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The independent drug regulatory expert panel is learnt to have deferred a decision on emergency use authorisation of the Russian Covid-19 vaccine Sputnik V
Though there was no official word, sources in the know said that the Subject Expert Committee to the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation, apex authority for approving new drugs and vaccines in the country, sought more data from Dr Reddy’s Laboratories (DRL), which is conducting bridge phase 2/3 trials of the Russian vaccine.
When contacted, DRL said it will await the feedback from the CDSCO. Meanwhile, as many as 72,330 people tested positive for the novel coronavirus across the country on Wednesday, the highest since October 8 last year. Maharashtra alone reported around 40,000 cases, while Chhattisgarh (4,563) and Karnataka (4,225) reported over 4,000 cases. With this, the total active Covid-19 caseload in the country touched 5.84 lakh till Wednesday.
Vaccination drive
The third phase of the Covid-19 vaccination drive commenced on Thursday with people above 45, the population which accounted for 88 peer cent of all Covid-19 mortality in the country, eligible to get the shots. To ramp up coverage, the government decided vaccination centres will work on every day in the current month, including on gazetted holidays.
“This step has been taken after detailed deliberations with the States/UTs on 31st March, 2021 to optimally utilise all Covid Vaccination Centres across the public and private sectors to ensure rapid increase in the pace and coverage of Covid vaccination,” the Health Ministry said in a statement. As per data available on Co-WIN dashboard at 8.30 pm on Thursday, close to 6.6 crore vaccinations have been done across the country with 5.71 crore people gettting the first dose and nearly 89 lakh have received two doses as recommended.
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