Coronavirus News Highlights: Russia's Sputnik V vaccine 91.6% effective in late-stage trial

The first phase of census and updation of NPR have been postponed due to the outbreak of COVID-19, the government told the Lok Sabha on February 2.

In a written reply, Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai said the government has decided to conduct Census 2021 under the Census Act, 1948 in two phases - House listing and Housing Census during April-September 2020 and Population Enumeration during February 9 to 28, 2021.

He said it was also decided to update the National Population Register (NPR) under the Citizenship Act, 1955 along with the first phase of the Census.

He added: “Due to the outbreak of COVID-19, the first phase of census, updation of NPR and other related field activities have been postponed.” -- ANI

The cumulative number of healthcare workers vaccinated against COVID-19 has crossed 41 lakhs on February 2: Union Health Ministry

“India is a key partner in terms of production of vaccine & we do expect that there will be restricted emergency use order for Sputnik V vaccine this month or next. After that we will be able to start our vaccine delivery to India”: Kirill Dmitriev, Russian Direct Investment Fund, told news agency ANI on February 2.

The number of rhinos killed in South Africa’s national parks dropped by 33 percent last year, with COVID-19 restrictions helping by reducing movements around the country, the country’s environmental ministry announced on February 1.

According to authorities, 394 rhinoceroses were poached for their horns compared to 594 that were killed in 2019.

“During the COVID hard lockdown period we had a significant reduction in poacher incursions into Kruger National Park,” Minister Barbara Creecy announced in a statement.

Russia’s single-day increase in COVID-19 cases fell below 17,000 for the first time since October 28, 2020, with 16,643 new infections being reported in the past 24 hours, the response centre said on February 2.

“Over the past day, 16,643 coronavirus cases were confirmed across 85 regions, including 1,597 cases (9.6 percent) that were detected actively, with people showing no clinical symptoms,” the centre said, adding that the cumulative case count has now reached 3,884,730 with the rate of increase at 0.43 percent.

German pharmaceutical company BioNTech and United States-based pharma giant Pfizer will be increasing their manufacturing capacity to produce two billion doses of COVID-19 vaccine in 2021 in view of a global surge in demand.

BioNTech said: “To respond to an increased global demand, we plan to manufacture two billion doses of our COVID-19 vaccine in 2021 by expanding the previously expected output of 1.3 billion doses by more than 50 percent.”

Russia's Sputnik V vaccine was 91.6% effective in preventing people from developing COVID-19, according to peer-reviewed results from its late-stage clinical trial published in The Lancet international medical journal on February 2.

Scientists said the Phase III trial results meant the world had another effective weapon to fight the deadly pandemic and justified to some extent Moscow's decision to roll out the vaccine before final data had been released.

The results, collated by the Gamaleya Institute in Moscow that developed and tested the vaccine, were in line with efficacy data reported at earlier stages of the trial, which has been running in Moscow since September.

Dubai has ordered the closure of bars and pubs until the end of the month to suppress a spike in coronavirus cases after tourists flocked to the emirates over the holiday period.

The closures, effective from February 2, are among a raft of steps “taken in response to rising violations of preventive measures,” authorities said in a statement.

Indoor venues, including cinemas and sports venues, will have their capacity cut by half. Additionally, shopping malls, hotels, swimming pools, and private beaches, will have to operate at 70 percent of capacity, and restaurants and cafes will have to be closed by 1.00 am.

The pandemic-postponed Olympics will go ahead this summer “however the coronavirus evolves”, Tokyo 2020 President Yoshiro Mori said on February 2, brushing aside doubts about the event.

“We will certainly go ahead however the coronavirus (pandemic) evolves,” he told a meeting of Olympic organisers and members of Japan's ruling party in Tokyo.

Classroom teaching in Odisha universities and colleges for 2020-21 pre-Final Year UG/First Year PG students will start from February 10, 2021, the Odisha government announced on February 2.

Children want to go back to schools and colleges, but parents & teachers are worried. Since vaccines are here, we hope we will be able to open schools soon. We will start the process of nursery admission soon: Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal

About 1,500 of the initial volunteers in a late-stage clinical trial of the Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine were given the wrong dose but were not informed that a mistake had been made after the blunder was discovered, documents obtained by Reuters show.

Instead, the dosing mishap was presented to the trial participants in a letter dated June 8 as an opportunity for University of Oxford researchers to learn how well the vaccine works at different doses. The letter was signed by the trial’s chief investigator, Oxford professor Andrew J Pollard, and sent to the trial subjects.

As Reuters reported on December 24, participants were given about a half dose due to a measuring mistake by Oxford researchers. The Pollard letter did not acknowledge any error. Nor did it disclose that researchers had reported the issue to British medical regulators, who then told Oxford to add another test group to receive the full dose, in line with the trial’s original plan.

At 62.18%, Southwest Delhi district reported maximum seroprevalence, North Delhi (49.09 %) lowest, says Health Minister Satyendar Jain