Budget 2018-19

  Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation on Thursday announced that the Covid-19 vaccination drive in all civic and government-run vaccination centres will be suspended today due to a shortage of vaccines The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Thursday announced that the COVID-19 vaccination drive in all civic and government-run vaccination centres will be suspended today due to a shortage of vaccines. “Dear Mumbaikars, Please note that all BMC and Government vaccination centers will remain closed tomorrow (July 9, 2021). We apologize for the inconvenience. Please watch this space for updates regarding vaccination centres and schedules,” BMC said in a tweet. While speaking to ANI, Dr Rajesh Dere, Dean of BKC Jumbo COVID Centre, Mumbai said that sessions are being allocated on the basis of everyday supply. “There is vaccine shortage. Sessions being allocated on the basis of everyday supply. We hope to get more vaccines. For the vaccination of pregnant women, circulars have been...

  US President  Joe Biden  announced that the United States is predicted to reach the mark of 160 million fully vaccinated Americans by the end of this week US President Joe Biden on Tuesday (local time) announced that the United States is predicted to reach the mark of 160 million fully vaccinated Americans by the end of this week. “By the end of this week, we’ll have reached the mark of 160 million fully vaccinated Americans. And that’s a goal I set in March that I’m thrilled we’re going to hit just a few days after July the Fourth. So, we will have 160 million fully vaccinated Americans — up from roughly 3 million when we took office five months ago,” White House said in the statement. Earlier, the Biden administration has fallen short of the July 4  COVID vaccination  goal to have 70 percent of Americans at least partially vaccinated. Just over 67 percent of American adults have had at least one Covid-19 vaccine and more than 157 million Americans are fully ...

  Of those dead in Seychelles, five had taken Covishield and one had been given Sinopharm. The coronavirus has killed six fully vaccinated people in the Seychelles, which is suffering heightened Covid-19 infections despite inoculating a greater proportion of its people than any other nation. Of those, five had taken Covishield, a version of the AstraZeneca Plc vaccine made in India, and one had been given Sinopharm, Jude Gedeon, the island nation’s public health commissioner said at a press conference on Thursday. Covishield has mainly been reserved for people over 60 in the Seychelles. The rise in infections, which surged at the beginning of May and has remained at elevated levels ever since, is likely due to the arrival of the highly-transmissible delta variant, which was first identified in India, Gedeon said. “It looks like delta came in Seychelles in May which explain the surge at the beginning of May,” Gedeon said. “We presume that the majority of cases we got in May was from...

  False claims are fueling vaccine hesitancy in pockets, undermining efforts to vaccinate some of the most vulnerable people in Asia. Though Gerry Casida is on the priority list for a free Covid-19 vaccine in the Philippines because of his asthma, he’s isn’t planning to get the shot any time soon. A video he found on social media of a woman claiming vaccines are being used for genocide helps explain why. “I’ve read a lot of posts on Facebook about how many died in other countries because of vaccines, and how that’s being concealed,” the construction worker, 43, from Manila said. “My mom also consulted a folk healer, who said the vaccines could affect my heart.” Millions of people like Casida in some of the worst  Covid hotspots  in Southeast Asia are in no rush for inoculation or just saying no, swayed by disinformation on social media from both local sources as well anti-vaccination movements in the U.S. Those false claims are fueling vaccine hesitancy in some pockets of...

  Accused Debanjan Deb, who allegedly organised fake Covid-19 vaccination camps impersonating an IAS officer, has confessed to having organised two such camps in the city, said Kolkata police Accused Debanjan Deb, who allegedly organised fake COVID-19 vaccination camps impersonating an IAS officer, has confessed to having organised two such camps in the city, said Kolkata police on Sunday. Police said the accused confessed to organising fake vaccination camps at — City College and Kasba”He claims that he wrote a mail to Serum Institute of India for sending  Covishield . This is being verified. He has also confessed to organising two camps. One at City College and one in his office at Kasba. No other camp for vaccination was organised elsewhere,” police said. They informed that accused Deb’s staff and ex-staff are being examined by police. “Ten such persons have been summoned for examination or are being examined. Apart from this, we are examining more people called for cross-e...

  President Joe Biden plans to announce on Thursday that the US will purchase and donate half a billion (50 crore) doses of   Pfizer vaccines   to 92 low- and lower-middle-income countries President Joe Biden plans to announce on Thursday that the US will purchase and donate half a billion (50 crore) doses of Pfizer vaccines to 92 low- and lower-middle-income countries and the African Union in a historic action that will help supercharge the global fight against the pandemic, according to the White House. This is the largest-ever purchase and donation of vaccines by a single country and a commitment by the American people to help protect people around the world from  COVID-19 , the White House said ahead of the announcement by Biden at the G-7 Summit in the UK. Biden has arrived in the UK on his maiden official overseas trip to Europe. Biden will also call on the world’s democracies to do their parts in contributing to the global supply of safe and effective vaccines...

