Coronavirus news: 45-week gap between 2 Covishield doses boosts immunity, Oxford study finds

"Additional documents were submitted by the company last week. We would like to see an expedited review of the data and hope that the decision will come very soon," he noted.

Activists of several Left-backed organisations staged a protest outside Swastha Bhavan in Salt Lake on Moday, alleging links between Trinamool Congress leaders and fake IAS officer Debanjan Deb who organised dubious Covid vaccination camps in Kolkata.Members of the CPI(M)-backed DYFI and other youth organisations demanded that the police expedited its probe in the case.The protesters raised slogans against the Mamata Banerjee government outside the Health Department headquarters in Sector 5 before being bundled into police vehicles.

Serum Institute of India (SII) has requested the government to take up the matter of inclusion of Covishield vaccine in the EU Covid-19 Vaccination Passport with the European Union and other countries, citing this will affect students and business travellers and cause severe disruptions to the Indian and global economy.Only four vaccines -- Comirnaty of Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, Vaxzervria by AstraZeneca-Oxford and Johnson & Johnson's Janssen -- have been approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and only those vaccinated by these vaccines will be given vaccination passports and will be allowed to travel within the EU during the pandemic.

The Tamil Nadu government on Monday urged the Centre to revise the 75:25 allocation format of Covid vaccines to government and private institutions and demanded that 90 per cent of the doses be given to the state-run facilities.In a letter to Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Harsh Vardhan, Chief Minister M K Stalin said the "25 per cent allocation to private hospitals is grossly higher when compared to the actual vaccinations done by them."

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday congratulated all the people driving the country's Covid-19 vaccination effort, stating that India's inoculation drive keeps gaining momentum.This comes as India crossed a significant Covid-19 vaccination milestone of overtaking the United States of America in the total number of vaccine doses administered so far.

Ladakh recorded 23 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, taking the infection tally to 19,964. officials said.Twenty-three more people were discharged from hospitals, taking the overall recoveries to 19,481, they said.Officials said 10 patients in Leh and 13 in Kargil were discharged.The number of active cases currently stands at 281, of which 229 are in Leh and 52 are in Kargil district, officials said.