Mumbai's Haffkine Institute Gets Centre Nod to Produce Bharat Biotech's Covaxin

The Union government has given its permission to the city-based Haffkine Institute to manufacture Covaxin, an anti-coronavirus vaccine of Bharat Biotech, an official said on Thursday.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had earlier requested the Centre to allow the Haffkine Institute to produce Covaxin. It is currently produced by the Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech, the official from the chief minister’s office (CMO) said. Accordingly, the Centre gave its nod, he said. Thackeray thanked the central government for granting permission, the official said.

In January, Haffkine sought the nod from the ICMR for technology transfer. In March, it reiterated its request and said that in case it is not granted permission to manufacture the vaccine, it can ‘fill and finish’ operations of the Covid vaccine, where it will only fill vaccines in bottles and make them ready for dispatch.

Several states reported a shortfall in vaccine stocks earlier in the month, some of them even had to turn beneficiaries away after running out of shots – a claim that has been vehemently denied by the Centre.

Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan had blamed the states for wastage while asserting that the government has over 1.67 crore jab in reserve.

Maharashtra on Thursday reported 61,695 fresh coronavirus cases, taking the tally to 36,39,855, while 349 new fatalities pushed the toll to 59,153, the state health department said The COVID-19 case tally is the second highest single-day count so far after 63,294 infections were reported in the state on April 11. Also, 53,335 patients were discharged during the day, taking the number of recovered cases to 29,59,056, the department said. Maharashtra is now left with 6,20,060 active cases, the department said in a release.

Mumbai recorded 8,209 new cases and 50 fatalities, taking the tally to 5,53,404 and the toll to 12,197 With 2,34,452 new tests, the number of samples examined so far in Maharashtra rose to 2,30,36,652, the department added. Currently, 35,87,478 people are in home quarantine, while 27,273 people are in institutional quarantine in the state. Maharashtra’s COVID-19 recovery rate currently stood at 81.3 per cent, while the fatality rate was 1.63 per cent, the department said.

The Mumbai division, including Mumbai city and its satellite towns, recorded 16,906 cases and 82 deaths during the day, taking the count of cases to 11,50,776 and the fatalities to 21,416. Mumbai’s neighbouring civic bodies, which are part of the division – Thane city, Navi Mumbai, Kalyan Dombivli – and also Thane district – reported COVID-19 cases in four digits The Nashik division reported 9,582 cases, including 3,235 in Nashik city. The Pune division saw 12,169 fresh infections, including 5,469 in Pune city. Out of 88 new deaths recorded in the division, Pune city and Satara reported 42 and 23, respectively, the department said. The Kolhapur division added 2,019 new cases, the Aurangabad division 3,334, the Latur division 4,561 and the Akola division 2,093. The Nagpur division registered 11,031 cases, including 4,282 in Nagpur city, while Chandrapur district added 1,029 infections.

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