-Financial Express If patents continue to determine global access to vaccines and drugs, then fighting Covid-19 will remain a distant dream for most countries Vaccines are badly required by the world, as are drugs like Remdesivir and Tocilizumab, and medical equipment like ventilators and oxygen concentrators. A large number of countries, particularly low- and middle-income ones, are struggling to access vaccines, drugs and equipment. There cannot be a more important occasion than the...

In the month of April this year, there has been an unprecedented upsurge in daily new cases and daily new deaths in the country due to Covid-19. States, which reported large increases in daily new cases and daily new deaths, are Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, to name but a few.   Data accessed from https://www.covid19india.org/, which is a crowdsourced platform and an independent aggregator of daily Covid-19 figures and...

-The Indian Express International TV channels have run visuals of waiting ambulances and patients outside hospitals, and cremations to underline India's lack of preparedness. Mumbai: In a virtual meeting with Indian ambassadors and high commissioners posted across the world, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday conveyed the message that the “one-sided” narrative in international media — that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government had failed the country by their “incompetent”...

-TheNewsMinute.com The scientists said that they have received partial funding and permission for implementing systematic surveillance of new variants of Coronavirus. Over 300 scientists from across India, including renowned names like Prof LS Shashidhara (Professor of Biology, IISER Pune and Ashoka University) and Prof Partha Majumder (National Science Chair, Government of India), have requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take steps to open access to various data in order to transparency in...

-The Hindu Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee, in an observation, said there can’t be adhocism in dealing with a pandemic Chief Justice of the Madras High Court Sanjib Banerjee on Thursday wondered what the Centre was doing for the last 12 to 14 months without anticipating the second wave of COVID-19 and getting prepared to face it. Referring to desperate measures being taken when the wave was at its peak now, he said...