CORBEVAX Approved for Trials on Children: Govt
NEW DELHI, Sept 3: Even as India logged 45,352 new Coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours on Friday, marginally down from Thursday, the Hyderabad-based pharmaceutical firm Biological E. has received the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) approval for initiating the Phase II/III study to evaluate its CORBEVAX vaccine in children aged above 5 years.
With Friday’s new cases, India’s total tally of COVID-19 cases rose to 3,29,03,289, while active cases registered an increase for the third consecutive day, according to the Union Health Ministry data. The death toll climbed to 4,39,895 with 366 fresh fatalities, according to the data updated at 8 am.
The active cases increased to 3,99,778 comprising 1.22% of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 97.45%, the ministry said.
An official spokesman of the government said on Friday that Biological E. had also received nod for conducting Phase III trial in adults after a Subject Expert Committee’s (SEC) review of its Phase I and II clinical trials data.
The Philippines’ Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday approved the emergency use of Moderna’s COVID-19 doses for children ages 12 to 17, the agency’s chief said.
“With the Delta variant affecting a lot of children, the experts saw that the benefits of using the vaccine outweigh the risks,” FDA Director General Rolando Enrique Domingo told a public briefing.
In the US, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla, who is currently on a visit, called on United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday during which they discussed bilateral ties, regional and global issues including COVID-19.
Amid the third wave scare, many States and Union Territories have reopened educational institutions across the country. A study, however, has revealed that India was unlikely to see a surge in the Covid-19 cases at least in September as was apprehended earlier.
A day after Kerala’s overall COVID-19 cases crossed the 41 lakh mark, state Health Minister Veena George on Friday said the Covishield vaccine stock was completely over in at least six districts and the government has asked for more vaccine doses from the Centre.
The districts – Kollam, Kottayam, Ernakulam, Thrissur, Kozhikode and Kannur – are facing the shortage and only 1.4 lakh doses are remaining in the state’s reserve, she said.
However, all districts have limited stock of Covaxin, the minister said.
Sri Lanka has begun vaccinating 20 plus people as it neared full vaccination of older people and struggles with a surge of delta variant infections. The health ministry says 3.7 million people are in the 20-30 age group and they plan to complete their inoculation before the end of October.
Nearly 14.6 million of Sri Lanka’s 22 million people are older than 30 and will be fully vaccinated this month.
Britain is rushing 4 million Pfizer doses to Australia, where authorities are scrambling to bolster supplies of that COVID-19 vaccine and protect the population against a rapidly spreading outbreak of the delta variant.
The swap deal announced on Friday follows Australian deals with Singapore and Poland to address a short-term Pfizer shortage. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the British shots would leave Britain on Saturday and double Australia’s Pfizer supplies in September.
The COVID-19 pandemic has created a nurse staffing crisis that is forcing many U.S. hospitals to pay top dollar to get the help they need to handle the rush of patients this summer.
The problem, health leaders say, is twofold: Nurses are quitting or retiring, exhausted or demoralized by the crisis. And many are leaving for lucrative temporary jobs with traveling-nurse agencies that can pay $5,000 or more a week.
It’s gotten to the point where doctors are saying, “Maybe I should quit being a doctor and be a nurse,” said Dr. Phillip Coule, chief medical officer at Georgia’s Augusta University Medical Center, which has on occasion seen 20 to 30 resignations in a week from nurses taking traveling jobs.
(Manas Dasgupta)
