Serum Institute asks govt to speak with EU for inclusion

Serum Institute of India SII has requested the Centre to take up the matter of inclusion of Covishield vaccine in the EU Covid19 Vaccination Passport with the European Union and other countries citing this will affect students and business travellers and cause severe disruptions to the Indian and global economyOnly four vaccines mdash Comirnaty of PfizerBioNTech Moderna Vaxzervria by AstraZenecaOxford and Johnson amp Johnsonrsquos Janssen mdash have been approved by the European Medicines Agency EMA and only those vaccinated by these vaccines will be given vaccination passports and will be allowed to travel within the EU during the pandemicCovishield is the Indian manufactured version of the OxfordAstraZeneca vaccine ldquoIndia has a large population However not including Covishield into the EU Covid19 Vaccination Passport will not allow Covishield vaccinated people to travel to European countries and this will affect students business travellers back and forth and cause severe disruptions to our economy and to the global economyrdquo a source quoted a letter to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar by SII CEO Adar PoonawallaPoonawalla also tweeted on Monday ldquoI realise that a lot of Indians who have taken Covishield are facing issues with travel to the EU I assure everyone I have taken this up at the highest levels and hope to resolve this matter soon both with regulators and at a diplomatic level with countriesrdquoHC stays Ursquokhand govt partial nod to Chardham YatraThe Uttarakhand High Court on Monday stayed the Chardham Yatra reversing a state cabinetrsquos decision to open it partially for residents of three districts from July 1 Rejecting the SOPs issued by the state government for the yatra the court said they were just a copy of the guidelines issued during the Kumbh Mela It has all along been asking the state government to suspend the yatra so that it does not become another ldquoCovid19 super spreaderrdquo like the Kumbh On an objection raised by the state that live telecasting such events is not in tune with the traditions the HC observed it is more important to save everyone from the Delta Plus variant rather than being considerate towards the feelings of a fewGovt announces free visas to 5 lakh touristsThe Centre will provide free visas to 5 lakh tourists once the the visa issuance for international travel is Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Monday The total financial implication of this revival measure would be Rs 100 croreSitharaman said financial support would be provided to over 11000 registered tourist guides travel and tourism stakeholders The scheme would be applicable till March 31 2022 or till 5 lakh visas are issued whichever is earlier The Centre will also provide working capital or personal loans to those in the tourism sector to discharge liabilities or restart businesses impacted due to Covid19She also announced a Rs 11lakh crore loan guarantee scheme for Covid19hit sectors Out of which the health care sector will get Rs 50000 crore and others Rs 60000 crore The guarantee coverage for the projects which are totally new will get upto 75 per cent coverage and projects which are on expansion will get 50 per cent coverage ldquoThis will last for 3 years and the interest rate is capped at 795 per centrdquoShe said the Centre will also provide Credit Guarantee Scheme to facilitate new lending among the smallest borrowers ldquoWe aim to reach out to 25 lakh people who are absolutely small borrowers Loan to be given to the smallest borrowers by Microfinance Institutions A maximum Rs 125 lakh to be lent The interest rate is 2 per cent below RBI prescribed rate with a loan duration of 3 years The focus will be on new lending and not on repayment of the old loans Stressed borrowers except NPAs to be covered under this schemerdquo30279331Total no of Coronavirus cases in india so far396730Total no of deaths due to the virus in India so far572994Total no of active cases in IndiaThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever