NEW DELHI ,Dec 13,2020: India will deploy its vast election machinery to deliver 600 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to the most vulnerable people in the next six to eight months through conventional cold chain systems, the expert leading the initiative said.
The government has lined up cold storage facilities with temperatures between 2 to 8 degrees Celsius (36 to 48°F), said V.K. Paul, who heads the group of experts on vaccine administration for COVID-19 that advises India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Paul said these preparations meet the requirements of what he said were the four emerging candidates in the race for India’s vaccine.
“The four that I can see, including Serum, Bharat, Zydus, and Sputnik need normal cold chain. I see no problem for these vaccines,” he told Reuters in an interview.
Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine maker, is already mass producing and stockpiling AstraZeneca’s Covishield shot, while Indian biotech players Bharat Biotech and Zydus Cadila are developing their own vaccine candidates.
And last month, Indian pharmaceutical player Hetero inked a deal with Russia’s RDIF to manufacture over 100 million doses of the Russian Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine per year in India.
The government expects the first approvals “very soon” from the independent drug regulator for emergency use, he said.
“I am hoping at the earliest because we are ready.”
The government, however, was yet to have formal talks on pricing and had no firm purchase orders, he said.
“The Indian companies know the government will give a fair and reasonable price.”
SUPPLIES AND STORAGE
At present, Indian regulators are considering three vaccines for emergency use authorisation, including those from Pfizer Inc, AstraZeneca and Bharat Biotech.
But, Pfizer’s limited stockpiles and its extreme storage condition requirements at minus 70 degrees Celsius or below, would likely limit its use in India, which lacks such infrastructure.
Paul said the government is also in talks with Moderna, which also has requirements for ultra-cold storage.
India does not anticipate supplies from either Pfizer or Moderna until the second half of next year, said Paul.
Paul said India may still consider granting Pfizer emergency use authorisation, despite it not having conducted safety and immune response trials in India, but said that decision would be taken by the drugs regulator.
India has the world’s second highest caseload of coronavirus behind the United States, but its death rate has been far lower.
Still, Paul said the immediate task was to protect lives and the government had prepared a plan to administer vaccines to 300 million people – or 600 million doses at two jabs each – in the first part of the programme.
This would be made up of 260 million people above the age of 50, an estimated 10 million below the age of 50 with serious co-morbidities and 30 million frontline workers, who have borne the brunt of infections.
Washington, Dec 13 ,2020: The number of Novel Coronavirus cases in the United States has surpassed 16 million, while the death toll stands at over 297,000, according to the latest data from the Coronavirus Resource Center of the Johns Hopkins University.
As of 2150 GMT on Saturday, there were 16,014,839 coronavirus cases in the US, including 297,501 deaths from COVID-19.
A total of 6,135,314 people have recovered from COVID-19 in the US, Johns Hopkins University data showed.
The United States has the largest number of confirmed coronavirus cases, as well as the highest death toll, of all the countries in the world.
United Nations, Dec 13,2020: UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres addressed the 2020 Climate Ambition Summit, calling on leaders to declare “a State of Climate Emergency” until they achieve carbon neutrality necessary to save the Earth for future generations.
On Saturday, the UN, the UK and France co-hosted the 2020 Ambition Summit marking the fifth anniversary of the Paris Agreement. The participants of the summit focused on actions aimed to tackle the climate change issue.
“Today, I call on all leaders worldwide to declare a State of Climate Emergency in their countries until carbon neutrality is reached,” Guterres said.
The secretary general stressed that every country should take steps to save the Earth for future generations.
“I urge everyone to show ambition, stop the assault on our planet – and do what we need to guarantee the future of our children and grandchildren,” Guterres said.
According to the secretary general, countries do not adhere to the commitments provisioned by the Paris Agreement and this may result in “a catastrophic temperature rise of more than 3 degrees this century.”
Guterres added that the international community might reach carbon neutrality, set out in the agreement, if global emission would be reduced “by 45 per cent by 2030 compared with 2010 levels.”
The secretary general noted that, to this end, countries should transform their economies, implement efficient technologies and “integrate the goal of carbon neutrality into all economic and fiscal policies and decisions.”
The Paris Agreement is an international treaty on climate changed adopted by 196 states on December 12, 2015, which entered into force on November 4, 2016.
The agreement was designed to keep the rise in global temperature to less than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels.
New Delhi, Dec 12,2020: Sticking to their demands, farmer leaders Saturday said they are ready to hold talks with the government, but will first discuss repealing the three new farm laws, and announced further intensification of their ongoing protest against the legislations.
