Still unexplained
The hunt for the origins of Covid-19 has for the past four years been a tangled web of politics, power struggles, and international finger-pointing.
As the numbers of Covid-19 and Omicron infections surged across the country on Thursday, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) Director-General, Dr Balram Bhargava said all Covid vaccines do not prevent infection transmission and are primarily disease-modifying.
“All Covid vaccines, whether they are from India, Israel, US, Europe, UK or China, are primarily disease-modifying. They do not prevent infection. The precautionary dose is primarily to mitigate the severity of infection, hospitalization and death,” the Director-General, ICMR said.
“Use of masks before and after vaccination is a must and mass gatherings should be avoided… The treatment guidelines for the earlier and the currently circulating strains of Coronavirus remain the same. Home isolation remains an important pillar,” added Dr Bhargava.
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India on Thursday registered 13,154 fresh Covid cases and 268 deaths in a span of 24 hours. With the addition of the new deaths, the total death toll reached 4,80,860.
With the administration of 63,91,282 vaccine doses in the last 24 hours, India’s COVID-19 vaccination coverage has exceeded 143.83 crores (1,43,83,22,742) as per provisional reports till 7 am today, informed the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Thursday.
Within the age group of 18 to 44 years, 49,76,01,405 1st doses have been administered along with the administration of 32,67,56,163 2nd doses to the people in the category.
Within the age group of 45 to 59 years, as many as 19,40,91,039 people have been vaccinated with the 1st dose while 14,90,18,597 people have been administered with the 2nd dose.
As many as 12,11,54,096 elderly people, (above the age of 60 years) have been administered with the 1st dose of the vaccine while 9,43,50,863 doses of the 2nd dose have been administered.
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