Covid-19 wrap-up: Govt trashes reports on missing July-end vaccine target

Russia’s Sputnik V will be made in India from September-October period

The government on Tuesday dismissed media reports that claimed that India will miss the end-July target of administering 50 crore Covid vaccine doses as "ill-informed and misrepresenting" and asserted that over 51.60 crore vaccine doses will be supplied from January to July 31.

Meanwhile, to shore up India’s supply of Covid-19 vaccines, Russia’s Sputnik V will be made in India and Dr Reddy's Laboratories Ltd expects the locally-manufactured Sputnik V to be available from September-October period. Growing data from clinical trials and real-world rollouts suggests the vaccine is safe and very effective. But there are several outstanding questions around the vaccine, such as whether it’s associated with the very rare blood clotting condition seen with AstraZeneca’s vaccine, and how well it performs against variants of the coronavirus.

Covishield gives 93 per cent protection against Covid-19 and a 98 per cent mortality reduction, the government said on Tuesday referring to a study by the Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC) during the second Covid-19 wave that was driven by the Delta variant. However, how long does protection from the vaccine last? Total antibody levels start to wane six weeks after complete immunisation with Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines, and can reduce by more than 50 per cent over 10 weeks, according to study published in The Lancet journal.

In the initial months of the Covid-19 vaccination drive, Tamil Nadu not just encountered vaccine hesitancy among the eligible population but also topped the vaccine wastage chart. Months later, Tamil Nadu has not just achieved zero wastage of vaccines but has leapt to top the list of states that have extracted extra doses from the vials. Click here to know how Tamil Nadu changed the script of its vaccination story.

India logged 43,654 fresh Covid-19 cases, which is an increase in daily cases, and 640 more fatalities pushed the death toll to 4,22,022, according to Union Health Ministry data on Wednesday.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday said a scheme framed by the Centre under the PM-CARES Fund for taking care of children orphaned due to Covid-19 should also consider children who lost their one or both parents during the pandemic period. The bench also said the identification of children who have lost both parents or one parent after March 2020 does not merit any further delay.

On the economic front, a Parliamentary panel report has said that the stimulus package announced by the government for the revival of the pandemic-hit economy has been found to be "inadequate". The report on the impact of Covid-19 pandemic on micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) sector has noted that in the process of economic recovery post-first wave of the pandemic, the second wave has even more vigorously ripped the economy, particularly the MSME sector.

The second T20 International between India and Sri Lanka on Tuesday was postponed by a day after visiting all-rounder Krunal Pandya tested positive for Covid-19, forcing him out of the series with seven days of isolation. As per Sri Lanka's health safety protocols, Krunal will not be able to travel back to India with other members of the contingent on July 30 as he will now have to undergo mandatory isolation and obtain a negative RT-PCR report.

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