The restrictions come in addition to those previously announced regarding four other countries -- Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Brazil -- that will be implemented starting from Saturday

India's indigenous COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin is effective against multiple variants, including the double mutant variant of SARS-CoV-2, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said on Wednesday. The ICMR said the studies showed that Covaxin also neutralised the UK and Brazil variants of SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. The double mutant variant is expected to have fuelled the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic in India. Covaxin was developed in collaboration with the ICMR, the National Institute of Virology (NIV) and vaccine manufacturer Bharat Biotech. It was developed using a sample of coronavirus isolated by the NIV. Watch the video for more.Also Read: COVID-19 vaccination: India needs 8 yrs 9 months to achieve herd immunity

The ICMR has said that the vaccine developed by Bharat Biotech is effective against the UK and Brazil variants of SARS-CoV-2 and the double mutant strain of the virus

Hancock said one of the concerns about the Indian variant is that the vaccines may be less effective, in terms of transmission and/or in terms of reducing hospitalisation and death. 

A modified version of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine tailored to combat a coronavirus variant first documented in South Africa could be ready by the end of 2021, an AstraZeneca official in Austria said in an interview published on Sunday; Former prime minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the COVID-19 crisis, stressing that ramping up vaccination was the key to battling the pandemic; China will expand digital yuan experiments to more cities, but there is no specific timetable for its official rollout. China is one of the frontrunners in the global race to launch central bank digital currencies to modernise financial systems. Watch this and more on News Blast.Also Read: Oxford University to reinfect recovered Covid-19 patients to develop better vaccines

\"We are building a certificate to facilitate travel after these restrictions between the different European countries with testing and vaccination,\" Macron said in an interview that aired Sunday on the CBS News show \"Face the Nation\"

India to become No 1 electric vehicle manufacturer in world: Nitin GadkariUnion minister Nitin Gadkari on Sunday expressed confidence that lithium-ion batteries would be manufactured fully in the country in the next six months and India will become number one electric vehicle maker in the world in due course of time. Addressing Amazon's Smbhav Summit virtually, Gadkari further said that the government wants to encourage automakers to introduce flex-fuel engines in India and he is in the fina...

The South African variant, B.1.351, was found to make up about 1% of all the COVID-19 cases across all the people studied, according to the study by Tel Aviv University and Israel's largest healthcare provider, Clalit

Sarah Walters, AstraZeneca's Austria country manager said so far, indicating the existing AstraZeneca vaccine was less effective against the more infectious variant first documented in South Africa were \"too small to draw final conclusions\"

North America is the largest exporting region for India with more than 34 per cent share. Country wise exports to USA, Canada and Mexico recorded growth of 12.6 per cent, 30 per cent and 21.4 per cent respectively

The TRIPS waiver would lift certain intellectual property barriers and allow countries to locally manufacture COVID-19 diagnostics, treatments, and vaccines.

Facing soaring cases and overflowing hospitals after lockdown restrictions were eased, it also abruptly changed the rules to allow it to fast-track vaccine imports, having earlier rebuffed foreign drugmakers like Pfizer

The double mutation happens when two mutated strains of a virus come together and form a third strain. In India,  E484Q and L452R are the two mutated strains that have combined and form a new strain, now classified as B.1.617

The United Kingdom launched its inoculation drive in December and has already offered a first shot to all over-50s, the clinically vulnerable and health workers

A waiver would boost vaccine manufacturing and speed up the response to the pandemic in poorer countries which otherwise might have to wait years, they said in a joint letter to Biden sent to news organisations on Wednesday

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We have determined to voluntarily suspend our rollout until the causal relationship between the development of clots and the Johnson and Johnson vaccine is sufficiently interrogated, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said in a statement

The median compensation, excluding long-term incentives, for owner-promoter CEOs is Rs 15 crore, Rs 12.92 crore for a Sensex CEO, and Rs 3.63 crore for CEOs at Indian private firms

Although a general war between the two countries is unlikely, crises between India and Pakistan are likely to become more fervid, risking an escalatory cycle, the US intelligence community has told Congress in a report

The vaccine maker said the six-month follow-up of its original late-stage study of the vaccine showed that vaccine efficacy remained consistent with its previous updates