Guwahati: India reported 34,457 new cases of coronavirus infections and 375 deaths on Friday, according to data from the Union Health Ministry.
Active cases in the country have come down to 3.61 lakh. Out of the new cases, Kerala reported 20,224 cases, and 99 deaths while Maharashtra had 4,365 new infections and 106 fatalities. The total death toll has reached 4.34 lakh.
Meanwhile, Gujarat-based Zydus Cadila’s three-dose Covid-19 vaccine was on Friday granted emergency use authorisation for use in adults and children above 12 years, making it potentially the first vaccine to be administered to the adolescent population in India.
With the central drug regulator clearing the vaccine, Zydus Cadila’s ZyCoV-D is set to become the first Covid vaccine candidate developed on a plasmid DNA platform to be commercially introduced anywhere in the world. The vaccine, jointly developed in partnership with the Department of Biotechnology, had demonstrated a primary efficacy of 66.66 per cent in phase 3 clinical trials. It was the first Covid-19 vaccine in India to be tested in the adolescent population — those in the 12-18-year age group.
