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The Indian Council of Medical Research Director General Dr Rajiv Bahl on Monday criticised a recently published study on the long-term safety analysis of the <keyword id="9485939" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="covaxin" source="Orion">Covaxin</keyword> in adults and adolescents for its poor methodology and design, and clarified the article misleadingly and erroneously "acknowledges" <keyword id="19918794" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="ICMR" source="keywords">ICMR</keyword>. Dr Bahl said the study had no control arm of unvaccinated individuals for comparing the rates of events between the vaccinated and unvaccinated groups. Hence, the reported events in the study cannot be linked or attributed to COVID-19 vaccination. He added that the ICMR is not associated with the study and has not provided any financial or technical support for the research. The ICMR DG has written a letter to the authors of the paper and Editor of the journal to immediately remove the acknowledgement to ICMR and publish an erratum. A research paper, titled 'Long-Term Safety Analysis of the BBVl52 <keyword id="21730391" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="coronavirus-vaccine" source="keywords">Coronavirus Vaccine</keyword> in Adolescents and Adults: Findings from a l-Year Prospective Study in North India' stated that nearly one-third of the 926 participants in the study who received Bharat Biotech's anti-Covid vaccine Covaxin reported 'adverse events of special interest,' or AESI. Dr Bahl said that ICMR was acknowledged for research support without any prior approval of or intimation to ICMR, which is inappropriate and unacceptable. He stated that ICMR cannot be associated with this poorly designed study which purports to present a "safety analysis" of Covaxin due to several critical flaws. He said the study does not even provide background rates of observed events in the population, making it impossible to assess the change in incidence of observed events in the post-vaccination period. Baseline information of study participants is missing. The study tool used is inconsistent with 'Adverse Events of Special Interest (AESI)' as defined in the reference provided in the paper for AESI. The method of data collection has a high risk of bias, he said. Study participants were contacted telephonically one year after vaccination and their responses were recorded without any confirmation with clinical records or by physician examination, he pointed out. Dr Bahl also noted that similar acknowledgements to ICMR have been made in previous papers without permission, raising concerns about the authors' practices. "The authors have been urged to immediately rectify the acknowledgment to ICMR and publish an erratum. Additionally, they are asked to address the methodological concerns raised. Failure to do so may prompt ICMR to consider legal and administrative action," he said. The Editor has been asked to retract the paper which implicitly makes conclusions on <keyword id="21495684" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="vaccine-safety" source="keywords">vaccine safety</keyword> which are not supported by evidence. The study, conducted by researchers from the Banaras Hindu University from January 2022 to August 2023, stated that nearly 50 per cent of 926 study participants in the study complained of infections during the follow-up period, predominated by viral upper respiratory tract infections. Serious AESI, which included stroke and Guillain-Barre syndrome, were reported in one per cent of individuals, the study, which looked at long-term safety of the BBV152 (Covaxin) vaccine in adolescents and adults, claimed. The study involved 635 adolescents and 291 adults, who received the BBV152 vaccine.

BHU study on Covaxin side effects poorly designed, critically flawed: ICMR Director General

