Indian pharma warns some to avoid its shot
India’s homegrown coronavirus vaccine developer Bharat Biotech on Tuesday warned people with weak immunity and other medical conditions including allergies, fever or a bleeding disorder to consult a doctor before getting the shot — and if possible avoid the vaccine.
The company said those receiving vaccinations should disclose their medical condition, medicines they are taking and any history of allergies. It said severe allergic reactions among vaccine recipients may include difficulty breathing, swelling of the face and throat, rapid heartbeat, body rashes, dizziness and weakness.
The vaccine developed by Bharat Biotech ran into controversy after the Indian government allowed its use without concrete data showing its effectiveness in preventing COVID-19. Tens of thousands of people have been given the shot in the past three days after India started inoculating health care workers last weekend in what is likely the world’s largest coronavirus vaccination campaign.
India vaccinated 148,266 people on Monday, taking its total to 381,305, the health ministry lead by Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan said.
Indian authorities hope to give vaccines to 300 million people. The recipients are to include 30 million doctors, nurses and other front-line workers, to be followed by 270 million people who either are over 50 or have illnesses that make them vulnerable to COVID-19.
India on Jan. 4 approved the emergency use of two vaccines, one developed by Oxford University and UK-based drugmaker AstraZeneca, and the other by Bharat Biotech. The regulator took the step without publishing information about the Indian vaccine’s efficacy.
Bharat Biotech has still not published data on its vaccine’s effectiveness but said it is complying with clinical trial guidelines.
The regulator maintains the vaccine is safe and gave its approval in the belief that it could be more effective in tackling a new variant of the coronavirus found in the UK The regulator and the company have said efficacy data will be published after ongoing late clinical trials conclude.
Vaccine
Most hospitals in India are inoculating health care workers with the AstraZeneca vaccine. But turnout, particularly in those hospitals using the Bharat Biotech vaccine, has been relatively low, health officials said.
Hospitals in New Delhi that have been administering the Bharat Biotech vaccine have seen many doctors hesitate to get the shot.
The vaccination drive began at a time when coronavirus infections have fallen sharply, and much of life has returned to normal.
India is second only to the US in the number of confirmed cases, with more than 10.5 million. The country ranks third in the number of reported deaths, behind the US and Brazil, with over 152,000.
India said on Tuesday that 137 people succumbed to COVID-19 as 10,064 positive cases were registered from different parts of the country in the last 24 hours.
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said that deaths due to COVID-19 rose to 152,556 as the total number of positive cases mounted to 10,581,837.
The Indian health ministry stated that 10,228,753 people recuperated from the pandemic as it spread to 35 Indian states.
Kerala, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Chhattisgarh contribute to most of the active cases in the country.
Meanwhile, China was dealing with coronavirus outbreaks across its frigid northeast on Tuesday, prompting additional lockdowns and travel bans ahead of next month’s Lunar New Year holiday.
The country reported another 118 cases on Tuesday, with 43 of those in the province of Jilin. Hebei province just outside Beijing saw another 35 cases, while Heilongjiang province bordering Russia reported 27 new cases.
Beijing, where some residential communities and outlying villages have been placed under lockdown, reported just one new case.
A fourth northern province, Liaoning, has also imposed quarantines and travel restrictions to prevent the virus from further spreading, part of measures being imposed across much of the country to prevent new outbreaks during during February’s Lunar New Year holiday.
Authorities have called on citizens not to travel, ordered schools closed a week early and conducted testing on a massive scale.
Hebei’s provincial capital, Shijiazhuang, has been building a complex of prefabricated housing units to allow the quarantine of more than 3,000 people as it struggles to control more infections.
China has reported a total of 88,454 cases and 4,635 deaths since coronavirus was first detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019. China does not include people who test positive but have no symptoms in its count.
A multinational team of investigators from the World Health Organization are currently in Wuhan undergoing two weeks of quarantine before beginning field visits in hopes of gaining clues into the origins of the pandemic that has now killed more than 2 million people.
China, Tuesday, reported 118 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, 12 of them came from abroad, but did not register any virus-related deaths.
Xinhua news agency, monitored in Kuwait, quoted a statement by the National Health Commission as saying total registered infections rose to 88,454 and fatalities remained at 4,635.
Treatment
It added 32 people have recovered from the virus and left hospitals in the past 24 hours to reach 82,432. There are still 1,387 patients receiving treatment.
Japan reported 5,257 new cases of the coronavirus over the last 24 hours, raising the nation’s total number to 337,728, the health ministry and local authorities said on Tuesday.
The country’s cumulative death toll rose by 69 to 4,603. Tokyo added 1,240 new infections, topping 1,000 for the seventh straight day, which brought the total cases in the Japanese capital to 87,914.
South Korea added 386 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, bringing the country’s total caseload to 73,115, according to Yonhap News Agency.
The country reported 19 more deaths, raising the total to 1,283, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
Of the locally transmitted cases, Seoul accounted for 95 cases and the surrounding Gyeonggi Province took up 128.
The government extended its current social distancing level for another two weeks from Monday, though it eased some restrictions on cafes, gyms and other indoor facilities.
Under the new measures, the capital area will continue to enforce Level 2.5, the second highest in a five-tier system, and the rest of the nation will remain under Level Two.
The ban on private gatherings of five or more people, and the restriction on business operations after 9:00 p.m., was also extended.
Travelers to New Zealand from most other nations will need to show negative pre-departure coronavirus tests from Jan. 25, officials announced Tuesday. New Zealand recently imposed the rule on travelers from the US. and the UK and is extending it to all other countries, with the exception of Australia and a handful of Pacific Island nations. Travelers returning from Antarctica are also exempt. COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said New Zealand has some of the strictest border measures in the world, which it needs to maintain its strategy of eliminating the virus.