Two suspected cases of Nipah virus have been detected in West Bengal, prompting a national outbreak response team to be deployed. The central government is providing full support to the state.
If we are able to provide safe, hygienic toilets, and affordable sanitary napkins, we could stop girls from dropping out of schools and help women feel more confident.
With schools closing down, many girls and their female family members in rural and urban areas now don't have access to sanitary pads.
If we as citizens, do not take ownership of public places, public facilities and public conveniences, Swachh Bharat will remain just a hollow slogan, notes Biswajit Dasgupta.
The high court erred in holding that the law was violative of the principle of secularism, said a bench comprising Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra.
The country is still in the ascending limb of the epidemic, said Prof D Prabhakaran.
India's effective reproduction number (R) for Covid, an indicator of how quickly the infection is spreading, has increased to over 1 for the first time since January, estimates a researcher from Chennai's Institute of Mathematical Sciences.
The ministry said that states can also develop their own protocol with regards to quarantine and isolation as per their assessment.
The study highlights the critical need for people to comply with face mask use, social distancing, and other COVID-19 prevention guidelines as advised by the public health authorities.
"The Indian Medical Association has requested all its 3.5 lakh members in 1,800 local branches to voluntarily come out to get vaccinated first to show the world that these vaccines are safe and efficacious," it said.
According to the guidelines, all travellers would need to give an undertaking on the online portal www.newdelhiairport.in that they would undergo mandatory quarantine for 14 days, that is, seven days paid institutional quarantine at their own cost, followed by seven days isolation at home with self-monitoring of health.
Recent studies in China and Europe observed that the infection might relapse in those people who have already recovered from earlier phases.
'Have discreet, separate corona and non-corona hospitals for treating these two categories of patients.' 'Concentrate on your non-corona patients as well.' 'Because then your diabetics, your hypertensives, the ones on dialysis, the asthmatics, who, if and when they get corona, are the ones who are going to require more intensive care and are going to be more at risk of death.'
India lacks China's culture of collective discipline, so what will provide the glue for people to cooperate rather than follow their raw survival instincts? asks Ravi Bhoothalingam.
The new lineage called B.1.618 is distinct from the B.1.617, also known as the 'double mutant' virus that contains two mutations, E484Q and L245R, and is believed to be behind the powerful second COVID-19 wave sweeping through India.
The fatality rate is down to 3.1 per cent and the recovery rate has improved to 37.5 per cent, he said.
The doubling time of coronavirus cases in India has improved to 15.4 days from 13.3 days, the Union health ministry said on Saturday, as the country's COVID-19 death toll climbed to 4,971 and the total cases rose to 1,73,763. The doubling time has improved during the past three days, it said. As many as 11,264 COVID-19 patients have been cured in the last 24 hours till Saturday 8 am, the highest number of recoveries recorded in one day, pushing India's recovery rate to 47.40 per cent, it said.
There should have been a focus on sanitation and not on littering or garbage. Absence of sanitation affects the health of children, explains Aakar Patel.
'At the stage where we are in today in the country, by the time mass vaccination becomes available, it would be around the middle of next year.' 'Most of those people, who got infected this year, will be next year back to level zero -- once again susceptible.'
We need to give a booster shot to all our frontline workers first as if they fall victim to Omicron, the health system will collapse, points out Ramesh Menon.
The new malaria vaccine (RTS.S/ AS01, tentatively brand-named Mosquirix) is the very first one to offer immunity against a parasite -- specifically the plasmodium falciparum parasite, which is the deadliest of the five parasites that cause malaria.
A PTI tally of figures announced by different states and union territories, as of 9.25 pm, showed a higher number of 1,76,792 confirmed cases and at least 5,100 deaths. It also showed nearly 86,000 recoveries and close to 85,700 active cases.
The guidelines note that while there is not enough evidence yet to measure the impact of school closures on the disease transmission rates, the adverse effects of school closures on children's safety and learning are well documented. Gains made in increasing access to children's education in recent decades risk being lost and, in the worse cases, reversed completely.
'The pandemic ends only when 70 per cent of the world is vaccinated with two doses.'
Popular antacid Mucaine Gel, manufactured by Pfizer's subsidiary Wyeth Laboratories, was also found laced with the heavy metals as well as cadmium.
These dedicated COVID-19 facilities will have a capacity of 1,06,719 isolation beds and 12,024 ICU beds reserved for such patients in the country.
A coronavirus positive woman allegedly managed to give the slip to authorities in New Delhi after her arrival from London and reached Andhra Pradesh by train only to be picked up by authorities and admitted to a hospital.
'We cannot be naughty and expect the government to do good!' 'We have to behave ourselves and then we can expect the government to support us.' 'If we are able to protect ourselves well, then we should not be having deaths.' 'Unfortunately, people have gotten into this super scary event participation (mode) -- birthday parties, large gatherings.' 'Among the people who have attended those, 80 to 90 per cent of them have come down with COVID-19.'
'Whenever you roll out: effectiveness is important, operational logistics are important, side effects are important and vaccine hesitancy is important.'
'This is a tragedy that must be stopped.'
'With the largest number of malnourished people on the planet, India is poised to be a nation that significantly under-performs as an economy.'
'Despite expanded testing the incidence remains low.' 'Therefore, the focus should be on specific districts where we need to improve the testing.' 'We should have a district-centric strategy.'
People have developed a fatalistic attitude where they believe that anything can happen. They think, 'there's no medicine, no beds in the hospitals, what are we alive for?' And when you get that kind of an attitude, you stop taking precautions
The death of a 11-year-old boy due to 'bird-flu', even before the devastating effects of the second Covid wave have waned, has alarmed the medical fraternity though they assert that human-to-human transmission of H5N1 virus is extremely rare. The event has also put the Rs 90,000 crore domestic poultry industry which was seeing some uptick in demand after months of low sales last year into a spot of bother, as any curb on sale or production of eggs or chicken could have a devastating impact on its revenues. It is estimated that around 60 million people are directly impacted by the poultry sector in India. H5N1 virus, also commonly known as bird flu, is known to spread from chickens but other birds such as ducks and crow are also carriers of the virus.
'If done well, the containment measures can help minimise the impact of the epidemic.'
'Give cash assistance of Rs 75 per person per day and an android phone and you will see the economy reviving.'
The experts said there is a need to relook at the testing strategy in a way that it results in guiding the public health response and effectively limiting the spread of the disease.
'Prevention plus vaccination is what is going to take us into better territory by September or October.'
The government's new initiative appears to be timely for health and hygiene players, battling low awareness and the lack of use of branded products.
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