Out of the total cases, active cases further dropped to 2.08 lakh while recoveries went up to 1,02 crore. With 145 deaths reported on January 17, the toll stands at over 1.52 lakh. Kerala recorded 5,005 new cases, more than 36 percent of all. Maharashtra reported 3,081 cases.

Now the total caseload in the country has mounted to 1,05,71,773. The active cases tally in India stands at 2,08,012 and total recovered/discharged cases at 1,02,11,342.

On January 17, active cases declined below 2 percent of the total cases reported in the country for the first time. Daily new COVID-19 cases have stayed below the 20,000 mark from the last 10 days.

Over 2.24 lakh priority group individuals have been vaccinated at the end of two days of India’s mega inoculation drive. Out of the beneficiaries, only 447 adverse events cases have been reported, 3 of them required hospitalization, with 2 being discharged already, the Union Ministry said.

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A Food and Drug Administration advisory committee is set to meet on December 10 to discuss Pfizer Inc.’s request for an emergency use authorisation for its developing Covid-19 vaccine.

US drug maker Pfizer Inc, has claimed that they developed a 95% effective vaccine against coronavirus. They are now seeking the emergency use tag from US government for its dosage. Pfizer has said the emergency use tag could start the process early and the coronavirus vaccine doses could be available as early as next month.

Dr. Moncef Slaoui, head of Operation Warp Speed, the coronvirus vaccine program said that their plan is able to ship vaccines to the immunisation sites within 24 hours from the approval.

Meanwhile leaders of the 20 biggest economies vowed to spare no effort to supply Covid-19drugs, tests and vaccines affordably and fairly to ‘all people”, reflecting worries that the pandemic could deepen divisions between the world’s rich and poor.

Meanwhile Niti Ayog member and National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19, Vinod Paul said that Pune-based Serum Institute (SII) may be granted emergency use authorisation of the Oxford AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine if AstraZeneca get approval from the UK government. He also said that if the clinical trials of the coronavirus vaccine in India go as per the script, phase III trials should be over by January-February 2021.

The post First US citizen likely to receive COVID vaccine shot by December 12 appeared first on The Gulf Indians.

Covaxin, the indigenously developed Covid-19 vaccine, developed by the ICMR and Bharat Biotech International, is being tested at 12 institutes across India.

The Hyderabad-based firm said the data from the study on primates substantiate the immunogenicity of the vaccine candidate.

“Bharat Biotech proudly announces the animal study results of COVAXIN – These results demonstrate the protective efficacy in a live viral challenge model,” Bharat Biotech tweeted September 11.

Bharat Biotech proudly announces the animal study results of COVAXIN™ – These results demonstrate the protective efficacy in a live viral challenge model.

Read more about the results here – https://t.co/f81JUSfWpD@icmr_niv #BharatBiotech #COVAXIN #Safety #Vaccine #SARSCoV2 pic.twitter.com/fva1SOcLOr

— Bharat Biotech (@BharatBiotech) September 11, 2020

Bharat Biotech has said in a release that it developed and assessed the protective efficacy and immunogenicity of an inactivated Sar-CoV-2 vaccine (BBV152) or Covaxin in rhesus macaques. Twenty macaques were divided into four groups of five animals each, it said.

One group was administered with placebo, while three groups were immunized with 3 different vaccine candidates at 0 and 14 days. All the macaques were exposed to viral challenge 14 days after the 2nd dose.

BBIL’s #Covaxin(BBV152) found protective in Macaques: A two-dose vaccination regimen using 3µg dose of the vaccine with adjuvant B induce a significant immune response and provide effective protection in macaques challenged with #SARSCoV2 https://t.co/FgSnD2eCmA pic.twitter.com/hQHh2klAnX

— Vipin M. Vashishtha (@vipintukur) September 11, 2020

The results showed protective efficacy, increasing coronavirus specific IgG and neutralizing antibodies, reducing replication of the virus in the nasal cavity, throat, and lung tissues of monkey.

No evidence of pneumonia was observed by histopathological examination in vaccinated groups, unlike the placebo group.

Remarkable immunogenicity and protective efficacy of BBV152, an inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine in rhesus macaques https://t.co/b82dA6QlcW ICMR-NIV made very good effort to demonstrate potential immunogenicity in non-human✌️ Primate with BBV152. ! @ICMRDELHI @drharshvardhan

— Dinesh kumar (@Dineshk38263974) September 11, 2020

Adverse events were not seen in animals immunized with a two-dose vaccination regimen.

The vaccine candidate was found to generate robust immune responses. Thus, preventing infection and disease in the primates upon high amounts of exposure to live coronavirus.

Covaxin is one of the frontrunners in the race for a covid-19 vaccine in India. It is an “inactivated” vaccine – it works by injecting doses of the virus that have been killed aiming to prompt the body to build antibodies against it without the virus a posing a threat.

Each stage of a vaccine’s clinical trial tests its safety and ability to develop an effective immune response. Phase 1 focuses on determining safety and dosage in a small group of healthy participants, while Phase 2 looks at the vaccine’s effectiveness. Phase 3 looks into these aspects in a much larger population that would represent a wider demographic.

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