Coronavirus vaccine news highlights: Covid-19 vaccine will be given free of cost to the poor in Haryana, says CM Manohar Lal Khattar

India will launch its Covid-19 vaccination drive on January 16 and priority will be given to nearly three crore healthcare and frontline workers, the government said on Saturday. Pope Francis said on Saturday he planned to be vaccinated against Covid-19 as early as next week and urged everyone to get a shot, to protect not only their own lives but those of others. Britain's Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip received the vaccinations on Saturday.

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UK to offer all adults Covid-19 vaccine by autumn 2021

Every adult in Britain will have been offered a coronavirus vaccination by the autumn, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said Sunday, in the UK's biggest ever inoculation campaign.

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The Philippines has secured 30 million doses of a Covid-19vaccinedeveloped by US drug maker Novavax, officials said Sunday, as the country braces for a surge in infections after a huge religious event.

Covid-19 vaccine will be given free of cost to the poor in Haryana: CM Manohar Lal Khattar

It will be given free of cost to the poor (in the state). It will be good if some people support us in subsidising it, as the expenses will be high: Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar on Covid-19 vaccination in the state. (ANI)

Covid-19 vaccine: Will attempt to cover eveyone in state, says UP CM

Ahead of the coronavirusvaccinationdrive from January 16, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday said his government will attempt to cover each and every person in the state.

The Centre on Sunday said Co-WIN, an online platform for monitoring Covid-19vaccinedelivery, shall form the foundation for the anti-coronavirus inoculation drive which shall be citizen-centric so that thevaccineis available anytime and anywhere.

State-wise details of total coronavirus cases in India

In vaccine geopolitics, a great game played with Ukrainians’ health

Lyudmyla Boiko’s family has already had a harrowing, and lethal, encounter with the coronavirus.

Several family members fell ill, and her daughter-in-law’s mother died. Now, Boiko, a 61-year-old employee of a botanical garden in eastern Ukraine, is deeply worried about her husband, who has underlying health problems but has not yet caught the virus. She is pinning her hopes on a vaccine.

“I don’t care where the vaccine is produced as long as I’m sure it is safe,” Boiko said. “Safety should be the first priority.”

But in Ukraine, it is hardly the only consideration.

The country, already caught up in the broader tug-of-war between East and West in European politics, has now also become a focal point in the geopolitics of coronavirus vaccines — so far, to Ukraine’s detriment.

First, talks with Pfizer and other Western vaccine makers to obtain early shipments collapsed after the Trump administration banned vaccine exports. Now, unless the incoming Biden administration steps in, the earliest commercial purchases of Western vaccines will not be delivered before late 2021.

Not surprisingly, Ukraine’s plight has caught the eye of Russia’s state-controlled news outlets, which have highlighted the failure of Ukraine’s Western allies to step up in a moment of need — and offering Russia’s vaccine as an alternative.

Ukraine’s leaders, who have raised worries about the safety and efficacy of the Russian vaccine and would, in any event, almost literally die before accepting help from Russia, their blood enemy, turned to China, buying its first vaccine in a hurried negotiation in the final two weeks of December.

India's Covid-19 recovery rate improves to 96.42% as on January 10, 2021: Government of India

We expect to vaccinate around 4.5 lakhs people in the first phase of vaccination in Rajasthan: State Health Minister

We expect to vaccinate around 4.5 lakhs people in the first phase of vaccination in state. So far, we have trained more than 18,000 people: Rajasthan Health Minister Raghu Sharma

China, Vietnam shown there is way of dealing with pandemic even in absence of vaccine: IMF

China and other countries in Asia like Vietnam have shown that there is a way of dealing with a pandemic even in the absence of a vaccine, allowing the economy to get back on track, according to a top IMF official.

The playbook here is the one that includes local restrictions, rapid testing, rapid tracing and seeing these measures through until the end, until localised outbreaks subside, said Hlge Berger, Mission Chief for China and Assistant Director, Asia and Pacific Department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

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Covid-19 vaccine race: Main candidates and where they stand

MODERNA

The mRNA vaccine by US-based company Moderna has so far been approved for use in Israel, the EU, Canada and the US.

A study of the efficacy of Moderna vaccine revealed it has 94.1 per cent efficacy in preventing the disease. In this type of vaccine, the messenger RNA -- or mRNA -- acts as a blueprint for the production of the coronavirus spike protein and is encapsulated by lipid molecules and delivered into human cells.

The cells of the vaccine recipient then use this mRNA genetic code to produce the viral protein to train the immune system for a future encounter with the infectious coronavirus.

Administered as two doses, four weeks apart, the Moderna vaccine can reportedly be stored in the refrigerator at 2-8 degrees Celsius for up to 30 days. At -20 degrees Celsius it can be stored for up to six months. This is still a challenge for many developing countries in the tropical regions that experience very high temperatures in the summer months.

In November last year, Moderna Chief Executive Stephane Bancel told a German weekly that the company would charge governments between USD 25 and 37 per dose of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, depending on the amount ordered.

Covid-19 vaccine race: Main candidates and where they stand

COVISHIELD

Co-developed by the University of Oxford and British-Swedish company AstraZeneca and known as Covishield in India, the vaccine was the first on which a scientific study was published based on Phase 3 clinical trials.

