Category:

Pandemic

Govt asks Serum, Bharat Biotech to lower price of Covid vaccines: Report

The Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech has fixed the price of its COVID-19 vaccine, Covaxin, at Rs 600 per dose for state governments and at Rs 1,200 per dose for private hospitals.

The Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII), the world’s largest vaccine maker in terms of volume, has announced a price of Rs 400 per dose for its COVID-19 vaccine, ‘Covishield’, for state governments and Rs 600 per dose for private hospitals.

Both vaccines are available to the central government at a rate of Rs 150 per dose.

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Europe embraces digital health pass,to face security, fraud, political challenges

The EU Commission plans to award a contract this month for a central system for verifying the digital passes, which will use QR codes that can be scanned into a smartphone app. It will also provide a template to help member countries develop their own apps – though some have already readied their own versions.

There is still no consensus on whether antibody tests provide sufficient proof that a person who has recovered from COVID-19 is immune, sources involved in the efforts say.
Member states also worry about the security of personal information, though the Commission has promised the online certificates will contain minimal data: name, date of birth, the specific health information, its date of issue and a unique identifier code.

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India’s new COVID-19 cases stay above 320,000, 2771 deaths, army called to help

“Please note that a huge fall in daily cases … is largely due to a heavy fall in testing. This should not be taken as an indication of falling cases, rather a matter of missing out on too many positive cases!” Rijo M John, a professor and health economist at the Indian Institute of Management in the southern state of Kerala, said in a post on Twitter.

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Covid surge likely due to lack of antibodies in seropositive people: CSIR

According to the paper, the aggregate sero-positivity of 10.14 per cent in its multi-centre study suggests India had a large pool of recovered immune subjects by September 2020, especially amongst its high contact workers and people using public transport, leading to a decline in new infections.

“However, the duration of such immunity may not be sufficient to prevent future outbreaks, even in highly affected regions, the paper said.

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