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

Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Ltd on Monday announced the commercial launch of 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG). According to a press release issued by the city-based drug maker, Dr. Reddy's will supply the drug to major government as well as private hospitals across India. In the initial weeks, the company will make the drug available in hospitals across metros and Tier 1 cities, and subsequently expand coverage to the rest of the country. 2-DG manufactured by Dr. Reddy's has a purity of 99.5 per cent and is being sold commercially under the brand name 2DG.

Vaccine major Serum Institute of India chief executive officer Adar Poonawalla on Monday said he has taken up the issues faced by Indians who have taken the Covishield jab travelling to the European Union at highest levels and hoped to resolve them soon. Covishield is the Oxford University-AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured in India by the Pune-based vaccine maker. "I realise that a lot of Indians who have taken Covishield are facing issues with travel to the EU, I assure everyone, I have taken this up at the highest levels and hope to resolve this matter soon, both with regulators and at a diplomatic level with countries," Poonawalla said in a tweet.

More than 1.15 crore balance and unutilised Covid-19 vaccine doses are still available with the states and UTs to be administered, the Union Health Ministry said on Monday. Over 31.69 crore vaccine doses have been provided by the Centre to states and UTs so far through the Government of India free of cost channel and through direct state procurement category. Of this, the total consumption, including wastage is 30,54,17,617 doses, the ministry said. "More than 1.15 crore (1,15,22,543) balance and unutilised Covid-19 vaccine doses are still available with the states and UTs to be administered," the ministry said.

Rural areas got only 51% of vaccine doses between May 1 and June 23 though they account for 65% of the population, shows data presented by the government to the Supreme Court and census projections of the current population. Interestingly, the skew is more pronounced in the poor and less urbanised states with a significant rural population as compared to richer states with relatively higher urbanisation. For instance, in Odisha, 81% of the population is in rural areas share but only 54% of the vaccination during this nearly two months period was in the villages. This translates into a gap of 27 percentage points between the rural area’s population share and share in vaccination, the highest gap among large states.

• Total cases: 3,02,79,331
• Total recoveries: 2,93,09,607
• Active cases: 5,72,994
• Death toll: 3,96,730
• Recovery rate: 96.80%

The government on Sunday said that Covid vaccination of children in the 12-18 age group may start by the end of July or in August. "Trial for Zydus Cadila vaccine is almost complete. By July end or in August, we might be able to start administering this vaccine to children of 12-18 age group," said Dr N K Arora, chairman of the Covid-19 working group of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI).