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Positive COVID-19 test report not mandatory for admission in hospitals: Govt

“Hospitals under the central government, state governments and UT administration, including private hospitals managing COVID patients, shall ensure that requirement of a positive test for COVID-19 virus is not mandatory for admission to a COVID health facility.

“A suspect case shall be admitted to the suspect ward of COVID Care Centre (CCC), Dedicated COVID Health Centre (DCHC) of Dedicated COVID Hospital (DHC) as the case may be,” the directive to all the states and Union Territories said.

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India’s COVID-19 cases dip from peak, calls for shutdown mount

The health ministry reported 366,161 new infections and 3,754 deaths, off a little from recent peaks. India’s tally of infections now stands at 22.66 million, with 246,116 deaths. (Graphic on global cases and deaths)

As many hospitals grapple with an acute shortage of oxygen and beds while morgues and crematoriums overflow, experts have said India’s actual figures could be far higher than reported.

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India’s daily COVID-19 deaths near record, calls for nationwide lockdown mount

The Indian Medical Association (IMA), the umbrella body for all conventional doctors and surgeons, called for a “complete, well-planned, pre-announced” lockdown across the country instead of “sporadic” night curfews and restrictions imposed by states for a few days at a time.

“IMA is astonished to see the extreme lethargy and inappropriate actions from the ministry of health in combating the agonizing crisis born out of the devastating second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic,” it said in a statement on Saturday.

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Britain free of coronavirus by August, outgoing vaccine task force chief says: Report

Dix told the Telegraph that he expects everybody in the UK to have been vaccinated at least once by the end of July, by which time “we’ll have probably protected the population from all the variants that are known.”

The UK has administered over 51 million vaccines and has been the second quickest country to give a first dose to at least half its adult population.

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Variant accelerating India’s Covid-19 explosion: WHO top scientist

The surge in India is frightening not only due to the horrifying number of people who are sick and dying there, but also because the exploding infection numbers dramatically increase the chances of new and more dangerous variants emerging.

“The more the virus is replicating and spreading and transmitting, the more chances are that… mutations will develop and adapt,” Swaminathan said.

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Pharma has limited legal options if vaccine patents waived

Still, some vaccine producers, like Moderna Inc. and Pfizer Inc., might sue the U.S. to recoup some of their losses, said Matthew Howell, an intellectual property attorney at Alston & Bird in Atlanta. If the manufacture of the vaccine is done in the U.S., under the government’s authorization, there are avenues for compensation in American courts.

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WHO experts voice “very low confidence” in some Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine data

The document includes summaries of data from clinical trials in China, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates.
The “evidence assessment” document was prepared by the WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) for its evaluation of the Sinopharm shot, authorised by 45 countries and jurisdictions for use in adults, with 65 million doses administered. The experts review evidence and give recommendations on policy and dosages associated with a vaccine.

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