As of February 4, a total of 96.28 lakh healthcare workers and 78.51 lakh frontline workers have been identified for COVID-19 vaccination, Minister of State for Health Ashwini Choubey told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply

Gopinath lauded India for playing a key role during the crisis by producing and dispatching the coronavirus vaccines to several countries

This is something very special and I see it myself because I'm on weekly teleconferences with our colleagues in India, you make a recommendation, and within days it's done and not only done, but it's done well and with incredible rigor and thought and creativity, Dr Hotez said

UK Vaccine Deployment Minister Nadhim Zahawi said the vaccine doses developed by the Serum Institute of India, in collaboration with Oxford/AstraZeneca, were always intended for Britain and that assurances have been sought that the delivery would not impact other supplies

Nadhim Zahawi, in an interview with The Associated Press, confirmed reports that the Serum Institute of India, one of the world's largest vaccine makers, would be sending doses of the vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca to the UK

At a press briefing, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said countries with their own vaccine capacity should start waiving intellectual property rights as provided in special emergency provisions from the World Trade Organization

National Health Service (NHS) Secretary Amir Ashraf Khawaja while briefing the Public Accounts Committee on Thursday said that the Pakistan government has no plan to buy vaccines anytime soon

Biden administration aims to buy 600 million vaccines for its 300 million population, which has put stress on American raw material companies given demand from all across world

Biden administration recently decided to enforce Defence Production Act, which allowed it to boost vaccine production by blocking export of raw material supplies to other countries

Covid-19 cases in some states like Maharashtra, Kerala, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Karnataka are on the rise again. These states collectively account for 85.51 per cent of the new cases, as per the latest figures

The high court also asked the Centre to explain in affidavit the rationale behind keeping strict control over class of persons who can be vaccinated against COVID-19

IT major Infosys on Wednesday said it will cover the vaccination cost for its employees in India and their family members; Bharat Biotech has announced the Phase 3 clinical trial results for its coronavirus vaccine candidate Covaxin; The COVAX initiative, co-led by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance (Gavi) and the World Health Organization (WHO), will supply 237 million doses of the AstraZeneca-Oxford COVID-19 vaccine to 142 countries by May-end. Watch this and more on News Blast.Also Read: Canada receives first shipment of 5 lakh COVID-19 vaccine doses from Serum Institute

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman got first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine today; shares image of herself getting vaccinated on Twitter

Digital media norms to be administered by Centre, not states The Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry on Wednesday issued memorandum to states and union territories saying that the new rules for digital news publishers and over-the-top (OTT) platforms are to be administered by the Centre, not the states. The government had notified the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Codes) Rules, 2021 on February 25. Defence equipment sales to India sho...

Krishna Ella, Chairman of Bharat Biotech had earlier said the company is focusing on the intranasal vaccine as the existing vaccines require two-dose intramuscular injections and a country like India needs 2.6 billion syringes and needles which may add up to pollution

Very early this morning, our first half a million doses of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine from the Serum Institute arrived in Canada, said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

So far, the Pfizer-BioNTtech and Moderna vaccines, made through a novel platform technology never used in humans before, are proven to have maximum efficacy

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Data from 25,800 participants who received a vaccine or placebo in 1:1 ratio showed that the vaccine was well-tolerated; Bharat Biotech said the trial conducted with ICMR was the largest in India

Over 110 million doses of this to about 60 countries will be met through the AstraZeneca (AZ)-Serum Institute of India partnership