COVID-19

According to the third national serological-survey report of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), over 21 percent of the population, aged 18 years and above, showed evidence of past exposure to COVID-19. The data on seroprevalenceamong those aged 10-17 was found to be 25.3 percent.

In a joint press briefing today together with German Health Minister Jens Spahn, Minister-President of North Rhine-Westphalia, Armin Laschet, and Chief Executive Officer of CureVac N.V., Franz-Werner Haas, Member of the Board of Management, Bayer AG and President of the Bayer’s Pharmaceuticals Division, Stefan Oelrich, made the following statement  “Following discussions with the German government it has become clear that current manufacturing capacities for vaccines need to be increased, particularly for potential variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

The private health sector is playing an important role in supplementing the activities of Government agencies in the on-going pan-India vaccination campaign to bring the COVID-19 pandemic under control.

Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (THSTI) is an autonomous Institute of the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Ministry of Science and Technology, Govt. of India. The institute is an integral part of the interdisciplinary NCR Biotech Science Cluster (NCR BSC) located at Faridabad, and is designed with the mission to conduct innovative translational research to translate concepts into products to improve human health.

The operation guidelines prepared by the Central Government for the COVID-19 vaccination programme currently underway, provides a detailed roadmap to ensure a robust surveillance system to monitor adverse events post immunization and better understand the safety profile of the vaccines.

As many as 19 Ministries and Departments of the Government of India are involved in the implementation of the national vaccination campaign that is currently underway to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic.

All-India Institute of Medical Sciences was established as an institution of national importance by an Act of Parliament with the objects to develop patterns of teaching in Undergraduate and Post-graduate Medical Education in all its branches so as to demonstrate a high standard of Medical Education in India; to bring together in one place educational facilities of the highest order for the training of personnel in all important branches of health activity; and to attain self-sufficiency in Post-graduate Medical Education.

A new potential therapy for COVID-19 developed by researchers at Rush University Medical Center has shown success in preventing the disease’s symptoms in mice.

In a significant development, Bharat Biotech has sought Drug Controller General India's (DCGI) approval to conduct nasal COVID-19 vaccine trials in India. The company has developed a new single-dose nasal COVID-19 vaccine in a partnership with Washington University in St Louis, USA. There are no intra-nasal COVID-19 vaccines under trial in India at the moment.