Srinagar: With a spike of 70,068 cases recorded in the last 24 hours, the COVID tally in India jumped to 3,043,436. The death toll in the country has reached 56, 706.
Meanwhile, the government of India has asked all states to ensure that there should be no restrictions on the inter-state and intra-state movement of persons and goods during the ongoing unlocking process.
In a communication to chief secretaries of all states and Union Territories, Home Secretary of India Ajay Bhalla said there were reports that local level restrictions on movement were being imposed by various districts and states.
Worldwide the caseload from the deadly infection reached 23,359,690 as the United States continues to be the worst hit by the pandemic.
In the meantime, the government of India has released the SoPs for film and television shooting in India amid the COVID outbreak.
“I am happy to announce that we are releasing standard operating procedure for film and TV programme shooting. The shooting of films and tv serials can be resumed now while following the norms of social distancing and wearing of masks except for the people who are being recorded on camera,” Prakash Javadekar, Minister for Information and Broadcasting in India said.
Currently, there are over 150 coronavirus vaccines in various stages of development in several countries with a few making advanced progress in clinical trials.
Earlier, Russia announced that the country has already produced the first batch of its COVID vaccine.
In India, a Pune based vaccine manufacturer, the Serum Institute of India (SII) has decided to manufacture 100 million COVID vaccine doses which will be capped at Rs 225 per dose.
While the Oxford coronavirus vaccine and a Chinese vaccine showing positive results in the first round of human trials, the Moderna has shown positive results among mice and developed immunity against the disease upon testing.
India’s Covaxin, developed by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech has also entered the human trial stage and is expected to come out with results in a month.
Pertinently, on August 15, the Prime Minister of India said that three probable COVID vaccines are currently being developed in India and large-scale production will begin as soon as scientists give a green signal.
The Prime Minister paid tribute to all the frontline workers involved in India’s fight against the pandemic.
However, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned world governments against “vaccine nationalism” and urged leaders to make plans on how to share life-saving inoculations against coronavirus.
WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the threat of COVID can only be snuffed out with global coordination, especially when a vaccine is developed.
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