Indian Navy holds passage exercise with ‘USS Nimitz’ carrier group
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Indian naval ships conducted a Passage Exercise (PASSEX) with the United States Navy’s USS Nimitz carrier strike group near the Andaman and Nicobar (A&N) Islands as it is transiting the Indian Ocean. The exercise comes amidst high alert by the Navy in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) due to the ongoing stand-off with China along the border in Ladakh.
Key details:
- The rendezvous by the ships was done on 21 July. As part of this, four Indian naval ships, including a stealth corvette, teamed up with USS Nimitz and three other U.S. ships in the Eastern Indian Ocean near the A&N islands.
- With regular large-scale exercises deferred due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the India Navy has recently undertaken several PASSEXs, which officials described as an opportunity to improve interoperability on the high seas.
- USS Nimitz, the U.S. Navy’s largest aircraft carrier, is returning from the South China Sea through the Malacca Straits, where it recently conducted integrated operations along with the USS Ronald Reagancarrier strike group to support, what the U.S. Navy’s 7th Fleet said, “a free and open Indo-Pacific, and promote an international rules-based order wherein each country can reach its potential without sacrificing national sovereignty.”
- “The Nimitz Carrier Strike Group is transiting through IOR. During the passage, Indian Navy units undertook PASSEX with the U.S. Navy. The Indian Navy had conducted similar PASSEXs with the Japanese Navy and the French Navy in the recent past,” the Indian Navy said. Last week, ships under the Eastern Naval Command conducted exercises in the Bay of Bengal off the A&N islands.
- On June 27, JS Kashima and JS Shimayuki from the Japanese Maritime Self Defence Force (JMSDF) training squadron conducted a PASSEX with INS Ranaand INS Kulish in the Indian Ocean.
- In a message on Twitter, JMSDF had said that it had “promoted mutual understanding with the Indian Navy through this exercise.”
- The Navy is keeping a close watch on the movement in the IOR of Chinese naval ships, whose presence has gone up considerably over the years in the name of anti-piracy patrols.
- In 2017, China opened its first overseas military base in Djibouti in the Horn of Africa.
- Given their strategic location, India is also undertaking a major infrastructure expansion plans on the A&N island chain. As reported by The Hindu, India is also close to taking a decision on inviting Australia for the Malabar trilateral naval exercise with Japan and the U.S.
Pune firm to make billion doses of Oxford vaccine
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Mains: Science and technology- developments and their applications and effects in everyday life.
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Stating that just a few million doses of the vaccine to combat the novel coronavirus will not be enough for India, Dr. Cyrus Poonawalla, Chairman of the Poonawalla Group, which includes the Serum Institute of India (SII), on Tuesday said that the SII was committed to manufacture at least one billion doses of the University of Oxford’s COVID-19 vaccine after getting required approvals.
Key details:
- Commenting on the possibilities of setbacks in terms of productivity and output of the eagerly-anticipated vaccine, Dr. Poonawalla said: “We [the SII] have come at a stage where chances of failure [of the Oxford vaccine project] look remote as we are spending more than $100 million for this facility. If we get the approvals and trials are completed successfully to ensure a safe and efficacious vaccine, then lots of companies will manufacture it and India will be the largest producer of the COVID vaccine in the world.”
- With the trials of the SII’s COVID-19 vaccine being developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University showing encouraging results, Adar Poonawalla, CEO of the Serum Institute of India (SII) had earlier said at least 300 million doses of the potential vaccine named ‘Covishield’ would be ready by December this year.
- “We are in the process of applying for a licence to start clinical trials of the vaccine, after which we will start manufacturing the vaccine in large volumes. For that, we might have to hold back our work on other products,” said Dr. Cyrus Poonawalla, speaking during an online discussion organised by the women’s wing of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).
- “Phase 1 of the clinical trial is over and Phases 2 and 3 are underway in Austria…the vaccine will be ready by December this year. We want to make it available at the lowest price possible so that even the poor can afford it. Besides India, we also want to make it available to places like Africa,” Dr. Poonawalla said.
- Stating that there was no evidence thus far of the mutation of the COVID-19 virus and that the theory ought not be taken seriously, Dr. Poonawala said he strongly advocated the use of SII’s recombitant Bacille Calmette-Guerian (BCG) vaccine for everyone as it was “an immunity booster with no side-effects and was better than Homeopathy medicines.”
- He also said that the SII had requested the Central government to give permission to make the first dispensation of the vaccine for its employees who were at high risk of contracting the virus.
AIIMS to start phase-1 testing of indigenous COVID-19 vaccine
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Mains: Science and technology- developments and their applications and effects in everyday life.
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All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), announced that it will start screening volunteers for phase-1 testing of the indigenous COVID-19 vaccine, Covaxin, on healthy persons aged 18-55, without co-morbidities.
Key points:
- AIIMS, Delhi is among 12 sites listed by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) cleared to conduct human trials of Covaxin, developed by Bharat Biotech.
- ICMR is a collaborator on the Covaxin vaccine project.
- “Safety of those recruited will be a prime concern during the study. We should be able to make available the data within about two to three months. And we expect that if everything goes well the vaccine should be ready by the end of this year or early next year,’’ said AIIMS director Randeep Guleria at a press conference.