<keyword id="21333142" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="Indias-population" source="keywords">India's population</keyword> is projected to peak in the early 2060s at about <keyword id="22386427" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="1-7-billion" source="keywords">1.7 billion</keyword> and then decline by 12%, but the country will remain the world's most populous throughout the century, the <keyword id="19896118" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="United-Nations" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="United Nations" meta.hostid="153" meta.entityid="United Nations">United Nations</keyword> has said. The World Population Prospects 2024 report, released on Thursday, said that the world's population is expected to continue growing over the coming 50-60 years, reaching a peak of around 10.3 billion people in the mid-2080s, significantly up from 8.2 billion in 2024. After peaking, the global population is projected to start declining gradually, falling to 10.2 billion people by the end of the century. India, which surpassed <keyword id="19894886" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="China" source="keywords">China</keyword> as the world's most populous nation last year, will continue to hold that position through 2100. "The population of India, which is expected to remain the world's largest throughout the century, will likely decline by 12% after reaching its peak in the early 2060s at about 1.7 billion," the <keyword id="19898339" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="UN" source="keywords">UN</keyword> report published by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), <keyword id="271075" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="population-division" source="Orion">Population Division</keyword> said. According to the report, India's population in 2024 is projected at 1.45 billion and this will peak to 1.69 billion in 2054. After this, India's population is projected to decline to 1.5 billion by the end of the century in 2100, but the country will still remain the most populous nation on Earth. Responding to a question by PTI on population projections for India, Senior Population Affairs Officer, Population Division, <keyword id="6355835" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="un" source="Orion">UN</keyword> DESA Clare Menozzi said at a press conference that "India is currently the largest country in the world in terms of population, and it is projected to stay so throughout the century. The population is currently estimated at 1.45 billion, and it's supposed to increase further to 1.69 billion. "It's supposed to peak around the 2060s in size and then it starts to slightly decline. So by the end of the century, India is projected to be around 1.5 billion, but will still the largest country in the world by a large margin." The report said that China's population, currently 1.41 billion in 2024, will fall to 1.21 billion in 2054 and further decline to 633 million by 2100. "It is anticipated that China, the country currently with the world's second-largest population, will likely experience the largest absolute population loss between 2024 and 2054 (204 million)," followed by <keyword id="6355311" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Japan" source="Orion">Japan</keyword> (21 million) and <keyword id="6358826" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Russia" source="Orion">Russia</keyword> (10 million). "Longer-range population projections are more uncertain" for China, it said. "However, due to its large size and sustained low level of fertility, China is also likely to record the largest population decline of any country through the end of the century (786 million people). By 2100, China is projected to have lost more than a half of its current population and to have returned to a population size comparable to that recorded in the late 1950s (50% probability)." Responding to a question on the significantly low population projection for China, Director of the Population Division at UN DESA John Wilmoth said that "it really relates to the level of fertility that's observed currently in China. The current number is right around one birth per woman on average over a lifetime." "Given that you need 2.1 births to maintain the current population without migration, if fertility levels remain at such a low level, even if they come up slightly, any fertility level if it's below two, or especially below 1.8 or below 1.5, you're really getting into low levels of fertility and it produces a long run decline that's quite significant. And that's true for China. It's true for some other countries in this analysis," Wilmoth said. Currently, nearly one-fifth of all countries and areas, including China, Italy, the Republic of Korea and Spain, are experiencing what is sometimes referred to as "ultra-low" fertility, with fewer than 1.4 live births per woman over a lifetime. The report added that the global fertility rate currently stands at 2.25 live births per woman, down from 3.31 births in 1990. "More than half of all countries and areas globally have fertility below the replacement level of 2.1 live births per woman. This is the level required for a population to maintain a constant size in the long run (without migration), with each generation being followed by another of roughly equal size," it said. Pakistan is projected to overtake the US as the third-largest country in the world, with a population of 389 million in 2054. Currently, the US is the third largest country in the world with a population of 345 million and in 2054, it will be the fourth largest with 384 million people. Pakistan will remain the third largest country in the world, with a population of 511 million people in 2100. The report said that the estimated likelihood that the world's population will peak within the current century is very high, with a probability of 80%, a major change in UN projections from a decade ago, when this probability was around 30%. The size of the world's population in 2100 is now expected to be 6%smaller - or about 700 million people fewer - than anticipated a decade ago. In about 126 countries and areas, the population is likely to continue growing through 2054, potentially reaching a peak later in the century or beyond 2100. This group includes several of the world's most populous countries: India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Pakistan and the United States of America. In 2023, the global number of deaths among children under age 5 fell below 5 million for the first time in recent history. However, 95% of such deaths took place in the 126 countries with populations that are still growing, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, India, Nigeria and Pakistan. The report added that globally, life expectancy at birth reached 73.3 years in 2024, an increase of 8.4 years since 1995. Further reductions in mortality are projected to result in an average longevity of around 77.4 years globally in 2054. Since 2022, life expectancy has returned to levels observed before the emergence of the coronavirus disease in nearly all countries and areas. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic during 2020 and 2021, global life expectancy at birth fell to 70.9 years, down from 72.6 in 2019. The report said that by 2080, persons aged 65 or older will outnumber children under 18. "By the late 2070s, the number of persons at ages 65 years and higher globally is projected to reach 2.2 billion, surpassing the number of children (under age 18). By the mid-2030s, it is projected that there will be 265 million persons aged 80 years or older, more than the number of infants (1 year of age or less)," it said.

