Moderna's Covid Vaccine Gets Emergency Use Authorisation In India
Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine has received emergency use authorisation from the Drugs Controller General of India, said NITI Aayog Member (Health) Dr. VK Paul. With this, Moderna becomes the fourth coronavirus vaccine to receive emergency use authorisation in India.
India will soon close the deal with Pfizer for its vaccine as well, Paul added, according to ANI.
Fresh cases of Covid-19 in India dropped below 40,000 for the first time in more than a 100 days, amid concerns over a new Delta-Plus variant detected in the country.
Just over 37,500 people tested positive for the virus in the last 24 hours, according to the Health Ministry’s update as of 8 a.m. on June 29. Nearly 57,000 patients recovered during the same period, active infections fell to 5.5 lakh.
The daily fatality rate remained below 1,000 for a second day in a row. 907 patients succumbed to the deadly pathogen, taking the nation’s total death toll above 3.97 lakh.
Key Numbers
Total confirmed cases: 3,03,16,897
Total number of active cases: 5,52,659
Total patients cured/discharged/migrated: 2,93,66,601
Total deaths: 3,97,637
Number of fresh cases in last 24 hours: 37,566
One-day recoveries: 56,994
One-day deaths: 907
Total vaccination shots administered: 32,90,29,510
Patients across 11 states have been found to be infected by the Delta-Plus variant of the coronavirus. Still, authorities say it is too early to tell whether it poses a significant threat like the Delta strain that drove the devastating second wave, swamping the healthcare system and overwhelming crematoriums.
The central government however, classified the Delta Plus as a “Variant of Concern”, which is more infectious and resistant to treatment. That’s the same degree of threat as the Delta mutation.
Tests are being conducted to check the effectiveness of the vaccines available in India — AstraZeneca’s Covishield and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin — against the new variant.