It has so far been given emergency use authorization in the UK, Argentina, Mexico and India.

Scientists have engineered a version of adenoviruses that infect chimpanzees to carry the gene responsible for the spike protein of the novel coronavirus.

It requires two doses, provided four weeks apart, to produce the desired effects.

Manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, Covishield will be sold at Rs 1,000 per dose in the private market but cost the Indian government only Rs 200, said SII CEO Adar Poonawalla,

"Oxford-AstraZeneca-Serum Institute vaccine has shown protective efficacy in global trials to the tune of 60-70 per cent. While clear data from bridging trials in India are not available, the vaccine is certainly proven safe," Bal said.

According to virologist Upasana Ray from the CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Kolkata, the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine is less restricted in terms of cold storage as it can be stored, transported and handled at normal refrigerator temperatures (2-8 degrees Celsius) for at least six months.

Covid-19 vaccine race: Main candidates and where they stand

COVAXIN

Developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research and the National Institute of Virology, the indigenous vaccine has been granted emergency use authorisation in ‘clinical trial mode’ by the Indian government.

It is an “inactivated” vaccine developed by chemically treating novel coronavirus samples to make them incapable of reproduction. This process leaves the viral proteins, including the spike protein of the coronavirus which it uses to enter the human cells, intact.

Given as two doses, three weeks apart, the viral proteins in the vaccine activate the immune system and prepare people for future infections with the actual infectious virus. According to Bharat Biotech, the therapeutic can be stored at room temperature for at least a week.

A study on the Phase 1/2 trial published in the preprint server medRxiv in December showed the therapeutic doesn't cause any serious side effects. However, there has been no further data released in the public domain which could demonstrate that the vaccine is safe and effective.

"ICMR-Bharat Biotech vaccine is a killed whole-virus vaccine and there are absolutely no data available so far on its protective efficacy. I am critical of its getting approval by the authorities," immunologist Vineeta Bal, affiliated with the National Institute of Immunology in New Delhi, told PTI.

I am happy to announce that our government is making arrangements to facilitate the administration of Covid-19 vaccine to all the people of the state without any cost: West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee

Israeli PM gets second dose of COVID-19 shot

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday received the second dose of the coronavirus vaccine after becoming the first Israeli to be inoculated last month.

Israel is in the midst of a third nationwide lockdown after seeing a surge in cases despite unleashing one of the worlds fastest vaccination campaigns. The country has given the first of two vaccine doses to nearly 20% of its population, and Netanyahu said Saturday that it has secured enough vaccines to inoculate the whole adult population by the end of March.

Pope Calls Coronavirus Vaccinations an Ethical Obligation

Pope Francis said he would be vaccinated against the coronavirus as early as this coming week, calling it a lifesaving, ethical obligation and the refusal to do so suicidal, according to remarks made to an Italian television news program.

He also said the storming of the U.S. Capitol astonished him and should be condemned.

Cuba to test Covid vaccine candidate in Iran

Cuba will test its most advanced Covid vaccine candidate, in Iran, the research center that developed it announced on Saturday.

State-run Finlay Vaccine Institute (IFV) and the Pasteur Institute of Iran signed an agreement in Havana that will see a Phase 3 clinical trial in Iran, to "move forward faster in immunization against Covid-19 in both countries," the IFV announced on Twitter.

The news came on the heels of Iran's supreme leader on Friday banning the import of American and British-produced vaccines against Covid-19, saying they were "completely untrustworthy."

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a tweet, accompanied by the hashtag #CoronaVaccine: "It's not unlikely they would want to contaminate other nations."

The Islamic republic has reported more than 1.2 million cases of the novel coronavirus, which have caused over 56,000 deaths.

It has accused arch-enemy the United States of hampering its access to vaccines through a tough sanctions regime.

The Sovereign 02 is the country's most advanced coronavirus vaccine candidate, showing "an early immune response (at 14 days)," IFV Director Vicente Verez said in December.

It has been difficult to do Phase 3 clinical testing in Cuba because its outbreak has not been as serious as those in many larger countries, he said.

UK helps raise $1 billion in global vaccine donations

Britain said on Sunday it has helped raise $1 billion (818 million euros) from global donors towards the drive to help "vulnerable countries" access coronavirus vaccines, by match-funding contributions.

The UK said, in addition, it has committed £548 million to the COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC), after matching with £1 every $4 pledged by other donors.

Canada, Japan and Germany are among the countries to make contributions that it matched, helping the AMC raise more than $1.7 billion in total so far.

The fund will allow for the distribution of one billion Covid-19 vaccine doses to 92 developing countries this year, according to Britain's Foreign Office.

"We'll only be safe from this virus, when we're all safe -- which is why we're focused on a global solution to a global problem," Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said in a statement.

Vaccination drive in India to kick off on Jan 16, 2021

Vaccination drive to kick off on Jan 16, 2021. Priority will be given to the healthcare workers and the frontline workers, estimated to be around 3 cr, followed by those above 50 years and the under-50 population groups with co-morbidities numbering around 27 cr, Govt of India said on Saturday