COIMBATORE  SATURDAY  MARCH 13, 2021  `7.00  PAGES 14  LATE CITY EDITION INDIA REVIEWS COVISHIELD AS 10 NATIONS SUSPEND USE The Centre is looking into hospitalisation and deaths in people who took the Covid-19 vaccine by AstraZeneca-Oxford University AUSTRIA, DENMARK REPORT DEATHS NO REASON TO STOP VACCINE, SAYS W.H.O. While Austria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Luxembourg have withdrawn the use of one batch of AstraZeneca vaccine, others including Denmark have suspended all batches for two weeks. So far, 22 cases of blood clots have been reported among 3 million people vaccinated in Europe. Austria and Denmark reported one death each due to “severe blood coagulation” ■ “We haven’t found anything of concern with respect to Covishield so far,” said Dr Narendra Arora, advisor to the national panel on Adverse Events Following Immunisation ■ Meanwhile, the World Health Organization said on Friday that there is no reason to stop using AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine 90% OF 2.63 CRORE VACCINATIONS CARRIED OUT SO FAR IN INDIA COMPRISED COVISHIELD CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOGGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ WARANGAL ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI ON A CAMPAIGN TRAIL: EPS ENTHRALLS SALEM CROWD “This election is between Dharma and Evil,” said Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami while campaigning in Vazhapadi region of Salem district First-timers & family: DMK strikes a balance S K U M A R E S A N @ Chennai “If Dharma should win, people must vote for AIADMK. What has DMK ever done for people apart from corruption?” the Chief Minister said 24 DAYS TO GO ”DMK is a party for the family. If it comes to power, land grabbing will resume. Goonda raj will return. My duty, unlike theirs, is to work for the people,” said Palaniswami FULL STORY ON P4 Quad boost to India’s vaccine output P U S H K A R B A N A K A R @ New Delhi PRIME Minister Narendra Modi on Friday participated in the firstever Quad Summit meet virtually where a combined initiative to boost India’s vaccine manufacturing capacity was announced even as sources said that the stand-off on the Line of Actual Control against China, too, came up for discussion. Dwelling on the vaccine initiative, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said it will lev- erage strengths from each of the member countries to achieve the target of manufacturing 1 billion doses by the end of next year. “We will leverage the US’ strength of technology development and India’s strength of manufacturing vaccines. Japan and the US will finance the initiative while Australia will provide logistical support to the programme,” Shringla said. A joint working group has been formed to oversee the implementation of the vaccine programme. Similarly Shringla said, two more , joint working groups have been constituted to work on other important agenda of the Quad like technology and climate change. Earlier, addressing the Summit virtually Modi said the grouping , was a positive extension of the country’s ancient philosophy of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, which regards the world as one family . The meeting was also attended by US President Joe Biden, Australian PM Scott Morrison and his Japanese counterpart Yoshi- hide Suga. The Quad grouping, comprising India, Australia, Japan and the US, is seen as a platform to counter the Chinese aggression in the region, especially the South China Sea. This was the first time that the leaders of the Quad countries met. Earlier, the grouping’s foreign ministers had met in Tokyo. “Today’s summit meeting shows that Quad has come of age. It will now remain an important pillar of stability in the region,” Modi said. Kamal to fight in Kovai Coimbatore: Banking on his party’s decent show in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Makkal Needhi Maiam chief Kamal Haasan has chosen Coimbatore South constituency for his maiden contest. He would be locking horns with candidates of the BJP and Congress | P4 NINE doctors, six doctorateholders, 13 engineers... the DMK candidates list is a good mix of youngsters, seasoned politicians, and, as expected, family members of yesteryear heavyweights. Among the 173 names announced on Friday were Udhayanidhi Stalin, the DMK president’s son; Vetri Azhagan, grandson of veteran K Anbazhagan; and Dr Ezhilan, son of former State planning commission vice-president M Naganathan. In terms of gender, the ratio remained skewed as just 12 women made the cut. “It should be presumed that Kalaignar is contesting,” DMK chief MK Stalin said, recalling his father M Karunanidhi’s memory in his message to the cadre. “This is not a list of candidates, but winners,” he said. The DMK will take on its archrival and ruling party, the AIADMK, in about 130, and the BJP in 14, of the total 234 constituencies. Most sitting MLAs — 79 of them in total — have been given a ticket. A few of them missed the bus because of alliance compulsions. Despite being known for its dynasty politics, the party denied tickets to family members DMK chief MK Stalin with the list of candidates on Friday | P JAWAHAR of former ministers Veerapandi Arumugam, Pongalur Palaniswami, Erode NKKP Raja and Theni Mookaiya. Instead, several newcomers who have made a name for themselves in the social media landscape have made the cut, such as Thanga Tamil Selvan, RS Raja Kannappan, and Karthikeya Sivasenathipathi. Thanga Tamil Selvan will take on Deputy CM O Panneerselvam in Bodinayakanur while Sivasenathipathi, who became popular with the Jallikattu protests, will face minister SP Velumani. Stalin said he will file the nomination on March 15.