China refuses to give data on early COVID cases

The second dose of COVID-19 vaccine is being administered to the Healthcare workers from Saturday. It will be given to the beneficiaries who have taken the first dose on 16th of January, the day when the world's biggest immunization drive was launched.
The second dose is given to the beneficiaries after an interval of 28 days from the first dose. Meanwhile, more than 80 lakh 52 thousand beneficiaries have been vaccinated for COVID-19 till across the country. The Health Ministry said, a total of 34 persons have been hospitalized after being administered the COVID-19 vaccine, so far. This comprises 0.0004 per cent of the total vaccinations. Of the 34 cases of hospitalization, 21 were discharged after treatment, while 11 persons died and two are under treatment. During the last 24 hours, no person has been hospitalized. The Ministry said, no case of serious or severe adverse event following immunization or death has been attributable to vaccination, till Saturday.

-COVID-19 Vaccination drive for naval personnel serving on front line naval units of Eastern Naval Command(ENC) bagan at Visakhapatnam as part of the largest vaccination drive being undertaken across the nation.Vice Admiral Atul Kumar Jain PVSM, AVSM, VSM Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief ENC lead the vaccination drive by receiving the first dose of vaccine at INHS Kalyani.  The vaccination campaign would continue till all front line workers of ENC are covered. Administration of the second dose of vaccine to all Health Care Workers of ENC is also underway.

-Union Government has said that more than one hundred improved and high-yielding species of pulses have been developed in five years. Speaking at the international event held in Rome to celebrate World Pulses Day through video conferencing on Saturday, Agriculture Minister Narendra Tomar said, India is focusing on improving varieties of seeds, bringing new areas under pulses cultivation and market, which will help in increasing the profit of the farmers.He said, Pulse crops research has received new direction and unprecedented work has been done towards developing new and improved species. India accounts for 23.62 per cent of world’s total pulses production in 2019-20.India is the biggest producer and consumer of pulses in the world and it has almost achieved self-sufficiency in pulses. He said, in the last five to six years, India has increased pulses production from 140 lakh tonnes to more than 240 lakh tonnes.Tomar said, government is going to build ten thousand new Farmers’ Producer Organizations, FPOs in the country with the outlay of six thousand 850 crore rupees in five years. He said, this will collectively enable farmers for seed production, purchase and access to better technologies.

-Union Government has said that more than 91 lakh paddy farmers have been benefited from current Kharif Marketing Season Procurement Operations with Minimum Support Price value of over one lakh 20 thousand crore rupees. Agriculture Ministry said, the government continues to procure Kharif crops at its Minimum Support Price from farmers as per its existing MSP schemes.The Ministry said, more than 638 lakh tonnes of paddy have been procured from Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu, Chandigarh, Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, Jharkhand, Assam, Karnataka, West Bengal and Tripura.Government through its nodal agencies has also procured over three lakh nine thousand tonnes of Moong, Urad, Groundnut Pods and Soyabean benefitting more than one lakh 67 thousand farmers.

-China has refused to give raw data on early COVID-19 cases to a World Health Organization-led team probing the origins of the pandemic. According to reports, one of the team’s investigators revealed this to the media. The development potentially complicates efforts to understand how the outbreak began.The WHO team had requested raw patient data on 174 cases of COVID-19 that China had identified from the early phase of the outbreak in Wuhan in December 2019. However, according to a team member, reportedly, the team was only provided with a summary.