Covid-19 India update: Registering a further decline in Covid-19 cases in the country, the Union Health Ministry on Monday reported that India logged 4,362 fresh Covid-19 cases today, taking the total Covid-19 cases to 42.97 million. Additionally, India on Monday reported a steep decline in Covid-19 deaths, logging 66 Covid-19 deaths in the last 24 hours, as per Health Ministry data.
The country's active caseload currently stands at 54,118. It accounts for 0.13% of total cases, as per government data. Although the fresh Covid-19 cases witnessed a dip since yesterday, the daily positivity rate slightly to 0.71% from 0.60% on Sunday. The weekly positivity rate is 0.73%.
In the last 24 hours, 9,620 people recovered from the infection taking the cumulative recoveries to 4,23,98,095. Consequently, the recovery rate is at 98.68 per cent. With 6,12,926 tests conducted in the last 24 hours, the total tests conducted so far rose to 77.34 crores.
Meanwhile, in the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination drive, 178.90 crore vaccine doses have been administered so far to eligible beneficiaries. Notably, India's vaccination drive against the virus commenced on January 16, 2021.
Meanwhile, an expert panel of India's central drug authority has recommended permission for conducting a phase-3 clinical trial of Covid vaccine Covovax as a booster dose in adults, official sources said on Sunday.
The Drugs Controller General Of India (DCGI) has already approved Covovax for restricted use in emergency situations in adults on December 28. It is yet to be included in the country's inoculation programme.
The Subject Expert Committee on COVID-19 of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation had on Friday recommended giving permission for conducting a phase-3 clinical trial of the single-dose COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik Light as a booster dose.
In February, Director, Government and Regulatory Affairs at Serum Institute of India, Prakash Kumar Singh had sought from DCGI nod to conduct a phase-3, observer-blind, randomized, controlled study to evaluate the safety and immunogenicity of Covovax as a booster dose in adults who were vaccinated with Covishield or Covaxin at least 3 months ago, an official source had said.
Singh had stated many countries have already started administering booster doses to their citizens considering the uncertainties of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"We are sure that your approval for conducting this clinical trial will ensure early availability of Covovax for booster dose use for people of our country as well as the world at large in line with our prime minister's vision of 'Making in India for the World'.
"Our firm is committed to providing world-class life-saving vaccines at an affordable price under the visionary leadership of our CEO Adar C Poonawalla. We request you to kindly grant us permission to conduct a phase-3 clinical trial for booster dose of Covovax in Indian adults," Singh is learnt to have stated in the application.
Covovax is manufactured by technology transfer from Novavax. It has been approved by the European Medicines Agency for conditional marketing authorisation and has also been granted emergency use listing by WHO.
In August 2020, the US-based vaccine maker Novavax Inc had announced a licence agreement with Serum Institute of India for the development and commercialisation of NVX-CoV2373, its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, in low and middle-income countries and India.
