The anti-COVID-19 vaccines by US pharma majors Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson (J&J) that are being used in South Africa are more effective against the Delta variant of the coronavirus than the Beta strain, experts have said.

The Beta variant, which was first detected in South Africa, caused a second wave at the beginning of this year whereas the Delta variant, first detected in India, is driving the current third wave in South Africa, resulting in increased lockdown restrictions as the number of infections and deaths have already surpassed those of the previous two waves.

After Tirath Singh Rawat tendered his resignation as Uttarakhand Chief Minister, state BJP president Madan Kaushik on Saturday that the new chief minister is likely to be a sitting MLA.

Speaking to ANI, Kaushik said that the new BJP legislature party leader will be elected at the legislature party meeting today.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has once again summoned former Maharashtra Hone Minister and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Anil Deshmukh for questioning on July 5 in connection with the alleged bribery charges. This is the third summon to Deshmukh in a week.

An ED source related to probe said that the financial probe agency has summoned Deshmukh to record his statement on July 5.

After 43,99,298 vaccine doses were administered in the last 24 hours, India's cumulative vaccination coverage increased to 34.46 crores, according to the Union Health Ministry on Saturday.

A total of 34,46,11,291 vaccine doses have been administered through 45,60,088 sessions, as per the provisional report till 7 am today.

Telangana Congress leader Marri Shashidhar Reddy on Thursday urged the Central government to hold simultaneous delimitation of constituencies in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh alongside Jammu and Kashmir.

Speaking to ANI, Reddy said, The process of delimitation will be subject to the provisions of Article 170 of Indian Constitution after August 5, 2019 and prior to that date, the delimitation of constituencies was subject to the state constitution of Jammu and Kashmir and to the Jammu and Kashmir State Representation of People's Act of 1957.

New research found that certain factors, such as a history of severe pain episodes and coexisting organ conditions, increase the risk of severe COVID-19 illness, including hospitalization, in individuals living with sickle cell disease (SCD).

The study published in the journal Blood Advances underscores the need for COVID-19 risk reduction strategies and vaccination for this medically vulnerable population.

The Centre on Friday deputed multi-disciplinary teams to Kerala, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Manipur in view of the high number of COVID-19 cases being reported by these states.

Teams will be supporting the states in their efforts to carry out a targeted Covid response and management, and effectively tackling the pandemic, a Union Health Ministry statement said.

India saw a single-day rise of 46,617 new coronavirus infections, taking the tally of COVID-19 cases to 3,04,58,251, while the national recovery rate has crossed 97 per cent, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Friday.

The death toll due to COVID-19 rose to 4,00,312 with 853 daily fatalities.

The Karnataka government on Thursday said that passengers from Kerala with at least one dose of COVID 19 vaccine certificates will be exempted from producing negative RT-PCR reports, as the state has taken special surveillance measures for people coming from Kerala.

According to the order regarding special surveillance measures for persons arriving from Kerala, vaccination certificate of having received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine will be exempted form producing RT-PCR certificate.

The coronavirus has killed six fully vaccinated people in the Seychelles, which is suffering heightened Covid-19 infections despite inoculating a greater proportion of its people than any other nation.

Of those, five had taken Covishield, a version of the AstraZeneca Plc vaccine made in India, and one had been given Sinopharm, Jude Gedeon, the island nation’s public health commissioner said at a press conference on Thursday. Covishield has mainly been reserved for people over 60 in the Seychelles.

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