The Daily Dose: July 15, 2022

#Scripting a first: India’s Serum Institute has broken new ground for itself and the Indian vaccine industry by receiving regulatory approval in the United States for made-in-India vaccines, a first of sorts.

#Free boosters begin: Ahead of the rollout of free precautionary shots of Covid-19 vaccine for all from July 15, vaccine makers say they are in a state of readiness to cater to the anticipated surge in demand.

#WHO advises against two drugs: The global medicine box against Covid-19 will leave out two “commonly used, inexpensive” drugs, as the World Health Organization has advised against them.

#Daily tally: India logged a single-day rise of 20,038 new coronavirus infections, according to Union Health Ministry data updated on Friday. The death toll due to the disease has climbed to 5,25,604 with 47 new fatalities being reported, the data updated at 8 am showed.

#Low Sputnik V booster uptake: The uptake of booster shots of Sputnik V is just 0.5 per cent of those who are due for it, data available with the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare shows.

#Lowering windfall tax? Global oil prices have fallen about 20 per cent in recent weeks on concerns of a US recession coupled with China’s struggle to move beyond a debilitating period of Covid curbs. Margins on diesel, gasoline and aviation fuel have crashed in the past two weeks — squeezing profits of India’s top fuel exporter Reliance Industries Ltd. and oil producer Oil & Natural Gas Corp.

#Shrinking economy: China’s economy contracted in the three months ending in June compared with the previous quarter after Shanghai and other cities were shut down to fight coronavirus outbreaks, but the government said a “stable recovery” is under way.

#Property crisis spirals: More than a decade on, Chinese property is again grabbing the attention of global investors—this time for all the wrong reasons. After a burst of optimism earlier this year that loosen regulatory curbs might stem the industry’s debt crisis, investors are getting spooked by rolling Covid lockdowns and a rapidly escalating homebuyer boycott of mortgage payments on stalled projects.

#Tripping on a waiver: WTO decision on Covid IPs is a compromised one, says the writer. The recent 12th WTO Ministerial Conference decided to waive Article 31 (f) of the TRIPS Agreement under certain conditions. But is this a success as Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal claims?

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