BHUBANESWAR: Chief minister
Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday asked Union oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s cooperation for early wider availability of Covid vaccines in the state during a discussion between them on the state’s Covid situation.
Health minister Naba Kishore Das requested Union health minister Harsh Vardhan to supply enough Covishield at the earliest as more than 22 lakh people are waiting for their second dose after their due date of vaccination.
Dharmendra tweeted that Naveen asked for enhancing vaccine availability in the state when the two spoke. Dharmendra said he briefed the CM about his discussion with the Union health minister and chemicals and fertilisers minister Mansukh Singh Mandviya on extending all possible support to Odisha, including facilitating smooth supply of Covid-19 vaccine doses, rapid testing kits, Remdesivir, and other critical drugs.
Read more about Demand for more vaccines harms govt s pandemic response: Vardhan to states on Business Standard. Production capacity is being steadily ramped up and will touch 80 million doses by May 2021 and 90 million by June 2021, says Harsh Vardhan
Extension of gap between two Covishield doses is a decision in right direction: Dr Soin ANI | Updated: May 13, 2021 21:15 IST
Gurugram (Haryana) [India], May 13 (ANI): Chairman of Institute of Liver Transplantation and Regenerative Medicine Dr Arvinder Singh Soin on Thursday supported the Union Health Ministry s decision to accept the recommendation of the COVID working group to extend the gap between the first and second doses of Covishield vaccine to 12-16 weeks.
Dr Soin said the basic logic is that those who have had one vaccine dose or a previous infection are better protected than those who have had neither of these.
Current surge correlates with rise in B1.617 lineage of COVID-19: Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan
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Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Varshan today held a video meeting with health ministers of Karnataka, Maharashtra, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, and Delhi on the COVID-19 situation in the states. The Union Health Minister said that the genome sequencing indicates that the rise in the current surge seen over the last 1.5 month correlates with the rise in B1.617 lineage of SARS-CoV-2.
The B.1.617 sub-lineages appear to have higher rates of transmission, including observed rapid increases in prevalence in multiple countries.
The World Health Organisation classifying B.1.617 as a variant of concern yesterday, said that the variant of the coronavirus first identified in India last year has been found in 44 countries. The UN body routinely assesses if variants of SARS-CoV-2 result in changes in transmissibility and severity, or if they lead to changes in public health and s