-The Hindu Official secrecy on pandemic policies aggravates a crisis In August 2020, the Modi government constituted the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19 (NEGVAC) as a nodal agency on all matters related to vaccine administration and rollout. Asked under the Right to Information (RTI) Act for details of the NEGVAC’s meetings, the Health Ministry, which anchors the expert group, replied that it does not know where the concerned documents...

-The Telegraph Researchers will document the vaccination status of infected patients admitted with severe disease at 11 sites across the country Medical researchers have launched India’s first study to measure the real-world effectiveness of Covishield and COVAXin by documenting the vaccination status of Covid-19 patients admitted with severe disease at 11 sites across the country. The study by the National Institute of Epidemiology (NIE), Chennai, a unit of the Indian Council of Medical...

-The Hindu It officially objected to affixing nationality to the virus variant later The government used the term “Indian double mutant strain” in an affidavit filed in the Supreme Court just days before it officially objected to affixing nationality to the virus variant. A May 9 affidavit refers to “Indian double mutant strain” while detailing the steps taken by the Indian Council of Medical Research and the National Institute of Virology to develop...

-The Tribune Cabinet also approves purchase of COVAXin for 18-44 category industrial workers The Punjab government on Thursday decided to join the COVAX facility alliance for global sourcing and procurement of Covid vaccines at the best price, becoming the first state to take such a step amid vaccine shortage in the country. The decision was taken during the Cabinet meeting, which also approved the purchase of COVAXin for industrial workers, for whose vaccination...

-The Hindu Current price negotiated through bulk orders may not be replicable: Finance Secy The first lot of vaccines were procured by the Centre using PM CARES funds at a higher rate than the subsequent rounds paid for by budgetary allocations, The Hindu has learnt from the response to a Right to Information request by a transparency activist. The Health Ministry response said that the initial 5.6 crore doses of Covishield were bought...