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Finally, some good news related to a COVID-19 vaccine that we've all been waiting for. Not just any vaccine, but a vaccine that many experts believe will be the first in the world to be commercialised. The UK government has announced that human trial of a potential Coronavirus vaccine being developed by Oxford University researchers will begin from Thursday. Last week, even the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has supported the Oxford vaccine, called 'ChAdOX1', calling it the frontrunner in the race for a COVID-19 vaccine. According to the UK government, the potential Oxford University coronavirus vaccine will be on up to 510 people aged between 18 and 55, out of an overall group of 1,112 volunteers who've been selected and finalised for the COVID-19 vaccine trial. The information of fast-tracking the Oxford vaccine trial was revealed by UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock while briefing the UK parliament on how they're pretty much 'throwing everything at...

At long last, Shivraj Singh Chouhan  formed his council of ministers  – albeit a tiny, five-member one – on Tuesday, 29 days after he was sworn-in as Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh after the fall of the Congress-led government under Kamal Nath. The absence of a cabinet in general, or a health minister in particular, at a time when the  Coronavirus pandemic  was rapidly claiming victims across the state had become the most strident criticism against Chouhan over the past month. Outlook had first reported on April 14 that  Chouhan had initiated cabinet formation talks  and a final decision on the subject would be taken by April 20.

In a significant development for COVID-19 diagnosis and testing in India, a reputed medical institute in Kerala has been successful in developing a low-cost diagnostic testing kit that can give results of the viral infection in two hours. A release from the Union Ministry of Science and Technology said Thursday that a team of clinicians and scientists at the Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST) in Thiruvananthapuram has been able to come up with a test kit which is deemed highly specific for SARS-CoV-2 N-gene and can detect two regions of the gene, which will ensure that the test does not fail even if one region of the viral gene undergoes mutation during its current spread. The test detects the N gene of SARS-COV2 using reverse transcriptase loop-mediated amplification of viral nucleic acid (RT-LAMP). Tests approved by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) at the NiV, Alappuzha have shown 100% accuracy and match with test results conducte...