India beat China In Vaccine Supply – Covid Mutations Peak in many Cities of India
India has emerged as a superpower when it comes to vaccine diplomacy across the world. After supplying 50,000 doses to the island nation of Seychelles, where China is trying to build strategic inroads into the Indian Ocean. Developing countries like Canada as well as the United Kingdom, nations in the European Union are now looking to India for vaccine supplies.
Not long ago Serum Institute of India CEO Dr. Adar Poonawalla had tweeted that he will supply vaccines to Canada. Canada has received its first shipment of 500,000 doses of Serum Institute of India’s vaccine. In fact, the United Kingdom has also put an order for 100 million doses of which 10 million have been supplied by the Serum Institute of India.
Along with that India has also supplied vaccines to other nations such as Bangladesh, Myanmar, South Africa, as well as Brazil to bring forward the need for vaccines, and is also a partner to the COVAX facility under the World Health Organization to provide vaccines to low and middle-income countries.
While it’s normal for a Coronavirus to mutate as per what experts say the bad news is that the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru city has found that there is a faster mutation of Coronavirus happening in samples that have been collected from that very place. The researchers say that there have been 27 mutations, Levin mutations per samples in the samples that have been collected of SARS COVID 2 variants from the city.
Now, this is higher than the national average, the national average is eight while the international average of mutation is at around seven. While whether or not it affects the efficacy of the vaccines that are currently being used in the country for Coronavirus. The verdict is still out. But the faster mutations may cause concerns for experts who are developing and working on genome sequencing to find out how many variants are there in the country at the moment.
Well, this is the ugly side of COVID-19. Now in another super spreader event that has been reported in the city of Mumbai, in Andheri restaurant 10 staff members have tested positive for COVID-19. This was after the brain Municipal Corporation the municipal civic body of the city tested about 35 samples of people in a random check where they found 10 people to be positive for COVID-19.
Now high-risk contacts of these people have been put in a quarantine facility and contact tracing for others who may have visited this restaurant is being done. It’s been sealed at this point. But Mumbai is witnessing a sharp rise in COVID-19 cases as are many districts in Maharashtra that are resorting to the government to do random checks for those who may be carrying the infection.
