- have already been vaccinated," he said, clad in protective gear before entering a virus ward.

The stakes are high for Ukraine, where a population of some 40 million rely on an ageing and understaffed public health care system that is buckling under a caseload of 1.2 million infections and 21,000 deaths. (AFP)

India's Covid-19 numbers today

Tears and fears as India's huge coronavirus vaccine push falters

India's huge coronavirus vaccination drive is behind schedule, with a third of recipients not showing up for appointments because of safety fears, technical glitches and a belief that the pandemic is ending.

After one week, India has vaccinated 1.4 million people, or 200,000 people per day. It had initially hoped to process 300,000 per day before ramping up the rollout and inoculating 300 million by July.

At the Sharda Hospital in Greater Noida near New Delhi, pharma student Khushi Dhingra, 17, hugged a friend and wept as she waited to get her shot.

"I am very afraid. I hate needles and I am worried about side effects," she told AFP.

Help with vaccination push comes from unexpected businesses

While some retailers and pharmacy chains have been directly involved in the rollout of coronavirus vaccinations, more surprising is the number of companies that have offered help despite having little to do with health care.

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Pushing on with vaccine drive amid no-shows

Three months before India rolled out its mega exercise to administer Covid-19 vaccines to 30 crore individuals, two independent research groups waved red flags about the hurdles that may crop up.

“The problem of vaccine hesitancy is strongly related to lack of trust in the government,” cautioned US and European researchers in another study in Nature Medicine.

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WHO Chief hails India's vaccine assistance efforts

Mauritius receives India's vaccine gift

If poor countries go unvaccinated rich ones will pay, a study says

In monopolizing the supply of vaccines against Covid-19, wealthy nations are threatening more than a humanitarian catastrophe: The resulting economic devastation will hit affluent countries nearly as hard as those in the developing world.

This is the crucial takeaway from an academic study to be released Monday. In the most extreme scenario — with wealthy nations fully vaccinated by the middle of this year, and poor countries largely shut out — the study concludes that the global economy would suffer losses exceeding $9 trillion.

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Vaccine 99 per cent safe: Telangana Health Minister

The Covid-19 vaccine is 99 per centsafe and it is important to get vaccinated, Telangana Health Minister Eatala Rajender. "I believe that everyone will come forward for it in coming days," he said. (ANI)

UK extends councils' lockdown powers until July 17: Media

The British government has quietly extended coronavirus lockdown laws to give local councils in England the power to close pubs, restaurants, shops and public spaces until July 17, the Telegraph reported on Saturday.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Friday the government could not consider easing lockdown restrictions with infection rates at their current high levels, and until it is confident the vaccination programme is working. (Reuters)

'6,000 health workers in the Indian Army vaccinated'

Southern Army Commander Lt General CP Mohanty said on Saturday that he is proud of our country being at the forefront in the vaccination drive against Covid-19. "As far as the Indian Army is concerned, we havestarted administering the vaccine to our health workers. Around 6,000 of them have been vaccinated so far," he said. (ANI)

US passes 25 million confirmed coronavirus cases

The United States has now recorded 25 million coronavirus cases, reaching the threshold Saturday afternoon, according to a New York Times database.

Experts say that as staggering as that figure is, it significantly understates the true number of people in the country who have been infected and the scope of the nation’s failure to contain the spread of the virus.

The official tally works out to about one in every 13 people in the country, or about 7.6 per centof the population. (NYT)

Egypt to start Covid-19 vaccination campaign

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi announced Saturday that Egypt would start rolling out a mass Covid-19 vaccination campaign the following day with the Chinese-made Sinopharm jab.

"We are starting a vaccination drive tomorrow beginning with healthcare workers followed by those suffering from chronic diseases and later the elderly," Sisi said in brief comments after unveiling several development projects in Port Said. (AFP)

Belgium sees large initial shortfall of AstraZeneca vaccine

Belgium will receive less than half the number of Covid-19 vaccines it had expected from AstraZeneca in the first quarter, the country's vaccine taskforce said on Saturday.

Belgium had been expecting 1.5 million doses of the vaccine, which has still to be approved, by March, but would instead get around 650,000 doses.

Reuters reported on Friday that AstraZeneca had informed European Union officials it would cut deliveries of the vaccine by 60% to a total 31 million doses in the first quarter due to production problems. (Reuters)