India's population to peak in early 2060s to 1.7 billion before declining: UN

The US State Department has quietly implemented recommendations of a presidential commission which has suggested steps like opening up American diplomatic missions outside India for visa appointments to reduce the visa backlog in the country. India was one of the very few countries where applications for US visas saw a major upswing after coronavirus-related travel restrictions were lifted. Moved by a commission member, Ajay Jain Bhutoria from Silicon Valley, the presidential commission observed that inordinate visa appointment delays were causing huge problems for the students and visitors who have plans to come to study in the US and visit the country. The State Department should allow virtual interviews where applicable and allow staff from embassies around the world and the US consular staff to help conduct the virtual interviews at embassies with high backlogs and help clear them, the commission recommended. The recommendations included opening up American diplomatic missions outside India for visa appointments, having more counters and deploying additional resources to process visa applications. The <keyword id="50596" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="US-embassy" source="Orion">US Embassy</keyword> in India processed over 1 lakh applications just in January 2023, their highest total in a single month and the highest in any month since July 2019. In its December meeting, the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders recommended several steps to reduce the growing delay in visa appointment times in India and other countries like Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh. It recommended the State Department hire new Full-Time officers/consular or Temporary Staff or contractors or bring back retired consular officers to clear the backlog at Embassies in Asia which have wait times of 400 or more days and shrink the wait time to 2-4 weeks be clearing the visa application backlog. The State Department could also use staff from other embassies around the world to help clear the backlog in countries in Asia which have huge backlogs and delays in visa appointments, it had recommended. The advisory committee noted that in 2012 President Barack Obama issued a memo to reduce the wait time from several months to a few days and this memo streamlined the visa process. The Trump administration had rescinded the President Obama memo, and this is also contributing as one of the factors in causing delays for Visa appointments, it said. As such, it recommended that President Joe Biden should consider issuing a memo to the State Department to shrink the visa appointment wait times to 2-4 weeks maximum for countries with significant backlogs including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and other countries in a similar situation. There have been growing concerns in India over the long waiting period for first-time visa applicants, especially for those applying under B1 (business) and B2 (tourist) categories. The waiting period for first-time B1/B2 visa applicants in India was close to three years in October last year. In January, the State Department not only implemented remote processing of interview waiver cases for applicants with previous US visas but also launched several initiatives, including scheduling special interviews for first-time applicants and increasing the strength of consular staff. It also conducted "special Saturday interview days" on January 21. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/google-unleashes-ai-powered-updates-to-revamp-user-experience-on-maps-search-and-translate/articleshow/97761551.cms">Google unleashes AI-powered updates to revamp user experience on Maps, Search and Translate</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/now-find-ev-charging-stations-in-google-maps-near-you/articleshow/97759525.cms">Now find EV charging stations in Google Maps near you</a>

US State Department implements several recommendations of presidential commission to reduce visa backlog in India

