
Vaccine Maker Adar Poonawalla Recommends Booster For Elderly
“Currently, the Covid strain is not severe, it’s just a mild strain. Just for precautionary measures, elderly people can get the booster dose, but it would be their choice whether or not to take it. Five to six million doses of Covovax are available. We will also produce the same amount of Covishield doses in the next two to three months,” said Poonawalla.
“We are providing Covovax in the US and Europe. It is the only COVID vaccine made in India which is approved in the US and Europe. Currently, the demand is very small,” Poonawalla added.
#WATCH | “We have produced 5-6 million doses as stock, current demand is zero in all hospitals. Current variants ar… t.co/kBSfYKw1EX
— ANI (@ANI) Apr 22, 2023
India has recorded 12,193 fresh COVID-19 cases in a span of 24 hours, with the number of active cases of the infection going up to 67,556, the Union health ministry said today.
XBB.1.16 Is Now A ‘Variant Of Interest’
the WHO noted that although there has been a “slight increase” in XBB.1.16-related hospitalisation in India and Indonesia, the levels are “much lower than seen in previous variant waves”. Further, “available information does not suggest that XBB.1.16 has additional public health risk relative to XBB.1.5 and the other currently circulating Omicron descendent lineages.
So far, 3,648 sequences of the Omicron XBB.1.16 variant have been reported from 33 countries, including India, on open research platform GISAID, the global health body said.
“Following a sustained increase in the prevalence of XBB.1.16 and growth advantage reported from several countries, WHO classifies XBB.1.16 as a VOI,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, technical lead for Covid-19 response at WHO on Friday.