The fourth wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in India may start around June 22 and peak from mid to late August, a modelling study by researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur suggests.
Loud applause and cheers rang out as the first jabs were administered to frontline workers at hospitals and healthcare centres across the country on Saturday at the start of the gargantuan COVID-19 vaccination exercise, hailed as a 'momentous' occasion in India's fight against the pandemic.
I think the 'What-if-it-had-been-Patel?' sentiment represents a yearning for more of what we are already seeing around us in India today, observes Aakar Patel.
'I was under the illusion that this could never happen to me because my background was such -- corporate CEO, IIT professor, IIT alumnus, IIM...'
The results are based on epidemiological data collected up to third week in June 2020 and the researchers say a comprehensive evaluation will need to follow after the pandemic has subsided.
In the global platform, India continues to register and maintain the lowest COVID-19 mortality rate, it said and asserted that this is a testimony to the focused, coordinated, pre-emptive, graded and evolving "test, track, treat" strategy and efforts of the Centre, states and Union Territories.
Expressing concern over the COVID-19 situation, the chief minister urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to widen the vaccination ambit to cover those younger than 60 as the mutant has been found to be infecting young people more, an official statement quoting him said.
The inclination for sex also increases because the messiness of periods, the need for contraception and the fear of pregnancy are over, the nest is empty and her partner retired, with all the time in the world at their disposal to indulge in such activities, which makes them enjoy it all the more!
According to an IMD forecast issued on Thursday, a heatwave spell will persist over northwest and central India during the next five days and over east India during the next three days.
This is the fifth consecutive day that COVID-19 cases have increased by more than 50,000 in the country.
Starting July 1, private hospitals in the country will no longer be allowed to directly procure COVID-19 vaccines from manufacturers and have to place orders on the Centre's CoWIN portal.
"India expands its vaccine basket! Johnson and Johnson's single-dose COVID-19 vaccine is given approval for Emergency Use in India. Now India has 5 EUA vaccines. This will further boost our nation's collective fight against COVID-19," tweeted the minister.
'There will be many Omicron cases in India, but much less hospitalisation and death than you had in the Delta wave'
The United Kingdom on Wednesday became the first country to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine against COVID-19, paving the way for mass vaccinations against the deadly novel coronavirus.
'If you delay the diagnosis even by 24 hours, in that 24 hours individuals would have affected more people.' 'So, contact tracing, testing, isolation, quarantine needs to continue.'
In a significant directive, the home ministry said that state governments shall not impose any local lockdown outside the containment zones without prior consultation with the central government.
'If you can simplify the technology, you don't need a doctor or a highly qualified technician to work on the technology; even an Asha health worker or a similar front line health worker can use it with minimal training.'
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.
Vardhan noted that COVID-19 infection among those vaccinated would be very mild and not progress to an advanced stage.
'Why should our government opt for unproven technology that has been rejected by most countries across the globe?' 'Being dependent on any other nation to supply you seed for your good crops is another form of slavery.'
'Scientifically the effect and change of Delta plus has to be watched through our INSACOG system. This has to be detected and we have to see its presence in the country'
Each vaccination session will cater to a maximum of 100 beneficiaries and the Union Health Ministry has advised states not to organise 'unreasonable numbers of vaccination per site per day'.
This will boost availability of these items as well as make them cheaper, it said, adding that Modi also directed the revenue department to ensure seamless and quick custom clearance of such equipment.
India's recovery rate amongst the COVID-19 patients has reached 75.92 per cent. The recovered patients are 3.41 times the active cases.
All these persons have been kept in single room isolation at designated health care facilities by respective state governments and their close contacts have also been put under quarantine, the ministry 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.
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.
India is committed to supplying COVID-19 vaccines to other nations and such supplies are likely to begin by the end of this year, as the abundant production will not just meet domestic needs but also generate surplus for exports a top government official said on Monday.
A technical advisory group of the UN health agency which met on Tuesday has sought "additional clarifications" from Bharat Biotech for Covaxin to conduct a final "risk-benefit assessment" for Emergency Use Listing of the vaccine.
World over, pluralism is in retreat. Luckily for us, Indian pluralism and its consequent tolerance of diversity is rooted in our basic values. As long as we remain faithful to these values and keep our institutions in good health, the Indian miracle of last 75 years is likely to last centuries, asserts Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
Speaking after virtually launching COVID-19 testing facilities in Noida, Mumbai and Kolkata, Modi said that in the fight against coronavirus, India has come to a point where it does not lack in awareness, its scientific data is expanding and resources are also increasing.
Whether the third wave will ravage us depends on the pace of vaccinations, careful and calibrated opening up of establishments, and a strategy to contain the spread in specific states or pockets.
The decision was taken at a high-level meeting chaired by Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai in which senior ministers including Revenue Minister Ashoka, Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar and Higher Education Minister Dr C N Ashwath Narayan, medical experts and senior officials participated.
As the COVID wave gradually shifts to rural areas, several states are gearing up to check its spread through self-proclaimed lockdowns by Panchayati Raj institutions, creating a database of migrants and providing free online medical consultation to the sick.
The state also said that the police had recorded the statements of 400 witnesses so far and the investigators were in the process of finding the whereabouts of a doctor, who was an accused in the incident that took place at a housing society in suburban Kandivali, where one such camp was held.
The mercury at the Safdarjung Observatory is expected to breach the 43-degree mark on Thursday and touch 44 degrees Celsius by Friday, according to the India meteorological department.
India's economic growth is now 'extremely fragile' and needs all the support that it can get, as private consumption and capital investment are yet to pick up, RBI Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) member Jayanth R Varma said on Friday. Varma further said out of the four engines of growth for the economy, exports and government spending supported the Indian economy through the pandemic, but other engines need to pick up the baton now. " I like to think in terms of the four engines of growth for the economy: exports, government spending, capital investment and private consumption. "...while exports cannot be the main driver of growth because of the global slowdown, government spending is necessarily limited by fiscal constraints," he told PTI.
Choubey said till February 4 total 81 AEFIs, which is 0.096 per cent of the total beneficiaries who have been administered Covaxin, have been reported.
The panel was informed that the economic impact of the second wave of viral infection was "asynchronous in its onset and wider in its spread particularly in rural hinterland", a source said.
Responding to another question, Choubey said that the phase-I of clinical trials have revealed excellent safety of the two candidate vaccines indigenously developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with Indian Council of Medical Research and Cadila Healthcare Ltd, and now their immunogenicity testing is in progress. Their phase II clinical trials are ongoing.
