Chhattisgarh, an opposition-ruled Indian state, has said it had asked the government to halt the supply of a homegrown Covid-19 vaccine until its efficacy could be proven in an ongoing late-stage trial, Reuters reported.

“There’s an inhibition/concern among the community in general regarding the use of Covaxin,” state health minister TS Singh Deo wrote in a letter to his federal counterpart, Harsh Vardhan, and shared on Twitter.

Singh Deo said that Covaxin vials do not display any expiry date and that he had requested Vardhan to halt its supply to Chhattisgarh “until these issues are addressed to the satisfaction of our health department to avoid the wastage of the early expiration doses of the drug”.

Editorial

Updated 12 Aug, 2026

Mideast outreach

OVER the past few days, Pakistan has been going the extra mile to assure Iran that the Makkah Joint Defence ...
12 Aug, 2026

Nutrition emergency

MALNUTRITION has become one of the biggest obstacles to Pakistan’s development. Around 40pc of children under five...
12 Aug, 2026

Housing deficit

THE federal cabinet’s zoning directive has the potential to be the most consequential decision in the redefinition...
Updated 11 Aug, 2026

Equal citizens

Religious minorities continue to face mob violence, attacks on their places of worship, forced conversions and social and economic exclusion.
Updated 11 Aug, 2026

Tel Aviv’s subterfuge

These verbal gymnastics indicate that Tel Aviv has no intention of ending its occupation of the Strip.
11 Aug, 2026

Abandoned after floods

THREE years after the 2022 floods submerged a third of Pakistan, more than 134,000 verified affected families in...