# Against the backdrop of mutants being reported from various countries, India has issued guidelines for international passengers entering the country. Variants from South Africa and South America (Colombia) are being watched.

# Vaccines for children received another shot in the arm, as Hyderabad-based Biological E got the nod to move ahead with its clinical trials. The company will now conduct phase two and three trials of its vaccine candidate on children in the age group of 5 to 18 years.

# Kerala update: Test Positivity Rate (TPR) in Kerala held steady at 18 per cent-plus with 30,000-plus daily new Covid cases (32,097 cases) on Thursday, indicating yet again that the state may be gravitating towards an elevated plateau (10,000 and 15,000 earlier) in the latest phase of intense transmission.

# Covid impact on insurance policies. Life insurance companies have hiked premiums in some cases for group policies, after the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic led to a surge in death claims.

# And finally, worried if vaccines are natural or synthetic? It really shouldn’t matter. Read on... The Pfizer and Moderna mRNA vaccines are some of our best weapons in the fight against Covid-19. They’re highly effective and many millions of people around the world have received their doses. These vaccines are the first to be made synthetically, that is, they are made outside of a living cell.