<ul><li>India recorded a single-day rise of 10,158 coronavirus cases on Thursday. </li><li>The daily positivity rate was recorded at 4.42% while the weekly positivity rate was 4.02%. </li><li>The demand for booster doses has also gone up in the last few weeks, and the country is administering a few hundred shots per day. </li><li>Kerala, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and more states have made masks mandatory in public places and UP has also re-started screening international travellers. </li></ul>India recorded a single-day rise of 10,158 coronavirus cases, the highest in nearly eight months, according to the Union Health Ministry data. The number of active cases has increased to 44,998, the data updated on Thursday showed. India had reported 7,830 coronavirus infections on Wednesday. The daily positivity rate was recorded at 4.42% while the weekly positivity rate was 4.02%. The active cases now constitute 0.1% of the total infections. The nationwide Covid-19 recovery rate has been recorded at 98.7%, according to the health ministry website. The case fatality rate was recorded at 1.19%. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease rose to 4,42,10,127. According to the ministry's website, 220.66 crore doses of Covid vaccine have been administered in the country. The demand for booster doses has also gone up in the last few weeks. The country has been administering a few hundred booster vaccine shots per day in the last few weeks and there are 146 active vaccination sites across the country. Adar Poonawalla, chief executive officer of Serum Institute of India, which is one of world’s largest vaccine manufacturers, said that the company was re-starting the production of Covidshield vaccine. He said the company already has six million booster doses of Covovax vaccine available and adults must take the booster shot. "Just as a precaution, at risk we have done it so that people have Covishield as a choice if they want it," Poonawalla told PTI on restarting manufacturing of the vaccine. He further said Serum Institute of India will make 6-7 million doses of Covishield available in 90 days and it could take up to nine months to further build up the stock based on demand. The company had stopped manufacturing Covishield in December 2021. Mask mandates come back To tackle the growing number of Covid infections, state governments have taken various measures – including advising the elderly, comorbid and pregnant women to mask up. In the same month last year, the government relaxed its mask norms, and made them optional instead of mandatory. Kerala, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and more states have made masks mandatory in public places and UP has also re-started screening international travellers. Mumbai municipality, on the other hand, has made masks mandatory for all — staff and visitors at civic hospitals. It has also advised senior citizens to mask up. Kerala, Maharashtra, Haryana and Gujarat have been reporting the highest number of cases in the last few weeks. As many as 68 people have passed away across the country in the last one week due to the disease. (With PTI inputs)