Addressing a press conference at Singhu Border here, farmer leader Kanwalpreet Singh Pannu said that thousands of farmers will start their ‘Delhi Chalo’ march from Rajasthan’s Shahjahanpur through the Jaipur-Delhi Highway at 11 am on Sunday
He said that farmers from other parts of the country are also on their way to join the protesters here and they will take the agitation to the next level in the coming days
?If the government wants to hold talks, we are ready, but our main demand will remain the scrapping of the three laws. We will move onto our other demands only after that,? the farmer leader said
Farmer union leaders will also sit on a hunger strike between 8 am and 5 pm On December 14 against the new agriculture laws, he said
Pannu alleged the government tried to weaken the agitation, but that the protesting farmers did not let it happen. The farmer leader vowed to keep the protest peaceful
The government on Friday asked the protesting farmers to be vigilant against their platform being misused, saying some ?antisocial? as well as ?Leftist and Maoist? elements were conspiring to spoil the atmosphere of the agitation which has been going on for over two weeks now.
BRUSSELS/LONDON,Dec 11,2020: Britain is more likely to leave the European Union’s orbit on Dec. 31 without a trade deal than with an agreement, an EU official quoted the head of the European Commission as telling the bloc’s 27 national leaders on Friday.
Britain quit the EU in January but remains an informal member until Dec. 31 – the end of a transition period during which it has remained in the EU single market and customs union.
Both sides say they want to agree arrangements to cover nearly $1 trillion in annual trade, but talks are deadlocked and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Thursday there was “a strong possibility” an agreement would not be clinched.
Mexico City, Dec 11,2020: The lower house of Mexico’s congress has unanimously approved a law that would prohibit all forms of physical punishment of children by parents, caretakers, teachers or guardians.
Spanking is out, as is a long list of corporal punishments that speak to how deep-rooted the practice is in Mexico. Congress on Thursday said an estimated 63% of children between 1 and 14 had suffered physical punishment.
According to congress, shoving, pinching, biting, hair- or ear-pulling, or forcing minors into uncomfortable positions, will all be outlawed.
The law, which now goes to the president for his approval, does not lay out specific punishments for each offence; violations appear to fall under domestic violence statutes in each state.
New Delhi, Dec 11,2020: The Ministry of Home Affairs has summoned West Bengal Chief Secretary and Director General of Police (DGP) over the security lapses of BJP president JP Nadda’s visit to the state on Thursday.
The top two officials of the state have been summoned here on December 14 over the deteriorating law and order situation in the state, a senior Home Ministry official said.
Taking a strong view on the security mess up in the state, the Union Home Ministry has also sought a report from the State Government and from the State Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Thursday.
A Home Ministry source said that the Governor has sent its report to the Centre.
On Thursday, Mr Nadda’s convoy was attacked with stones and sticks by a mob allegedly by the Trinamool supporters on its way to Diamond Harbour, the parliamentary constituency of the Chief Minister’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee.
As per the State BJP leaders, during that incident, the BJP national Chief was escaped narrowly but the other leaders along with him Kailash Vijayvargiya and Mukul Roy were hurt.
Taking to twitter, the Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday said “Bengal has descended into an era of tyranny, anarchy and darkness under the Trinamool rule. The manner in which political violence has been institutionalised and brought to the extreme within West Bengal under TMC rule is sad and worrying for all those who believe in democratic values”.
Mr Nadda was on a two-day tour to Kolkata, as part of the 120-day tour of the state of West Bengal, where the Assembly election is due next year.
Tel Aviv [Israel], December 9 ,2020: Amid debates about the existence of aliens, a former Israeli space security chief has said there is an existence of “Galactic Federation” and Israel and the US have been dealing with aliens for years.
Haim Eshed, 87-year-old former space security chief, gave further descriptions about exactly what sort of agreements have been made between the aliens and the US, which ostensibly have been made because they wish to research and understand “the fabric of the universe”, The Jerusalem Post reported quoting an Israeli media outlet Yediot Aharonot.
He further said, “The cooperation includes a secret underground base on Mars, where there are American and alien representatives.”
During the interview with the Israeli daily, Eshed emphasised that the US President Donald Trump is aware of them and that he was “on the verge” of informing everyone about their existence. However, the Galactic Federation reportedly stopped him from doing so, saying they wished to prevent mass hysteria since they felt humanity needed to “evolve and reach a stage where we will… understand what space and spaceships are,” Yediot Aharonot reported.
Speaking on why he chose to reveal this information now, he said, “If I had come up with what I’m saying today five years ago, I would have been hospitalized.”
“Today, they’re already talking differently. I have nothing to lose. I’ve received my degrees and awards; I am respected in universities abroad, where the trend is also changing,” he added.