Hyderabad: Even as AstraZeneca has paused trials of its Covid-19 vaccine candidate after one of the participants in the United Kingdom developed an unexplained illness, over 100 volunteers in India have completed the crucial week after receiving shots in phase two human trials without showing any adverse reaction.
Pune based Serum Institute of India (SII), the world’s largest vaccine maker, has signed an agreement to manufacture the potential vaccine developed by the Jenner Institute of Oxford University in collaboration with British-Swedish pharma company AstraZeneca.
SII clarified that the Indian trials of the vaccine candidate are continuing without any problems.
Madhya Pradesh
Indore: Three cases have been filed against BJP leaders and workers after visuals emerged of no social distancing at a huge procession organised by party members in the COVID-hit district of Indore, where bypolls for 27 assembly seats are due later this year.
Days long procession started on September 3 and was attended by thousands of people in Indore's Sanwer ahead of tomorrow's ground-breaking ceremony of the ₹ 2,400 crore Narmada irrigation project. It will cover almost all the 250 villages of the constituency set to benefit from the Narmada river water.
Meanwhile, former health minister of the state, Anoop Mishra has tested positive on Wednesday.
Chhattisgarh
Raipur: Stae's COVID-19 tally has crossed the 50,000-mark and reached 50,114 with 2,545 fresh cases. The toll from the pandemic has gone up to 407 in the state, which now has 26,915 active cases.
According to state health department data, 24,388 samples are being tested per million population in the state and the number of new infections has grown by an average of 6% daily.
With 21,177 cases, the Raipur division is worst-hit by the pandemic in the state.
Jharkhand
Ranchi: The district administration of Ranchi has started a mega door to door COVID-19 identification survey from Wednesday. The survey will be done in containment areas in the city.
Meanwhile, state's COVID-19 tally surpassed 55,000-mark on Wednesday with 2652 new cases, while 19 fresh fatalities pushed the state's coronavirus death toll to 503, a health bulletin said.
The fresh infections have taken the state's caseload to 55,296, it said.
Odisha
Bhubaneswar: The state on Wednesday registered 3,748 new cases and 11 more deaths due to the novel coronavirus disease, which pushed the state’s tally and death toll to 135,130 and 580 respectively. The new COVID-19 cases were reported from all 30 districts of the state.
With this, the active cases have mounted to 32,312 while 102,185 people recovered so far, an official said.
Out of the new cases, 2,210 were found from quarantine centres and the rest 1,538 people were found to be infected during contact tracing, he added.
Bhubaneswar, which turned into a COVID-19 hotspot is facing a severe shortage of ICU beds.
The city is adding 400 cases on a daily basis. State government data showed that of the 268 ICU beds available, almost all have been occupied though 40% of its ventilator beds are still vacant.
Also Read: Oxford COVID-19 vaccine trials to continue in India: Serum Institute
