As educational institutes reopen and offices turn away from working from home, over the past week, India has started upholding an upward trajectory of cases.
Number of cases
On Thursday, India recorded 47,029 coronavirus cases and 509 deaths in the last 24 hours ending at 8 AM. Along with this, the country’s overall caseload rose to 3.28 crore (3,28,57,937) and the death toll rose to 4.39 lakh (4,39,529).
Presently, the total number of active cases stands at 3.89 lakh (3,89,583). Out of the new cases and deaths reported, Kerala reported 32,803 fresh cases and 173 deaths yesterday.
As per the Centre’s data, in 24hours, 81,09,244 people got vaccinated against the Covid-19 virus. Cumulatively, 66,30,37,334 have been immunized against Covid-19 to date.
Young population lives are at stake
The young population, the main sensitive target during the third wave and is yet to be vaccinated, however, Schools and Colleges have started opening in almost all the states or have put on notice regarding the reopening which might have resulted in a spike of cases of infections.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) said that it is closely monitoring a new coronavirus “variant of interest” named Mu, and warns that the new variant shows signs of possible resistance to vaccines, as reported by PTI.
In January 2021, Colombia, the new variant was first identified and since then, there have been “sporadic reports” of cases and some larger outbreaks in Europe and South America.
Clinical Trials for anti-COVID shots on children
However, the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) has approved permission amid the rise in Covid-19 cases to Hyderabad-based Biological E Limited to conduct Phase 2 and 3 clinical trials for its anti-COVID shots called Corbevax on children between 5 and 18 years.
Biological E, if passes the trial, would become the third coronavirus vaccine for children after Zydus Cadila’s ZyCoV-D which is predicted to be released in October.
At this moment, however, the trials of Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin COVID-19 vaccine for phases 2 and 3 for children are underway, and its result is expected in September. Also, the government has made an advance payment of ₹1,500 crores to Biological E for 30 crore vaccines.
