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India adds 46,759 new COVID-19 infections, Kerala logs 32,801 cases

India administered more than 10 million vaccine doses in the past 24 hours, a national record that Prime Minister Narendra Modi called a “momentous feat” for the country ahead of fears of another surge in infections. India has administered more than 622 million vaccine doses in total, giving at least one dose to more than half of its 944 million adults.This has been achieved through 67,19,042 sessions. 

Covid-19 not developed as biological weapon: US intelligence community

The Director of National Intelligence in a report, prepared at the direction of the president, on Friday said SARS-CoV-2 probably emerged and infected humans through an initial small-scale exposure that occurred no later than November 2019 with the first known cluster of COVID-19 cases arising in Wuhan, China in December 2019.

However, there was no unanimity among the intelligence community (IC) on the origins of the coronavirus.

Covid-19’s Delta variant doubles hospitalisation risk, finds study

“Our analysis highlights that in the absence of vaccination, any delta outbreaks will impose a greater burden on healthcare than an alpha epidemic,” said Anne Presanis, one of the study’s lead authors and a senior statistician at Cambridge. “Getting fully vaccinated is crucial for reducing an individual’s risk of symptomatic infection with delta.”

Pfizer seeks emergency approval for COVID-19 vaccine in India, media say

The U.S. company, whose vaccine was recently approved by the British government, has written to the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI), CNN-News18 reported citing a government source.Officials at the DCGI and the health ministry did not respond to requests for comment. A government official, however, told Reuters that no application had been received as of Saturday night.

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COVID-19 could push number of people living in extreme poverty to over 1 billion by 2030: UN

“Severe long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic could push an additional 207 million people into extreme poverty on top of the current pandemic trajectory, bringing the total to over 1 billion by 2030,” noted the study.

The ‘Baseline COVID’ scenario, based on current mortality rates and the most recent growth projections by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), would result in 44 million more people living in extreme poverty by 2030 compared to the development trajectory the world was on before the pandemic.

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Almost all COVID-19 patients develop antibodies: WHO

“What we understand is 90 to 100 per cent of people who are infected with the virus do develop an antibody response, whether you have mild infection or asymptomatic infection all the way to severe infection. And we’re still learning how long that antibody response lasts, how strong it is, how it relates to immunity from another infection, and how long that lasts,” Van Kerkhove, an expert on epidemiology, said at a virtual press briefing.

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