Indian Navy's fifth Kalvari class submarine named Vagir commenced her sea trials on Tuesday. According to the Indian Navy, the submarine was launched in November 2020 from the Kanhoji Angre Wet Basin of Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL). The submarine would be named Vagir, after commissioning.   Despite the COVID pandemic, MDL has delivered two submarines of Project - 75 in the year 2021 and the commencement of sea trials of the fifth submarine is a significant milestone. The submarine will now undergo intense trials of all its systems at sea, including propulsion systems, weapons and sensors. The submarine is scheduled for delivery to the Indian Navy in the year 2022 after the completion of these trials.   Source:ANI

The Drug Controller General of India has given its approval to the single-dose COVID-19 vaccine version of the Sputnik V vaccine 'Sputnik Light' to conduct trials on the Indian population to check whether the vaccine gives a similar immune response in trials similar to what it has shown on the Russian population. A Subject Expert Committee (SEC) meeting held on August 5 recommended the trial condition based on the efficacy of the vaccine also to be evaluated on the 42nd, 90th, and 180th day following the second dose. "Interim analysis can be conducted on day 42 as this data was generated during the Sputnik V trials in India after the first dose, which was stated to be available up to day 21," reads the minutes of the SEC meeting. Earlier in the month of April, the two-dose version of the vaccine, Sputnik V, was approved for 'emergency use' by the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI). According to Dr V K Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog, till now 8- 9 lakh doses of Sputnik V has been administered in India. Sputnik Light, which is the first dose of the original two-dose composition, has shown the efficacy of 79 per cent. Source: ANI

The final trials of a Russian coronavirus vaccine developed by the Gamalei National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology may be completed earlier than in other countries, an expert said.   Kirill Dmitriev, the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, told the Vesti news program on Rossiya-1television on Thursday that this phase 3 trial is necessary to put the vaccine into active use.   “We believe that Russia will possibly go through this phase quicker than other countries," Dmitriev said, reports TASS. He said hat phase 3 trials implied switching over to large-scale human trials which will involve thousands of people in Moscow. "And we’ll also start conducting phase 3 in other countries," Dmitriev said, noting that the phase 2 trials would be completed on August 3.   Regulatory approval of the vaccine is expected in August-September, he said.   Direct Investment Fund forecasts the production of 30 million doses of the vaccine in 2020, or even 50 million if necessary. The vaccination of Russian nationals may be completed early in 2021.   Meanwhile, 105 global leaders, including 18 Nobel Laureates, signed a call initiated by Yunus Centre to declare COVID-19 Vaccines as a global common good. The effectiveness of the upcoming vaccination campaign will depend on its universality, said the signatories.   But as the race for a vaccine intensifies, rich countries are rushing to place advance orders for the inevitably limited supply to guarantee their citizens get immunized first raising questions about whether developing countries will get any vaccine before the pandemic ends. Earlier this month, the UN, International Red Cross and Red Crescent, and others said it was a “moral imperative” that everyone have access to a “people’s vaccine.” But such grand declarations are unenforceable, and the allocation of vaccines could be extremely messy.   Global coronavirus scenario   Coronavirus cases were first reported in China in December late last year in Wuhan. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared it a pandemic on March 11. It has spread to all corners of the world since then. On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. There have been more than 13,717,900 confirmed coronavirus cases and over 587,000 deaths while over 8,172,400 individuals have recovered.   To date, 752,797 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia, with 531,692 recoveries. Russia’s latest data indicates 11,937 fatalities. Meanwhile, Bangladesh’s confirmed Covid-19 cases inched closer to 200,000 as health authorities on Thursday announced detection of another 2,733 new patients.   The death toll has climbed to 2,496. Source: UNB AH

As deadly coronavirus continues to spread across the globe, strategies for developing a safe and effective vaccine are rapidly moving forward, according to reports carried by various global news media. The first human trials of a coronavirus vaccine are to be launched within days, scientists in the US have said which has showed some kind of hope to the world citizens, even though the situation has already been declared COVID-19 pandemic. The 'genetic hack' was accelerated past the animal testing stage and will be used on healthy volunteers, then patients if it deemed safe, reports www.dailymail.co.uk. It comes as scientists in Britain said a vaccine could be tested on humans by June after encouraging results on mice. Massachusetts-based Moderna created the candidate cure but have taken a different route to traditional techniques. Normally, researchers would take months to test for the possibility of vaccine enhancement in animals. Given the urgency to stem the spread of the new coronavirus, some drug makers are moving straight into small-scale human tests, without waiting for the completion of such animal tests. American, UK researchers hopeful American researches leading the fight against the deadly bug admit hopes of millions of vaccines within a year are 'aspirational'. And in a further blow for Britain, any cure would not be able to halt the anticipated peak in cases in May, www.dailymail.co.uk report said. But UK researchers, led by Mucosal Infection and Immunity head Dr Robin Shattock, said they have successfully trialed a vaccine in mice and are hopeful it could be ready for human trials by June. Meanwhile, senior researcher Dr Paul McKay, of Imperial College London, said, “I've got results from a month after I injected (the mice) and the vaccine works really, really well.” The team is working with scientists in Paris to determine the vaccine's effectiveness in monkeys, he added. Dr McKay said they have applied for further funding from the Medical Research Council to conduct human clinical trials. “If we get the funding for the human clinical trials, we’ll put it into people by June. If British scientists here develop a vaccine it would be great if the Government supported it,” he said. Some scientists and medical experts are concerned rushing a vaccine could end up worsening the infection in some patients rather than preventing it. Progress in Canada A team of Canadian scientists has successfully isolated and grown copies of the coronavirus — bringing the world a step closer to finding a vaccine to fight the deadly illness, reports the New York Post. Researchers from the Sunnybrook Research Institute, the University of Toronto, and McMaster University were able to isolate and replicate the virus in a lab using samples taken from two Canadian patients. The lab-grown copies will now be able to help scientists study the pathogen to develop better diagnostic testing, treatments, vaccines, and gain a better understanding of its biology, the team said in a statement. Researchers working in China Eight institutes in China are working on five approaches to inoculations in an effort to combat COVID-19, reports New York Post. Chinese officials say it could result in a vaccine ready for emergency situations and clinical trials next month. Israeli researchers also working on vaccine   Scientists in Israel are expected to announce in the coming days that they have completed development of a vaccine for the new coronavirus COVID-19, reports The Economic Times. Quoting medical sources, Israeli daily Ha'aretz, reported on Thursday that scientists at the Israel's Institute for Biological Research, supervised by the Prime Minister's office, have recently had a significant breakthrough in understanding the biological mechanism and qualities of the virus, including better diagnostic capability, production of antibodies for those who already have the coronavirus and development of a vaccine. The development process, however, requires a series of tests and experiments that may last many months before the vaccination is deemed effective or safe to use, the report said. Experts’ opinion about vaccine for coronavirus Dr Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in USA, said: “I understand the importance of accelerating timelines for vaccines in general, but from everything I know, this is not the vaccine to be doing it with. There is a risk of immune enhancement. The way you reduce that risk is first you show it does not occur in laboratory animals.” The vaccine prototype is being funded by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, with the foundation's Dr Melanie Saville telling the Telegraph: “Contain and delay is the approach taken in the UK and a number of different countries. The approaches are really to buy time in the context of the stretch it puts on the healthcare system - it also buys time for vaccines to be developed. We don't know how the pandemic will evolve, whether, for example, it comes in various different waves.” Source: UNB AH