COVID-19
India reports 1.34 lakh COVID-19 cases, 2,887 deaths in 24 hours
New Delhi/IBNS: Over 1.34 lakh new COVID-19 cases and 2,887 deaths apparently linked to the virus were reported from 36 states and union territories of India on Thursday.
With 1,34,154 new cases, the tally of infections has surged to 2,84,41,986.
The COVID-19 toll has touched 3,37,989 while the number of recovered cases have crossed 2.63 crores.
Major relaxation in vaccine policy
The Indian government has exempted "well established" foreign COVID-19 vaccines makers from any bridging clinical trials if it has been certified by the National Control Lab of the country where it is made.
The testing of every batch of vaccines at Central Drug Laboratory (CDL) at Kasauli in Himachal Pradesh has also been done away with by the Drug Controller General of India or DGCI.
The exemptions are applied to the vaccines which are already approved for restricted use by US FDA, European Medicines Agency (EMA), UK MHRA, PMDA Japan or the ones listed in the World Health Organisation (WHO) Emergency Use Listing (EUL).
Image Credit: UNI
The decision will pave the way for pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer, Moderna to export vaccines to India, which is slowly recovering from the devastating second wave of COVID-19 pandemic.
The decision has been taken by the DGCI at a time the country is facing an acute shortage of vaccines, which are key to beat the deadly virus.
Govt faces heat in Supreme Court over vaccination strategy
Raising questions over the Centre's vaccine strategy, the Supreme Court on Wednesday asked why can't the union government buy 100 per cent of the anti-COVID-19 vaccines at a discount instead of leaving the states to procure it.
The top court has also said the central government's decision to provide free vaccines to people aged 45 or more, health care workers, and front line workers while leaving all those belonging to the age bracket of 18-44 to pay for the vaccines by the states or private hospitals was "arbitrary" and "irrational".
Meanwhile, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has written to his counterparts from various states requesting them to come on board in asking the Centre to procure vaccines and distribute them among the states.
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