(TibetanReview.net, Jul05’20) – Brushing aside scepticisms and criticism from the scientific community for its Aug 15 target for launching Covaxin, India’s Covid-19 vaccine candidate, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has said Jul 4 that its process was “in accordance with the globally accepted norms to fast-track the vaccine development”.
“ICMR’s process is exactly in accordance with the globally accepted norms to fast-track the vaccine development for diseases of pandemic potential wherein human and animal trials can continue in parallel,” indianexpress.com Jul 4 quoted the ICMR as saying in a statement after the scientific community questioned what they called the “near impossible timeline” in getting a vaccine ready for public health use within such a short time.
The criticisms have focused on fears that the vaccine’s safety and efficacy could be compromised to meet the timeline.
But the ICMR has sought to allay such concerns by saying, “the best of India’s medical professionals and research scientists should not be second guessed for their professionalism or adherence to the highest scientific rigour.”
However, the report also cited expert as saying that while the vaccine trials can be fast-tracked, it still takes over a year to launch the product.
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India reported a record 24,850 new cases of Covid-19 infections in the last 24 hours as of Jul 5 at 8AM, taking the total to 673,165 cases. The country also reported a record 613 new deaths during the same 24 hour period, taking the total to 19,268 deaths, according to data from the Ministry of Health.
A total of 409,083, or 60.77 per cent, had recovered from the disease, so that the number of active cases stood at 244, 8144.
India currently has the fourth highest number of Covid-19 cases after the US, Brazil and Russia. It also has the eighth highest number of deaths from the global pandemic. But it has kept narrowing the gap with its immediate predecessors Russia and Spain respectively, and is within range of overtaking the former in the next 24 hour.
The 14 worst-hit states with more than 10,000 cases were led by Maharashtra with a total of 200,064 cases after 7,074 fresh cases were reported in the past 24 hours, followed by Tamil Nadu with 107,001 (↑4,280) cases, Delhi with 97,200 (↑2,505) cases, Gujarat with 35,312 (↑712) cases, Uttar Pradesh 26,554 (↑757), Telangana 22,312 (↑1,850), Karnataka 21,549 (↑1,839), West Bengal 21,231 (↑743), Rajasthan 19,532 (↑480), Andhra Pradesh 17,699 (↑765), Haryana 16,548 (↑545) cases, Madhya Pradesh 14,604 (↑307), Bihar 11,700 (↑746), and Assam 10,668 (↑995).
Below them were 12 states/Union Territories with more than 1,000 cases, namely Odisha 8,601 (↑495), Jammu & Kashmir 8,246 (↑227), Punjab 6,109 (↑172), Kerala 5,204 (↑240), Chattisgarh 3,160 (↑96), Uttarakhand 3,093 (↑45), Jharkhand 2,739 (↑44), Goa 1,684 (↑202), Tripura 1,546 (↑21), Manipur 1,325 (↑9), Himachal Pradesh 1,046 (↑13), and Ladakh 1,005 (↑4).
Besides, there were eight other states/ Union Territories with less than 1,000 cases, namely Puducherry 802 (↑0), Nagaland 563 (↑35), Chandigarh 460 (↑3), Arunachal Pradesh 259 (↑7), Mizoram 164 (↑2), Andaman and Nicobar Islands 119 (↑3), Sikkim 103 (↑1), and Meghalaya 62 (↑0) cases.
Lakshadweep and Dadra Nagar Haveli remain the only States /Union Territories without any Covid-19 case.
Maharashtra also had the most number of deaths at 8,671 (↑295), followed by Delhi 3,004 (↑81), Gujarat 1,925 (↑21), Tamil Nadu 1,450 (↑65), Uttar Pradesh 773 (↑24), West Bengal 736 (↑19), Madhya Pradesh 598 (↑5), Rajasthan 447 (↑7), Karnataka 335 (↑42), Telangana 288 (↑5), Haryana 260 (↑5), Andhra Pradesh 218 (↑12), Punjab 162 (↑5), Jammu & Kashmir 127 (↑8), Bihar 89 (↑9), Uttarakhand 42 (↑0), Odisha 34 (↑5), Kerala 25 (↑0), Jharkhand 17 (↑2), Chattisgarh 14 (↑0), Assam 14 (↑0), Puducherry 12 (↑0), Himachal Pradesh 11 (↑1), Chandigarh 6 (↑0), Goa 6 (↑2), Arunachal Pradesh 1 (↑0), Ladakh 1 (↑0), Meghalaya 1 (↑0), and Tripura 1 (↑0).
Five States/ Union Territory with Covid-19 cases have reported no deaths so far.
(Source: https://www.mohfw.gov.in/)
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Across the world the total number of Covid-19 cases had surged cost to the 11.3 million mark to reach 11,280,756 while a total of 531,064 had died as of Jul 5 at 2:03:52 PM, according to the Dashboard maintained by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.
There were 191,619 new cases and 5,664 new deaths during the past 24 hours across 188 countries and regions.
The countries with the most number of reported Covid-19 cases thus far were the US (2,839,917), Brazil (1,577,004), Russia (680,283), India (673,165) … China (84,857).
The countries with the most number of Covid-19 deaths were the US (129,676), Brazil (64,265), the UK (44,283), Italy (34,854), Mexico (30,366), France (29,896), Spain (28,385), India (19,268) … China (4,641).
(Source: https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html)
