Covid India Updates: What is 'Vajra Kavach'? How it helps front line warriors?

The cumulative number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country has crossed 22.75 crore, with 33,57,713 doses being administered Friday, the Union Health Ministry said . It said 16,23,602 beneficiaries in the age group 18-44 years received their first dose and 31,217 in the same category their second dose on Friday.

Cumulatively, 2,58,45,901 people in the age group across 36 states and union territories have received their first dose and 1,18,299 their second dose since the vaccination drive began for them from May 1. 

The total of 22,75,67,873 include 99,44,507 healthcare workers (HCWs) who have taken the first dose and 68,40,415 HCWs who have taken the second dose.

The head of China's Wuhan virology lab, also called as the 'bat woman', and an expert from the University of North Carolina in the US, had in a paper published in 2015 flagged the dangers of their gain-of-function experiment of a novel coronavirus which could infect human cells, media reports said. In the research, Shi Zhengli and epidemiologist Ralph Baric used mice as subjects and inserted the protein from a Chinese rufous horseshoe bat into the molecular structure of the SARS virus from 2002, creating a new, infectious pathogen, the Vanity Fair reported on Thursday.

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Maharashtra recorded as many as 14,152 coronavirus cases on Friday, taking the tally of infections in the state to 58,05,565, the death toll increased to 98,771 with 289 new fatalities. Recoveries outnumbered fresh cases, as 20,852 patients were discharged from hospitals, taking the number of recovered patients to 55,07,058, The number of active cases stands at 1,96,894.

Maharashtra's recovery rate of COVID-19 cases is 94.86 per cent, while the fatality rate is 1.7 per cent.

More than 1.93 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses are still available with the states and UTs to be administered, the Union Health Ministry said on Friday. The Centre has so far provided, both through the free of cost and through direct state procurement categories, more than 24 crore vaccine doses to states and UTs. Of this, the total consumption, including wastages, is 22,27,33,963 doses, the ministry said.

"As many as 1,93,95,287 are still available with the states and UTs to be administered," it said.

Exuberating confidence in the nation-wide Covid vaccination drive, the Centre on Friday patted its own back and said that India has overtaken the US in terms of the number of people who have received the first dose of vaccine.

Niti Aayog's Dr. VK Paul, member-Health, said, "As per Our World in Data, the number of people who have received at least one dose of vaccine in India is 17.2 crore. We have overtaken the US in terms of the number of people in our country who have received the first dose of vaccine," adding that the Centre would have to buy time till we are able to vaccinate our population.

Like HIV and hepatitis, Covid-19 cannot transmit to the new born babies even if the mother had tested positive for the deadly virus, as around 250 nCoV positive women were found to have delivered healthy babies in Tripura, doctors and experts said. Agartala Government Medical College's (AGMC) Microbiology department head Tapan Majumder said that it is a very positive development that in India there has been no such instance found where the Covid-19 is being transmitted to the new born baby from the mother even though the coronavirus disease is a communicable disease.

"Congenital and vertical transmission of coronavirus is not possible as there is no receipter at the placenta to receive or entertain the virus.But HIV positive and hepatitis virus can be transmitted to the new born baby from the mother," Majumder, also a Professor of the AGMC, told IANS.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday hailed the scientific community for 'Made in India' Covid vaccines in a record time. Addressing a meeting of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Society, he reiterated gratitude to doctors, medical staff, scientists, police personnel, sanitation workers and all corona warriors for the outstanding work done in adverse circumstances.

He said that the country will remain eternally grateful to them for saving many lives.

The CSIR Society is part of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research under the Ministry of Science and Technology. Its activities are carried out through 37 laboratories and 39 outreach centres spread across India.

-- PTI

Both vaccines available in India -- Covishield and Covaxin show some post-vaccination mild side effects such as injection site pain, headache, fatigue, fever, nausea, abdominal pain and dizziness. They two can have different expected immediate and delayed side effects. After getting vaccinated with Covishied, a person may witness injection site tenderness and pain, myalgia, pyrexia, chills and arthralgia, nausea. Very rare events of demyelinating disorders have been reported.

On the other hand, Covaxin may show symptoms like abdominal pain, vomiting, tremor, sweating, cold, cough, other than the common injection site tenderness and pain.

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According to the Ministry of Health, during the last 24 hours, more than 2.07 lakh people have been cured of coronavirus across the country and out of the total 2.85 crore cases that have come so far, 2.65 crore people have completely recovered. The recovery rate has reached above 93 percent. During the last 24 hours, 2713 people have died due to corona in the country and so far this virus has caused the death of more than 3.40 lakh people in the country. 

India reported  1,32,364 fresh Covid-19 cases, 2,713 related deaths in the last 24 hours, according to Health Ministry. The country's coronavirus tally now stands at 28,574,350.  For the straight 45th consecutive day over 2,000 daily Covid deaths have been reported from the country. With 2,713 new fatalities, the death toll is now at 3,40,702, according to Health Ministry. It continues to be the second worst-hit nation. 

The active cases stand at 16,35,993. According to the Health Ministry, a total of 2,07,071 people have been discharged in the last 24 hours, taking the total discharge to 2,65,97,655 Covid cases till date. The recovery rate stands at 92.79%.

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In its latest update on Friday morning, the University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed that the current global caseload and death toll stood at 172,005,004 and 3,698,128, respectively.

The US continues to be the worst-hit country with the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 33,325,514 and 596,395, respectively, according to the CSSE. In terms of infections, India follows in the second place with 28,441,986 cases.

Vajra Kavach has eased the work of front line warriors as it disinfects PPE Kits, N95 masks, coats, gloves and gowns and makes it reusable for the COVID Warriors within minutes. It is environmental friendly too, as it reduces biomedical waste generation.

Riding on strong vaccination numbers at home where more than 63 per cent of American adults have received at least one dose, US President Joe Biden announced on Thursday the US will donate 75 per cent of its unused Covid-19 vaccine stockpile to the United Nations-led COVAX global vaccine program which has delivered less than 80 million doses so far. Here's the breakdown of the numbers coming out of the White House: The first batch accounts for 25 million doses. Of that, 19 million will be earmarked for three regions: 6 million for South and Central America, 7 million for Asia and 5 million for Africa.

Within Asia, the allocated 7 million vaccines will go to India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Maldives, Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, Laos, Papua New Guinea, Taiwan, and the Pacific Islands. The remaining 6 million will be divvied up between more than 15 countries: Mexico, Canada, South Korea, West Bank and Gaza, Ukraine, Ukraine, Kosovo, Haiti, Georgia, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, and Yemen, and United Nations frontline workers. The initial 25 million doses will be a mix of Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines. The White House also announced lifting restrictions on vaccines from AstraZeneca, Sanofi and Novavax - these three are not authorized for use in the US.