  Women contracting Covid-19 during pregnancy are over 50% more likely to experience complications and they are more at risk of death. Kalyani Agrahari, 27, an assistant teacher, was assigned to poll duty in eastern Uttar Pradesh’s Jaunpur block during the April 2021 state panchayat elections. Eight months pregnant with her first child and advised bed-rest by her doctor, Kalyani asked to be excused from the 12-hour duty at the poll booth that was 32 km from her home. The district administration not only turned down her application but also threatened her with disciplinary action if she did not report for work. Kalyani, who had been appointed to the job just four months before, had no option but to comply. On the evening of April 15, when she returned home from the poll booth, she complained of fever and body ache. When her temperature did not subside for three days, her family tried to get her hospitalised. She was turned down by eight hospitals that said they had no free beds. In ...

  The cumulative number of Covid-19 vaccine doses administered in the country has surpassed 190 million, the Union Health Ministry said on Thursday The cumulative number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country has surpassed 19 crore, the Union Health Ministry said on Thursday. On the day-125 of the vaccination drive on Thursday, a total of 14,56,088 vaccine doses — 12,73,785 first dose and 1,82,303 second dose — were given according to provisional report till 8 PM, the ministry data showed. The ministry said of these 7,36,514 beneficiaries in the age group of 18-44 received their first dose on Thursday, and cumulatively the number reached 85,84,054 since the start of phase-3 of the vaccination drive on May 1. “India achieves a new landmark in its vaccination drive as the cumulative number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country exceeded 19 Cr (19,18,10,604) as per the 8 pm provisional report,” the ministry said about the overall vaccination figures so fa...

  Messenger RNA shots developed by Moderna or Pfizer and BioNTech are better at stopping people from becoming contagious, shows evidence. With hundreds of millions of people now vaccinated against Covid-19, the coronavirus outbreak should begin to die down in places where a large chunk of the population has been inoculated. But that isn’t happening everywhere. Instead, two paths are emerging: In countries such as Israel, new Covid cases are declining as vaccinations spread, while in other places like the Seychelles — which has fully inoculated more of its population than any other nation — infections continue to increase or even reach new highs. One reason for that may be the different types of vaccine being used. Evidence derived from the expanding global inoculation rollout indicates that the messenger RNA shots developed by Moderna Inc. or  Pfizer Inc . and BioNTech SE are better at stopping people from becoming contagious, helping reduce onward transmission — an unexpected...

  India began vaccinating healthcare and frontline workers on January 16, 2021; people over the age of 60 from March 1,people between the ages of 45 and 59 from April 1. Is India beginning to see a COVID-19 vaccine effect? In three southern states and two major cities for which data are available, the share of the elderly in total deaths has begun to decline after vaccinations began for this demographic, an IndiaSpend analysis of data and interviews with experts show. The decline in share is not necessarily because cases and deaths among younger people have increased. India began vaccinating healthcare and frontline workers on January 16, 2021; people over the age of 60 (and those over 45 years, with comorbidities) from March 1; people between the ages of 45 and 59 from April 1; and people between the ages of 18 and 44 from May 1. As of 3.30 p.m. on May 12, India has injected 137.3 million people with one dose of either  Covishield  or Covaxin, and a further 37.8 million ...

Union Home Minister Amit Shah Thursday said the process of granting Indian citizenship to refugees under the CAA, will begin once the process of COVID vaccination has ended. Union Home Minister Amit Shah Thursday said the process of granting Indian citizenship to refugees under the CAA, including to the Matua community of West Bengal, will begin once the process of COVID vaccination has ended. Accusing the opposition parties of misleading the minorities about the Citizenship (amendment) Act, he said, its implementation will not impact the citizenship status of Indian minorities. Shah said the Modi government had in 2018 promised it will bring in a new citizenship law and kept it when the BJP was voted to power in 2019. He said, after the country was hit by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, its implementation had to be kept in abeyance. “Mamata didi said we made a false promise. She started opposing the CAA and saying she will never allow it. The BJP always fulfils the promises it makes. W...

  Eight elderly workers at a German care home were mistakenly injected with five times the recommended dose of the Pfizer/Biontech vaccine, local authorities said Eight elderly workers at a German care home were mistakenly injected with five times the recommended dose of the Pfizer/Biontech vaccine, local authorities said Monday. The incident happened on Sunday in the northeastern city of Stralsund in the Vorpommern-Ruegen district. District chief Stefan Kerth said in a statement that he regretted the mishap. “I deeply regret the incident. This single event is the result of an individual mistake. I hope that all those affected will not develop serious side-effects,” he said. Those injected with the drug were aged between 66 and 82. They were sent home as soon as the mistake came to light. Four developed flu-like symptoms and were hospitalized for observation. The district authority pointed out that the vaccine’s German developer, Biontech, had used higher doses during the first pha...