Covid-19 Wrap-up: More than 2K Uttarakhand police infected in second wave despite being vaccinated

More than 2,000 Uttarakhand police personnel have tested positive for Covid-19 during our nation’s brutal second wave, even though 93 per cent of them had been completely vaccinated.

Karnataka’s paediatric infrastructure, as it stands now, could tolerate as much as a bump in Covid-19 cases in children but would not be enough to sustain a major influx of cases, data shows.

Despite having administered more than 30.98 lakh doses in Bengaluru till June 2, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike is unable to meet its daily target of inoculating one lakh citizens due to meagre vaccine supplies from the state Health Department. Acting on complaints that Bengaluru hospitals are overcharging for Covid-19 treatment, East Zone nodal officers raided a private hospital in CV Raman Nagar and initiated legal action. Around 10 vials of the medicine to treat 'black fungus' have allegedly been stolen from Bengaluru's Victoria Hospital, whose resident medical officer has filed a police complaint.

The world's leading Covid-19 vaccines may offer lasting protection that diminishes the need for frequent booster shots. That's according to scientists who are finding clues in how the body remembers viruses. But they say that more research is needed and virus mutations are still a wild card.

With 1.34 lakh fresh cases, India's Covid-19 tally crossed 2.84 crore while the daily positivity rate dropped to 6.21 per cent, according to Health Ministry data as of this morning. The death toll climbed to 3.37 lakh with 2,887 more people succumbing to the disease in 24 hours.

The Gautam Gambhir Foundation has been found guilty of unauthorisedly stocking, procuring and distributing Fabiflu medicines to Covid-19 patients, the Delhi High Court was informed by the Delhi Government's drug controller.

Discussions are under way with major pharma companies about sourcing and possibly manufacturing their Covid-19 jabs locally while India is looking forward to the WHO's nod for Bharat Biotech's indigenously developed vaccine, said Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla. As the demand for Covid-19 vaccines rises globally, India said that it would not be right to talk about the supply of jabs to other countries at the moment as it was currently ramping up domestic production for its own inoculation programme.

A Covid-19 variant that Vietnam authorities thought was a combination of the 'Delta variant' (B.1.617, first detected in India) and the 'Alpha variant' (strain first detected in the UK) is not a new hybrid but part of the existing 'Delta' strain, according to the World Health Organization's representative in Vietnam.

The Serum Institute of India (SII), which manufactures the Covishield Covid-19 vaccine from AstraZeneca and Oxford University, has sought indemnity protection against liabilities. The SII has also applied to the Drug Controller General of India and sought permission to manufacture the Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine in the country.

The government signed its first purchase order for unapproved Covid-19 vaccines, a day after it faced criticism from the top judiciary about a bungled vaccine roll-out that has left crores of people vulnerable. The government will buy 30 crore doses from local firm Biological-E and put down an advance payment of almost Rs 1,500 crore, the Health Ministry said, even though the vaccine is still undergoing Phase 3 clinical trials and they will need to be completed before approvals can be given.