Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, June 25: Even as India’s daily Covid cases came down to 51,667 on Friday, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, the Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) has added a new chapter in the country’s fight against the pandemic by launching production of a new vaccine “Covovax” in addition to its existing brand “Covishield.”
The SII on Friday said it has started production of the Covid-19 vaccine developed by Novavax. “A new milestone has been reached; this week we began our first batch of Covovax (a COVID-19 vaccine developed by @Novavax) at our facility, here in Pune,” the company said in a tweet.
Developed by the American biotechnology firm Novavax, Inc., the recombinant nanoparticle protein-based vaccine — NVX-CoV2373 — will be known by the band name “Covovax” in India.
India recorded 51,667 new coronavirus cases and 1,329 deaths in the last 24 hours ending 9 am on Friday. With this the country’s total caseload has risen to over 3,01,34,445, while the death toll nears the 4-lakh mark. But the active caseload has dropped to 6.12 lakh.
“In the week of 4th May, 531 districts of the country were reporting more than 100 cases. In the week of 2nd June, it fell down to 262 districts. Right now only 125 districts in the country are reporting more than 100 cases,” Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary, Health Ministry said in a press briefing.
According to the ministry data, 48 cases of Delta Plus variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus have been found in the country, spread across 10 states, including Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Gujarat, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Rajasthan, Jammu and Karnataka. “Wherever you find a cluster, you have to contain it,” Dr Balram Bhargava, director-general, Indian Council of Medical Research said adding that the second wave of the pandemic is not yet over.
Giving a detailed presentation of the genome sequencing work, Dr Sujeet Kumar Singh of the National Centre for Disease Control said, “Forming a scientific opinion on a variant takes time. Genome sequencing takes 10-12 days. Then some more samples are sometimes sought from the state to find out whether the particular variant is linked to the spike in the cases.” Dr Singh said the plus in the name of Delta Plus does not denote more virulence.
“The ‘plus’ in the name of ‘Delta Plus’ does not mean this variant will cause more severe infections,” Dr Singh said to allay the apprehension of the people that the Delta Plus variant would certainly be more infectious and dangerous.
About the vaccine availability in the country, the ministry said more than 1.50 crore balance and unutilised vaccine doses were still available with the states and UTs and over 47 lakh doses were in the pipeline.
Over 30.54 crore vaccine doses have been provided by the Centre to states and UTs so far through the Government of India (free of cost channel) and through the direct state procurement category.
Of this, the total consumption, including wastages was 29,04,04,264 doses, the ministry said.
Daily Covid-19 cases in Maharashtra was witnessing an upward trend after maintaining a trajectory below the 10,000-mark for days even as the state is battling the Delta Plus variant. On Thursday, the number of daily Covid-19 cases neared 10,000-mark as 9844 people found to be infected. Maharashtra found 10,066 people positive with Covid-19 on Wednesday. There were 10,107 cases of infections in Maharashtra on June 16, since then state cases below the 10,000-mark. There were 8,470 and 6,270 cases of infection on Tuesday and Monday respectively.
