LEAD

Central government has decided to procure Covid-19 vaccines for everyone aged 18-44 and supply them to states free of cost, said PM Narendra Modi. "India will defeat Corona," the Prime Minister said during a virtual address to the nation on Monday.

"Today, it has been decided that the central government will take over the 25 per cent vaccination procurement that was handed over to states," said PM Modi.

In May of this year, the Centre had issued a revised vaccine procurement policy allowing states to buy 25 per cent of all vaccines produced directly from the manufacturers. Out of the remaining 75 per cent, 50 per cent of vaccines were earmarked for central procurement and the other 25 per cent for private hospitals.

Covishield triggered more antibodies than Covaxin, claims a preprint of the first Indian study involving doctors and nurses who received both doses of either of the two Covid-19 vaccines. The study by Dr AK Singh and his colleagues states that both vaccines elicited a good immune response.

Unpublished data had earlier indicated that Covishield was found to be 70 per cent effective after the first dose. At the same time, preliminary data from its phase 3 trial put Covaxin's efficacy rate at 81 per cent.

"Among 515 healthcare workers (305 male, 210 female), 95 per cent showed seropositivity (higher antibodies) after two doses of both vaccines. Of the 425 Covishield and 90 Covaxin recipients, 98.1 per cent and 80 per cent, respectively, showed seropositivity," says the study.

New Delhi:  The government on Saturday issued a notice to Twitter giving it one last chance to “immediately" comply with the new IT rules and warned that failure to adhere to the norms will lead to the platform losing exemption from liability under the IT Act. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) said that Twitter’s refusal to comply with the rules demonstrated the microblogging site’s “lack of commitment and efforts towards providing a safe experience for the people of India on its platform".

“Despite being operational in India for more than a decade, it is beyond belief that Twitter Inc has doggedly refused to create mechanism that will enable the people of India to resolve their issues on the platform in a timely and transparent manner and through fair processes, by India based, clearly identified resources," the IT ministry said.

A 'Make in India' project worth ₹ 43,000 crore to build six conventional submarines has been cleared by the Defence Acquisition Council, headed by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, the government said in a statement today.

The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) has approved a request for proposal (RFP) for the project to be run under 'strategic partnership mode' - the first such military hardware acquisition project under this model, according to the government.

US Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday spoke to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and informed him about the United States' global allocation plan of the first 25 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines. Apart from PM Modi, Harris spoke to Mexico President Andres Manuel López Obrador, Guatemala President Alejandro Giammattei and Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Keith Row.

"In four separate calls, the Vice President notified each of the leaders that the Biden-Harris Administration will begin sharing the first 25 million doses of Covid vaccines to their respective countries and others, as part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s framework for sharing at least 80 million vaccines globally by the end of June," Senior advisor and chief spokesperson Symone Sanders said in a statement on Harris's calls with foreign leaders.