AMRITSAR: Farmers urge a shopkeeper to open her shop as they take part in a protest against the weekend lockdown imposed by the state government as a preventive measure against the spread of Covid-19 on Saturday. AFP
CHENNAI: India on Saturday reported its highest single-day Covid-19 death toll, as cases continued to rise and states imposed stricter lockdowns.
India’s health ministry reported 4,187 fatalities over the past 24 hours, taking the overall death toll close to 240,000. The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation estimates that India will see 1 million Covid deaths by August.
Cases rose by 401,078 on Saturday, bringing the total since the start of the pandemic to 21.9m.
DCGI approves new anti-Covid drug developed by DRDO for emergency use
May 08, 2021
In 2-DG arm, indications of early relief from Oxygen therapy/dependence A new drug developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) in association with Dr Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd has been approved for emergency use in the treatment of Covid-19 patients by the Drug Control General of India (DCGI).
An anti-Covid-19 therapeutic application of the drug 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG) has been developed by Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences (INMAS), a lab of DRDO, in collaboration with Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, Hyderabad.
“Clinical trial results have shown that this molecule helps in faster recovery of hospitalised patients and reduces supplemental oxygen dependence. Higher proportion of patients treated with 2-DG showed RT-PCR negative conversion in Covid patients. The drug will be of immense benefit to the people suffering from Covid-19 in the ongoing pandemic,”
Daily Covid-19 deaths surged past 4,000 for the first time in India yesterday, as Europe passed the ball back to Washington in a debate over Covid vaccine patents, pushing the US for a concrete proposal and a commitment to export much-needed jabs. The call for waivers has gained momentum after the United States announced its surprise support for such a scheme to enable
Single dose Covid vaccine Sputnik Light gets approval in Russia
May 07, 2021
RDIF to export vaccine to its international partners Russian Covid-19 vaccine Sputnik V the third vaccine to have been approved for emergency use in India has now got authorisation for a single dose use in Russia as ‘Spuntnik Light’.
The Russian Ministry of Health, the Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology and the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF, Russia’s sovereign wealth fund) has on Thursday announced that Sputnik Light, a single dose Covid-19 vaccine, has received authorisation for use in Russia.
Sputnik Light is the first component (recombinant human adenovirus serotype number 26 (rAd26)) of the Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine.