Coronavirus live updates: India, World Bank sign $400 million project to support Covid affected people

Panama's government has approved the emergency use of the vaccine produced by US company Pfizer and German company BioNTech, the delivery of the first batch is expected in the first quarter of 2021, the country's Health Ministry said. "The national government has approved the emergency use of Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine," the ministry said in a statement on Twitter. Panama expects to receive the first shipment of vaccines in the first quarter of next year and to begin immunizing the population, starting with healthcare workers, the elderly, and security personnel.

India's Covid-19 caseload rose to 99.32 lakh with 26,382 infections being reported in a day, while the number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 94.56 lakh, according to data updated by the Union health ministry on Wednesday. The total coronavirus infection tally mounted to 99,32,547, while the death toll rose to 1,44,096 with 387 new fatalities, the data updated at 8 am showed. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 94,56,449, pushing the national recovery rate to 95.21 per cent, while the Covid-19 case fatality rate stands at 1.45 per cent.

The development and distribution of Covid-19 vaccine in such a short span of time is a "miracle", the White House has said, slamming a section of the US media for deriding President Donald Trump for promising Americans that the vaccine would be available by the end of this year.

One of the most common symptoms of Covid-19 is being sick with fever, whereas a study by Johns Hopkins Medicine and the University of Maryland School of Medicine describes that temperature screening, primarily done with a non-contact infrared thermometer (NCIT) is not an effective strategy to staunch the spread of Covid-19 virus. According to an editorial published in Open Forum Infectious Diseases, the online journal of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the first aspect of Covid-19 screening by the temperature that the researchers questioned was when the US Department of Health and Human Services and the US. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention released guidelines for Americans to determine if they needed to seek medical attention for symptoms suggestive of infection with SARS-CoV-2, with temperature screening.

The Centre is looking forward to a “good decision” on the Covid-19 vaccine soon and has asked states to identify at least one adverse event management centre in each block to monitor the safety and efficacy aspects of the jabs. “When we undertake a universal immunisation programme, some adverse effects are seen in children and pregnant women after vaccination,” health secretary Rajesh Bhushan said. “So, we can’t deny chances of an adverse event when Covid-19 vaccination begins. In countries where immunisation has already begun, especially in the UK, adverse events have taken place on the very first day. So, it is essential that states and UTs prepare for this too,” he said.