Coronavirus live updates: Canada health regulator approves Pfizer vaccine

India’s regulatory framework has a specific provision for grant of emergency use authorisation, the health ministry said on Tuesday, responding to concerns that the drug law may lack clauses to support temporary licensing of Covid-19 vaccines in the country.

Five states — Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka, West Bengal and Delhi — account for 54% of the total active Covid-19 cases in the country, health secretary Rajesh Bhushan said on Tuesday, underlining the declining trend of the pandemic in India even as many countries are still witnessing a surge of new cases.

Six participants have dropped out of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine ‘Covishield’ trial that is being carried out at KEM Hospital. The institute said that of the 101 participants, 95 returned for the second dose that was to be administered 29 days after the first.

The first full results from interim analysis of the Oxford Covid-19 vaccine were published on Tuesday in the Lancet, showing just three serious adverse reactions amongst just under 24,000 participants, no hospitalisation or deaths amongst those who received the vaccine, and that it is also 27% effective in preventing asymptomatic transmission.

Sikkim's Covid-19 caseload went up to 5,215 on Tuesday after 13 more people tested positive for the virus, an official said. Of the fresh cases, 11 were reported from East Sikkim district while two others were registered in South Sikkim and West Sikkim districts.

Brazil will buy any Covid-19 vaccine deemed effective and approved by the country's health regulator Anvisa, the health ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.

"Visit is to transfer technology from Luxembourg to India and set up manufacturing site here. Gujarat is one of the states where we'll be investigating sites for it," CEO L Provost said.

Pfizer chief executive Albert Bourla said Tuesday he understood concerns around the speed at which pharmaceutical companies have produced Covid-19 vaccines, but insisted that no corners had been cut. As Britain on Tuesday became the first Western country to start a mass coronavirus vaccine campaign, using the new Pfizer-BioNTech jab, Bourla said people should feel confident that it is safe and effective. "We didn't cut any corners," he told a virtual media briefing hosted by the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA). Read full story