Wellington, Dec 21,2021: New Zealand government on Tuesday urged parents and caregivers to consider protecting their children aged 5 to 11 against Covid-19 with a child version of vaccination to be unveiled in January next year.
Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said that Cabinet has agreed with the advice from the Technical Advisory Group off the back of Medsafe approval to vaccinate children between 5 to 11 years old.
“A key focus of the government is to keep everyone in New Zealand safe from the Covid-19 pandemic,” Hipkins said.
According to the Ministry of Health, the children vaccination program will begin from January 17, 2022. There are 476,000 children between ages 5-11 nationwide, who will become eligible to get their first dose from this date, and their second dose at least eight weeks later.
However, the interval can be safely shortened to a minimum of 21 days if needed, the ministry said.
New Zealand government strongly recommends parents have their children vaccinated.
“In the most recent outbreak, 24 per cent of cases have been aged 11 or under. The government is strongly encouraging parents to have their children vaccinated against Covid-19, but I want to be clear that this is a choice for parents,” Hipkins added.
Paris, Dec 8 ,2021: France has reported 59,019 more COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, a record daily count since November 2020.
According to the French Public Health Agency, a governmental institution reporting to the French Health Ministry, 168 COVID-19 patients died in the past 24 hours, and 12,714 patients are currently hospitalized across the country.
Meanwhile, the ministry reported that a record daily high of 687,498 booster doses have been administered the past 24 hours, an extraordinary leap from the 105,009 doses the previous day.
“At this stage, 7 million French people have made an appointment for a booster shot by the end of December,” the French government’s spokesperson Gabriel Attal told radio France Inter on Tuesday.
The ministry said that a total of 11,619,831 people have received a booter shots since Sept. 1 when a booster shot campaign kicked off in France.
The French government on Monday announced new measures to curb the new wave of coronavirus infections in the country, ordering the closure of nightclubs for four weeks starting this weekend, extending the mandatory use of face masks in schools, urging businesses to encourage teleworking and opening its vaccination program to children.
New Delhi, Dec 4,2021: A total of 4,048 Indian citizens succumbed to COVID-19 abroad, with the largest number being reported from Saudi Arabia – 1,154, the Lok Sabha was told.
This was followed by the United Arab Emirates at 894, Kuwait – 668, Oman -551, Bahrain 200 and Qatar 109, MoS for External Affairs V Muraleedharan said in the House.
The Government issued guidelines through the National Disaster Management Authority, in pursuance of Supreme Court judgment regarding ex-gratia payment to Indians who succumbed to COVID-19
New Delhi, Nov 29,2021: Even as most countries began slapping travel bans on African countries, India on Monday offered support for Africa to combat the newly-emerged Omicron variant of the Covid-19 pandemic, including through supply of vaccines, life-saving drugs, PPE kits, gloves and ventilators.
“We have noted the emergence of a new variant of Covid-19, Omicron. We express our solidarity with the countries, particularly in Africa, who have so far been affected by the Omicron variant,” a late evening statement from the Ministry of External Affairs said.
The Government of India stands ready to support the countries affected in Africa in dealing with the Omicron variant, including by supplies of Made-in-India vaccines.
It said supplies can be undertaken through the COVAX facility or bilaterally.
“In this regard, the Government has cleared all orders placed so far by COVAX for supplies of Covishield vaccines including to African countries like Malawi, Ethiopia, Zambia, Mozambique, Guinea and Lesotho.
“We have also cleared supplies of Covaxin to Botswana.
“Any new requirement projected either bilaterally or through COVAX will be considered expeditiously,” it said.
India also stands ready to supply essential life-saving drugs, test kits, gloves, PPE kits and medical equipment such as ventilators, as may be required.
“Indian institutions would favourably consider cooperation in genomic surveillance and virus characterization related research work with their African counterparts,” the statement said.
It added that India has, so far, supplied more than 25 million doses of Made-in-India vaccines to 41 countries in Africa, including nearly 1 million doses as grant to 16 countries and more than 16 million doses under the COVAX facility to 33 countries.
Geneva, Nov 29.2021: It is not yet clear whether the Omicron COVID-19 variant is more transmissible, or causes more severe disease compared to other variants including Delta, the World Health Organization (WHO) said.
WHO, on Sunday said that it’s not yet clear whether Omicron is more easily spread from person to person compared to other variants, even though the number of people testing positive has risen in South Africa where this variant was involved.
It’s also not yet clear whether Omicron causes more severe disease, but preliminary data suggests that there are increasing rates of hospitalization in South Africa, which however may be due to increasing overall numbers of people becoming infected.
WHO confirmed that there is currently no information to suggest that symptoms associated with Omicron are different from those from other variants, as understanding the level of severity of the Omicron variant will take days to several weeks.
All variants of COVID-19, including the Delta variant that is currently dominant worldwide, can cause severe disease or death, in particular for the most vulnerable people, and thus prevention is always key.
However, WHO said preliminary evidence suggests there may be an increased risk of reinfection with Omicron, but information is limited. More information on this will become available in the coming days and weeks.
It added that current PCR tests continue to detect Omicron, while further studies are still going on to understand how the Omicron variant will impact on available vaccines and treatments to COVID-19.
WHO classified on Friday the latest variant B.1.1.529 of SARS-CoV-2 virus, now with the name Omicron, as a “Variant of Concern” (VOC).
According to WHO’s definition, a VOC, with a degree of global public health significance, demonstrates one or more of mutational changes, such as increase in transmissibility or detrimental change in COVID-19 epidemiology, increase in virulence or change in clinical disease presentation, and decrease in effectiveness of public health and social measures or available diagnostics, vaccines, therapeutics.
WHO has since called on countries to enhance surveillance and sequencing on circulating SARS-CoV-2 variants, submit complete genome sequences and metadata to a publicly available database, and report initial VOC cases or clusters to WHO.
It has also recommended field investigations and laboratory assessments to better understand potential impacts of the VOC on COVID-19 epidemiology, the effectiveness of public health and social measures and antibody neutralization.
Tawang (Arunachal Pradesh), November 27,2021: Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Friday said that about Rs 64,000 crore will be invested by the Centre in creating health infrastructure in the country over the next five years.
The Union Minister, who was on a day-long tour to Tawang district in Arunachal Pradesh, while interacting with healthcare workers at Khandro Drowa Zangmo District Hospital, said that the central government is working to provide health security to all through various health welfare schemes.
“Never in the past was health considered as wealth. The present Union Government under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is working on these lines to provide health security to all through its various health welfare schemes,” Mandaviya said during the interaction, as quoted in an official statement.
Emphasizing on the benefits of the Centre’s Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission that will connect the digital health solutions of hospitals across the country with each other, the minister said, “We have to work with Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission. This will enable us to know the history of a patient and can provide them with quality health services. In the next five years, an investment of Rs 64,000 crore will be made in improving health infrastructure in the country.”