India’s fresh Covid cases shoot up to 8-month high, states issue mask guidelines

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Global <keyword id="1754604" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="coronavirus">coronavirus</keyword> deaths <a href="https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html">surpassed 3 million</a> on Saturday.</li><li>More than a third of those deaths occurred in the US, <keyword id="6355226" type="LOCATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="brazil">Brazil</keyword>, and <keyword id="3658" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="India">India</keyword>. </li><li>Brazil and India are still seeing devastating surges in coronavirus deaths amid vaccine shortages.</li></ul>Global coronavirus deaths <a href="https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html">surpassed 3 million</a> on Saturday, according to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University. That means more people have died of the coronavirus than inhabit Lisbon, Portugal or Chicago, Illinois.More than a third of those deaths occurred in just three counties: the US, Brazil, and India. The US represents by far the majority of the world's coronavirus deaths, due in large part to a devastating winter surge. More than 566,000 people in the US have died of the coronavirus thus far - nearly 20% of the global total. Brazil has reported nearly 370,000 total coronavirus deaths, while India has reported around 175,000. "This is not the situation we want to be in 16 months into a pandemic where we have proven control measures," Maria Van Kerkhove, the World Health Organization's technical lead for COVID-19, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/who-urges-people-take-pandemic-seriously-covid-19-cases-rise-2021-4">said earlier this week</a>. "It is time right now where everyone has to take stock and have a reality check about what we need to be doing."The world hit a similarly sobering milestone in January, when coronavirus deaths topped 2 million. Coronavirus deaths topped 1 million in September.But the landscape of the pandemic is different now: Countries are in a race to get shots into arms as quickly as possible as they battle more contagious variants that, in some cases, can evade protection from <keyword id="79555" type="TECHNOLOGY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Vaccines">vaccines</keyword>. The available vaccine supply is still scarce in many parts of the world: COVAX, the UN-sponsored program to ensure equal distribution of coronavirus vaccines, has only delivered enough doses for roughly 0.25% of the world's population. In low-income countries, just 1 in more than 500 people have received their shots, compared with 1 in 4 people in high-income countries, according to the WHO.In India and Brazil in particular, slow vaccine rollouts, a lack of social distancing, and the spread of variants has pushed hospitals into crisis mode yet again.<h2>Large gatherings abound in India as deaths climb</h2>India has immunized less than 8% of its population since its national vaccine program started exactly three months ago. During that time, average new daily coronavirus deaths have increased more than four-fold, from around 180 per day to more than 1,000 per day. Local media outlets have reported long lines at hospitals, ventilator shortages, and bodies piling up at crematoriums."Earlier 15 to 20 bodies were coming in a day and now around 80 to 100 dead bodies are coming daily," Kamlesh Sailor, the president of a trust operating a crematorium in Surat, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-04-13/bodies-pile-up-at-india-crematoriums-overwhelmed-by-virus-surge">told Bloomberg earlier this week</a>.At the same time, local residents have gathered for large events that could fuel the virus' spread, including election rallies, festivals, and religious pilgrimages. At least 50 million Hindus crowded along the Ganga river earlier this week for a religious festival that has now been <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/50-million-people-allowed-at-superspreader-festival-so-modi-can-secure-the-hindu-vote">linked to at least 2,000 coronavirus cases</a>.Like many countries, India is also dealing with its own local variants: Scientists from the Indian state of Maharashtra identified a new strain in March that's linked to between <a href="https://pib.gov.in/PressReleaseIframePage.aspx?PRID=1707177">15% and 20% of cases</a> there.<div type="image" title="GettyImages 1230997486" height="4912" width="7061" msid="82123044" hostid="261"></div><h2>A 'raging inferno of an outbreak' in Brazil</h2>Brazil's average daily coronavirus deaths have also doubled in the last three months, from around 950 per day to more than 2,800 per day. Overwhelmed hospitals are now running low on supplemental oxygen and sedatives."What you are dealing with here is a raging inferno of an outbreak," Bruce Aylward, senior adviser to the WHO director general, said at a press briefing on April 9.In December, Brazil become a hotspot for P.1, a more contagious variant that seems to partially evade immunity from vaccines or previous infectious.A <a href="https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/216053/more-transmissible-evasive-sarscov2-variant-growing/">March study</a> suggested that P.1 was <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/covid-19-vaccines-efficacy-variants-south-africa-uk-brazil-2021-3">40% to 120% more transmissible</a> than earlier versions of the virus. Researchers from Brazil's leading public-health body, Fiocruz, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/p1-variant-vaccine-brazil-covid-efficacy-effectiveness-2021-4">warned last Wednesday</a> that the variant is mutating in "particularly worrying" ways that could make it more resistant to vaccines.Meanwhile, just 12% of Brazil's population has been vaccinated so far.<div type="image" title="brazil coronavirus covid-19" height="1667" width="2500" msid="82123049" hostid="261"></div>Brazil rejected an offer to purchase 70 million doses of Pfizer's vaccine in August, instead betting on <keyword id="6409874" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="astrazeneca">AstraZeneca</keyword>'s shot to drive its vaccine rollout. With doses from the nation's two biggest laboratories now in short supply, Brazil is relying on backup doses of China's Sinovac shot. "The big problem is that Brazil did not look for alternatives when it had the chance," Claudio Maierovitch, former head of Brazil's health regulator, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/pandemics-brazil-rio-de-janeiro-coronavirus-pandemic-coronavirus-vaccine-925ef71baf79b31a5e0f1e0e66c3b4d7">told the Associated Press</a>. "When several countries were placing their bets, signing contracts with different suppliers, the Brazilian government didn't even have vaccination on its agenda."Language from Brazil's president, Jair Bolsonaro, has also fueled vaccine skepticism. Bolsonaro previously joked that the Pfizer shot could "turn you into an alligator."Over the course of the pandemic, Bolsonaro has also questioned the effectiveness of masks, rebuffed calls for lockdowns, and suggested that the virus is no more than a "little flu."

You Searched For "Coronavirus states in india" and got 6 results

BHU study on Covaxin side effects poorly designed, critically flawed: ICMR Director General

PTI

India's population to peak in early 2060s to 1.7 billion before declining: UN

PTI

US State Department implements several recommendations of presidential commission to reduce visa backlog in India

PTI

India’s fresh Covid cases shoot up to 8-month high, states issue mask guidelines

Katya Naidu

Global coronavirus deaths just topped 3 million, led by surges in India and Brazil

Aria Bendix

These five COVID-19 hit states account for 61% of total cases in the country

BI India Bureau

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