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.
After the outbreak of Nipah at a hamlet in Perambra last week, 16 people have tested positive, of whom 13 have died so far.
'At this age we all know that death is inevitable, but everyone wants to die with dignity.' 'The judges have given the answer.'
On Monday, around 5,000 nurses of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi went on a strike over their long pending demands, including those with regard to the Sixth Central Pay Commission.
It has triggered a cause of concern for India too as many of the 700 odd Indian students studying in universities of Wuhan and Hubei provinces are still stuck up there.
Swaraj's intervention came after the infant's father brought the matter to her notice on Twitter.
By Thursday, 830 confirmed cases of pneumonia, caused by the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), had been reported in 29 provincial-level regions in the country.
Several trains were cancelled, highways and key roads blocked and many thousands stranded for hours on Monday as a nationwide 10-hour shutdown against the Centre's three agri laws disrupted lives across parts of India, particularly in the north.
India's likely medium-term potential growth will almost certainly be markedly lower than that experienced in pre-pandemic years, warns Shankar Acharya, former chief economic advisor to the Government of India.
Addressing his council of ministers in a video conference, Modi asked them to prepare business continuity plans to fight the economic impact of COVID-19 on a war footing, but also asserted that this crisis is an opportunity to boost the 'Make-in-India' initiative and reduce dependence on other countries.
Many of those who have been to Covid hell and back are unable to shake off the memories of their days in hospitals, leading to worries about post-traumatic stress disorder and other anxiety related problems, including insomnia.
Nepal draws tourists from China, Europe, USA, Australia and India.
You need, first of all, to figure out how we messed it all up so badly. You need to fix accountability. None of that is happening, says Vir Sanghvi.
'The COVID-19 pandemic must push the military into a long-term reconsideration of its primary challenges.' 'There must be greater emphasis on humanitarian aid and disaster relief including the management of contagious illnesses and impending crises caused by climate change,' notes Ajai Shukla.
A group of public health experts, including doctors from All India Institute of Medical Sciences and members from the national taskforce on COVID-19, have said that mass, indiscriminate and incomplete vaccination can trigger emergence of mutant strains and recommended that there is no need to inoculate those who had documented coronavirus infection.
As India gets ready to roll out one of the largest vaccine programmes, billionaire Mukesh Ambani on Tuesday said his group is working with authorities to provide technology tools and backbone for mass inoculation against COVID-19. Ambani's telecom venture Jio was rolled out four years back, offering free voice calling and dirt-cheap data. Today, Jio is India's largest telecom operator with over 400 million users, each connected to the internet. At a Facebook event, Ambani said the government's digital push kept the country running even during the pandemic and is now helping in the rollout of one of the largest vaccination programmes.
The two western states, already battling a raging pandemic, which has put their health infrastructure under severe strain, opened new fronts to tackle the fallout of the storm which is expected to make a landfall close to Mumbai on Wednesday. They are likely to be impacted most by the cyclone.
Rediff.com's Syed Firdaus Ashraf traces the journey of PM-CARES from its founding to finally admitting it is not a government fund.
Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Health Lav Agarwal said that India has a stock of 3.28 crore tablets of hydroxychloroquine, which is three time more than the projected requirement of one crore tablets in the country for the coming week and that tie-ups have been made for additional supply of 2 to 3 crore tablets for the future need.
The overall confirmed cases on the mainland reached 80,735 by the end of Sunday which included 3,119 people who have died so far.
The Biden administration has come under criticism from several quarters, including from members and supporters of the Democratic party, for not releasing surplus COVID-19 vaccines to India when the country is experiencing its worst-ever public health crisis.
Taking exception to Health Minister Harsh Vardhan not mentioning the death of healthcare workers due to Covid-19 in his statement in Parliament, the Indian Medical Association has published a list of 382 doctors who died due to the viral disease and demanded that they be treated as "martyrs".
The vaccine candidate, ZyCoV-D, showed a "strong immune response" in animal studies, and the antibodies produced were able to completely neutralise the wild type virus, Zydus said. The 12 institutes have been asked by the ICMR to fast track clinical trials of the vaccine as it is being considered as one of the top priority projects which are being monitored at the topmost level of the government.
Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Moderna's announcement comes just a week after Pfizer and Biontech said their COVID-19 vaccine candidate was found to be more than 90 per cent effective in preventing COVID-19 in participants.
The president said he had discussed with Prime Minister Modi on when the US would be able to send actual vaccines to India.
The Oxford vaccine, which also has a tie-up with the Serum Institute of India, was first administered to Brian Pinker, an 82-year-old Oxford-born dialysis patient. Pinker is among the first to be vaccinated by the Oxford University Hospital's (OUH) chief nurse, hailed as a major milestone in the phased vaccination programme being undertaken by the National Health Service (NHS).
'We still have 30,000-40,000 cases.' 'It is plateauing, but the number should definitely come down more so that we can convert the pandemic into an endemic.'
'If the Olympics were to spread infection, then what are the Olympics for?'
India is the fifth worst-hit nation by the COVID-19 pandemic after the United States, Brazil, Russia and the United Kingdom, according to data issued by the Johns Hopkins University.
'We have the technical expertise, and international collaborations. We also have robust real-time data. We are a university of pandemic management. If the ministry neglects the role of NCDC, it is the loss of the country'
A total 95 deaths deaths were reported since Friday morning, of which 37 in Maharashtra, 24 in Gujarat, nine in West Bengal, seven in Madhya Pradesh, four each from Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, three from Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu and two from Delhi and one each from Punjab and Haryana.
'If we vaccinate quickly, it could be pushed to January, February, and the longer it can be pushed, the smaller the wave is likely to be, because by that time vaccination will scale up.'
The callousness with which these political dissidents are being treated goes against the Supreme Court's directive, given right at the beginning of the lockdown. The apex court had directed states to release prisoners to decongest jails, which had become hotspots of the coronavirus.
In his opening address, Prime Minister Modi said the South Asian region has reported less than 150 coronavirus cases, but "we need to remain vigilant". "Prepare, but don't panic" has been India's guiding mantra in dealing with coronavirus outbreak, he said.
Starting Wednesday, Beijing halts return to campus, and resumes online courses for middle and primary school students, as well as suspends college students' return to campus, the reports said.
In a daily briefing from Downing Street after his latest Cabinet Office Briefing Rooms emergency meeting with senior scientists and advisers, Boris Johnson called for people to start working from home and said the government would no longer support mass gatherings in order to focus emergency services towards the health crisis.
How China's all powerful Communist party bungled the response to the coronavirus crisis.
States should ensure a weekly positivity rate of less than 5 per cent, vaccination coverage of at least 70 per cent among the vulnerable section, and community ownership of Covid-appropriate behaviour, reports Ruchika Chitravanshi.
Around 1 out of every 5 people who gets COVID-19 becomes seriously ill and develops breathing difficulty, according to the World Health Organisation.
Based on this price, state governments, private hospitals, industrial establishments, etc would be able to procure vaccine doses from the manufacturers.
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