Government News

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, and considering the enhanced production of COVID Vaccines, the Government proactively took the decision of setting up additional laboratories,to facilitate expedited testing / pre-release certification of the  vaccines.

The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), and Tata Medical and Diagnostics Ltd (Tata MD), the new healthcare venture from the Tata Group have teamed up to boost the COVID-19 testing capacity across Tier-II and Tier-III towns as well as rural areas, across India. The two organisations are developing capacity to handle any future surge in the COVID-19 testing requirements.

A new AI-driven platform will now help early intervention through rapid screening of COVID 19 with the help of Chest X-ray interpretation over WhatsApp for doctors who have access to X-ray machines. The solution called XraySetu can work with low-resolution images sent via mobiles, is quick and easy to use, and can facilitate detection in rural areas.

Experts deliberated on emerging issues in the various fields of Biotechnology and Biomedicine at the fourth BRICS Working Group meeting on the subject area.

More than 60 participants, including researchers, academicians, and government officials participated from all five BRICS countries Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, participated in the online meeting organized from May 25 to May 26 2021.

In a bid to augment the vaccine production, the Government has decided to support some public sector companies with grants under the Mission COVID Suraksha. One such company is the Hyderabad based Indian Immunological limited (IIL), which a facility under the PSU, National Dairy Development Board.

Minister of State  for Chemicals and Fertilizers Shri Mansukh Mandaviya informed that the production of Remdesivir is ramped up ten times from 33,000 vials/day on 11th April 2021 to 3,50,000 vials/day today.

The Minister further informed that the Government has also increased the number of plants producing Remdesivir from 20 to 60 plants within a month. Now the country has enough Remdesivir as the supply is much more than the demand, he added.

Mylab Discovery Solutions announced the first self use Rapid test of India, Coviself which is approved by ICMR. Each Coviself test kit will be provided with all testing materials, instructions to use leaflet and a biohazard bag to safely dispose of after testing. It is available at economical pricing of Rs 250. Last year, Mylab launched the first RTPCR test of India for COVID-19.

PathShodh Healthcare, a start-up incubated at the Society for Innovation and Development (SID), Indian Institute of Science (IISc), has made a significant breakthrough in developing a first-of-its-kind, semi-quantitative electrochemical ELISA test for COVID-19 IgM and IgG antibodies.

A sudden increase in demand has been observed in some states for Amphotericin B which is being actively prescribed by the physicians to patients suffering from Mucormycosis, a post COVID complication. The Government of India is therefore engaging with the manufacturers to ramp up production of the drug. The supply position is expected to improve with extra  imports of this drug and  increase in its production domestically.