Coronavirus News Highlights: More nations to add booster vaccine shots; Over 58.31 crore vaccine doses provided to states, UTs, says Centre

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Delhi reports 25 new COVID19 cases, 2 recoveries and 2 deaths in the last 24 hours

Total cases 14,37,217

Total recoveries 14,11,690

Death toll 25,079

Active cases 448

Positivity Rate 0.04 %

Coronavirus News LIVE Updates | Uttarakhand reports 33 fresh COVID-19 infections and 20 recoveries today

Active cases: 342

Total cases: 3,42,701

Death toll: 7,376

Coronavirus News LIVE Updates | Singapore is reopening its borders to more destinations, and some travellers from Hong Kong, Macao, Germany and Brunei will soon be able to enter without having to serve quarantine.

Odisha logs 1,041 new COVID-19 cases, 68 fresh fatalities

Odisha's COVID-19 tally rose to 9,98,187 on Thursday as 1,041 more people, including 128 children and adolescents, tested positive for the infection, while 68 fresh fatalities pushed the state's coronavirus death toll to 7,154, a health official said. Though the daily count had remained below 1,000 for three consecutive days from Monday, it rose to 1,041 in the last 24 hours. The daily test positivity rate (TPR) also witnessed an increase to 1.57 per cent from 1.43 per cent on Wednesday, the official said.

More nations add booster shots to their COVID vaccination plans; Here's what experts, WHO say

The United States has announced a third booster shot against COVID-19 amid a sharp surge in cases fuelled by the deadly Delta variant and concerns over waning immunity.

What is a booster shot?

A booster shot is clinically the same vaccine with no changes but it re-exposes the body to the virus, boosting the antibody production against the virus. The reason behind administering booster dose is the fact that the antibodies produced by B lymphocyte cells in the body are active for relatively shorter periods. While the immune system is more effective against the virus, antibodies are the response that prevents the infection in the first place. T cells, in the form of Memory T cells and CD8+ 'killer' T cells, remain effective against the same viral threat over a longer period. But most vaccines do not directly enhance the production of T cells against a virus. Read full story here.

Kerala Health Minister asks Mandaviya for 1.11 crore more COVID vaccines doses

Kerala Health Minister Veena George met with Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya and has asked for 1.11 crore more doses of COVID vaccines by September end.

“It was a very positive meeting. We asked for 1.11 crore more doses of COVID vaccines by September end and he (the Union health minister) agreed to it. We are thankful to the Union government,” George said.

The Kerala government has already started talks regarding vaccine production in the state, she added. “We are trying to introduce fill-finish units. We have discussed the issue with the Union health minister and the Centre is very positive,” George said.

Kerala Health Minister Veena George speaks to media on the high COVID caseload in the state.

Pfizer, AstraZeneca Covid vaccines less effective against Delta variant: Oxford-led study

 

The COVID-19 vaccines by Pfizer and AstraZeneca are less effective against the Delta variant of coronavirus compared to the Alpha variant, according to a study led by researchers at the University of Oxford. The researchers, however, noted that Delta, Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, and Oxford-AstraZeneca preventive, known as Covishield in India, still offer good protection against new infections. Two doses of either vaccine still provided at least the same level of protection as having had COVID-19 before through natural infection, they said. The researchers analysed 2580,021 test results from the nose and throat swabs taken from 384,543 participants aged 18 years or older between December 1, 2020, and May 16, 2021.

Arunachal Pradesh logs 144 new COVID-19 cases, 2 more deaths

 

Arunachal Pradesh's COVID-19 tally rose to 51,799 as 144 more people tested positive for the infection, a senior health department official said on Thursday. The COVID-19 death toll in the frontier state increased to 254, as two more persons succumbed to the infection in the last two days, State Surveillance Officer (SSO) Dr Lobsang Jampa said. The state currently has 1,685 active COVID-19 cases, while 49,860 people have recovered from the disease, including 220 patients on Wednesday, Jampa said. The COVID-19 recovery rate in the state now is 96.26 percent while the active percentage stands at 3.25 and the positivity rate at 3.58 percent, the official said.