From the Newsroom: India to review post-vaccination side effects from AstraZeneca shot

In your evening news brief, ‘India will carry out a deeper review of post-vaccination side effects from the AstraZeneca shot next week’; BJP veteran Yashwant Sinha joins TMC and Quad leaders to discuss the China “challenge”.

Here is the top news of March 13, 2021:

India will carry out a deeper review of post-vaccination side effects from the AstraZeneca shot next week although no cases of blood clots have been reported so far, an official told AFP Saturday.

New Delhi decided to conduct the review after several countries suspended rollout over blood clot fears even as the World Health Organization said there was no reason to stop using AstraZeneca's Covid-19 jab.

Denmark, Norway and Iceland paused use of the drugmaker's shot as a precaution after isolated reports of recipients developing blood clots.

BJP veteran and former union minister Yashwant Sinha after joining the Trinamool Congress ahead of West Bengal Assembly elections, has alleged that the BJP during Atal Bihari Vajpayee's time believed in consensus but "today's government believes in crushing and conquering".

He said that the tipping point was the attack on Mamata Banerjee in Nandigram. "It was the moment when I decided to join TMC and support Mamata Ji," he said.

Leaders of the US, India, Australia and Japan did discuss the "challenge" posed by China during the first meeting of the Quad, and they made clear that none of them have any "illusions" about Beijing, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan has said.

Addressing a White House briefing on Friday soon after the historic virtual Quad summit between US President Joe Biden, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, the top American official said the four leaders have agreed to hold an in-person summit later this year.

(With inputs from agencies)