- He added that the Southeast Asian region is seeing a relatively lower COVID-19 mortality. “The mortality rate is much lower than what happened in Italy and Spain or what is happening in the United States,” he said.
- Stating that there is not much evidence of community transmission at national level, Dr. Guleria said certain areas, like Delhi, seem to have hit their COVID-19 case peak. The national capital is now seeing a stabilisation and decline in the number of cases, he said, adding, “But there are hotspots and we still cannot let our guards down.”
- “In cities where there is spike of cases, it is likely that local community transmission in those areas is happening,” Dr Guleria said.
- Speaking about COVID re-lapse and expected COVID surge during monsoon and winter season, Dr. Guleria said not enough data is currently available to say for certain that there is a re-lapse in patients.
- “While there is evidence that some virus spread more during these seasons we can’t say for certain what path COVID will take. We are also seeing a minor mutation in the virus which seems to have made it more infectious but less severe,” he said.
Trials at Hyderabad
- Phase-1 human trials also began at the Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) in Hyderabad, with two healthy volunteers administered the first dose of Covaxin.
- “Health condition of the volunteers will be monitored for six months,” said doctors involved in the clinical trials.
- Doctors said the main focus of monitoring will be to check whether antibodies are generated in the volunteers, amount of time it took for the antibodies to kick-in, and how long they last in the body.
- A second dose of the vaccine will be given to them after a gap of 14 days.
- NIMS is one among the 12 institutions involved in COVID vaccine trials, as listed by the ICMR. Dr. Prabhakar Reddy is the principal investigator of the clinical trials at NIMS.
- Apart from faculty and senior residents from the Department of Clinical Pharmacology, doctors from General Medicine, Anaesthesia, and Respiratory Medicine too are involved in the clinical trials.
- The potential vaccine is derived from a strain of SARS-COV-2 isolated by National Institute of Virology, Pune. The inactivated vaccine candidate was developed by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech India Ltd (BBIL). They received the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) nod on June 29 for Phase-1 and Phase-2 clinical trials.
- On July 2, ICMR Director General Balram Bhargava sent a letter to heads of the 12 institutes that their institute was chosen as a clinical trial site for the vaccine. They were strictly advised to ensure that the subject enrolment was initiated not later than July 7.
- Around 12 days ago, NIMS director K Manohar said that they were screening the subjects and that the vaccine doses will be administered after receiving ICMR approval. More volunteers will be administered the doses in the coming days. Doctors are expecting around 60 to 80 volunteers at NIMS.
U.S. leading the world in COVID-19 testing, India second: Trump
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Mains: Science and technology- developments and their applications and effects in everyday life.
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The United States is leading the world in terms of COVID-19 testing and India is at second position, President Donald Trump said while giving an update on his administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Key points:
- So far more than 140,000 Americans have died due to coronavirus and 3.8 million have tested positive. While the US economy is slowly coming back to normal, the pandemic is now spreading in the Sun Belt of the country.
- “As one family, we mourn every precious life that’s been lost. I pledge in their honour that we will develop a vaccine and we will defeat the virus. We’re doing very well with vaccine development and therapeutic development, “ Mr. Trump said at a White House news conference on Tuesday.
- Trump also said his administration will stop at nothing to save lives and shield the vulnerable.
- “We’ve learned so much about this disease. And we know who the vulnerable are, and we are going to indeed shield them,” he said.
- The American President assured that the vaccines against the novel coronavirus will be coming a lot sooner than expected.
- Replying to a question, Mr. Trump said the S. is leading the world” in terms of COVID-19 testing.
- “We’re going to be over 50 million tests,” he said, adding that “second country is India with 12 million (tests). Then you have seven million, six million, and four million. I think that we are doing a tremendous amount of testing.
- The “China virus”, Mr. Trump said, is a vicious and dangerous illness.
- It’s a nasty, horrible disease that should’ve never been allowed to escape China, but it did. It infected the world, and the world is suffering. But we’re going to get it taken care of, and we’re helping lots of other countries, the U.S. President said.
- On tackling the virus, Mr. Trump said his administration is developing a powerful strategy.
- “We’ve learned a great deal about it (COVID-19) and who it targets. We are in the process of developing a strategy that’s going to be very, very powerful,” he said.
- Some areas of our country are doing very well; others are doing less well. It will probably, unfortunately, get worse before it gets better, Mr. Trump said.
- He said the median age of those who succumb to COVID-19 infection is 78 years, adding that roughly half of all deaths have been individuals in nursing homes or in long-term care.
- Young adults may often have mild or even no symptoms. They won’t even know they’re sick. They won’t have any idea that they have a virus. They won’t have any idea at all, he said, adding that youth will act responsibly.
- Trump said the data shows children have the lowest fatality risk as 99.96 per cent of all virus fatalities are adults.
- By understanding these risk profiles and learning how to treat the disease, we’ve been able to greatly reduce mortality in the United States, Mr. Trump said.
- Several treatments are already available in the US that can significantly reduce the severity and duration of the disease, including remdesivir, he said.
- We’ve learned best practices for treatment of the virus at every stage and have shared these findings with medical providers, and we’ve shared them all over the world. The relationship with other countries has been very strong. We’re all working together,” Mr. Trump said.