'Given that the globally most prevalent clade of SARS-CoV-2 is also predominant in India, any vaccine or drug that gets developed in the world should also prove effective in India'
A nine-year-old lioness Neela and a male lion named Pathbanathan, aged 12 years, succumbed to COVID-19 earlier this month.
Findings of the Indian Council of Medical Research's fourth national Covid sero survey show there is a ray of hope, but there is no room for complacency and Covid-appropriate behaviour has to be followed, the government said.
Dominic Xavier's take on the ongoing global debate about the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
One in eight adults who are infected with SARS-CoV-2 experience long term symptoms due to Covid-19, according to one of the most comprehensive studies on the viral disease to date published in The Lancet journal on Friday.
In a letter to states and Union Territories, Union health secretary Sudhansh Pant underlined that "due to consistent and collaborative actions between the Centre and state governments, we have been able to sustain the (COVID-19) trajectory at sustainable low rates".
The research, published in the journal Scientific Reports, provided the first experimental evidence on the capacity of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 disease, to infect and be transmitted by mosquitoes.
"Of the samples of seven animals (four tigers and three lions) from the Tamil Nadu zoo, one lioness tested positive for SARS CoV-2 and distemper virus, one lioness for SARS CoV-2, and one lion tested positive for distemper virus," IVRI Joint Director K P Singh said.
India's drug regulator has given permission to Bharat Biotech to conduct phase-3 clinical trial for its intranasal Covid vaccine as booster dose on participants who have been previously inoculated with SARS-CoV 2 vaccines.
A Chinese team of virologists has discovered a new bat coronavirus that can infect human cells, raising concerns about potential animal-to-human transmission. The virus, a new lineage of the HKU5 coronavirus, uses the same human receptor as the virus that causes COVID-19. The study, led by Shi Zhengli, a prominent virologist at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, was published in the journal Cell. The discovery comes amid ongoing scrutiny of the Wuhan lab, which was previously accused of being the source of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Chinese government has denied any involvement in the virus's origin and insists that the Wuhan lab never engaged in gain-of-function studies on coronaviruses.
The rapid molecular test is highly accurate and easy to use, making it a prime candidate for use in settings with limited testing capabilities, according to the researchers.
Mortality rates were 0.7 per cent for Delta, 0.4 per cent for the original Omicron variant and 0.3 per cent for Omicron BA.2.
Considering the limited available evidence, the additional public health risk posed by JN.1 is currently evaluated as low at the global level, Singh said.
The identification of host dependency factors mediating virus infection may provide key insights into effective molecular targets for developing broadly acting antiviral therapeutics against SARS-CoV-2 and other deadly coronavirus strains, according to the researchers.
The findings, published in the Journal of Medical Virology, indicate that some of these products might be useful for reducing the viral load, or amount of virus, in the mouth after infection.
The study, published in Canadian Medical Association Journal, found that the risk to vaccinated people was lower when unvaccinated mixed with unvaccinated.
The study found that after 10 hours, the surrogate genetic material had spread to 41 per cent of sites sampled across the hospital ward, from bed rails to door handles to arm rests in a waiting room to children's toys and books in a play area.
In a letter to states and UTs, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said such an exercise will enable timely detection of newer variants, if any, circulating in the country and will facilitate undertaking of requisite public health measures.
Days after clusters of recombinant Delta and Omicron variants of coronavirus were reported from across the world, a leading virologist said there was no need to panic at the moment.
The first COVID-19 vaccine to reach phase I clinical trial is safe, well-tolerated, and capable of generating an immune response against the novel coronavirus in humans, says a new research published in The Lancet journal.
The 'antisera' has been developed by the ICMR in collaboration with a Hyderabad-based bio-pharmaceutical firm. "With Biological E Limited we have developed an horse 'antisera' and we have just got clearance for conducting clinical trials for that," ICMR Director General Dr Balram Bhargava said at press briefing.
The ICMR claimed that no country has yet reported successful isolation and culture of the UK-variant of SARS-CoV-2.
As the Omicron variant of Sars-CoV-2 takes centrestage, vaccine makers in India are of the view that scaling up the existing vaccines to make them more effective is possible.
Lower levels of ACE2 gene expression in nasal epithelium, the first point of contact for SARS-CoV-2 and the human body, may explain why children have a lower risk of Covid-19 infection and mortality, according to a study. The researchers found that ACE2 gene expression in nasal epithelium was lowest in younger children and increased with age.
The WHO has countries to enhance surveillance and sequencing efforts to better understand circulating SARS-CoV-2 variants, submit complete genome sequences and associated metadata to a publicly available database.
Named after Satyajit Ray's famed detective, the Feluda test, which is priced at Rs 500 and can deliver a result in 45 minutes, is able to differentiate SARS-CoV-2 from other coronaviruses even if genetic variations between them are minute.
Senior virologist Shahid Jameel on Sunday resigned as the chairman of scientific advisory group of Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium, a forum set up by union government in December last year for laboratory and epidemiological surveillance of circulating strains of COVID-19 in India.
"This antibody is both highly neutralising (meaning it works very well at low concentrations) and broadly neutralising (meaning it works against all variants)," said Michael S Diamond, a professor at Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis, US.
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Thursday said future decisions on COVID-19 SOPs will be taken in consultation with the Union Health Ministry and the state Task Force, amid a difference between the Centre and the state over guidelines for international travellers in the wake of the new variant of SARS-CoV2.
The objective of the study was to determine the genetic diversity among Indian SARS-CoV-2 viral isolates in comparison to the strains that are occurring worldwide.
The study may also help to explain the apparent persistence and spread of SARS-CoV-2 in cool environments with high lipid or protein contamination, such as meat processing facilities and how we might better address that risk, the researchers said.
One in 15 individuals aged 10 years and above were estimated to be exposed to SARS- CoV2 by August 2020, ICMR's 2nd sero-survey said.
Scientists have used virus-like particles to predict how environmental factors affect the survival of the novel coronavirus on surfaces, and found that the COVID-19 virus may remain infectious longer as temperatures drop in winter.
The study also noted that the booster dosage of the company's COVID-19 vaccine Vaxzevria also increased the immune response to Beta, Delta, Alpha and Gamma SARS-CoV-2 variants.
While Lupin is working on a Remdesivir powder for inhalation, Glenmark has tied up with a Canadian Biotech firm for nitric oxide nasal spray that reduces Sars-CoV-2 viral load and thus transmission.
'The ICMR and Biological E Limited, Hyderabad, have developed highly purified antisera (raised in animals) for prophylaxis and treatment of COVID-19,' the apex health research body said on Thursday. The 'antisera' is yet to undergo human clinical trials to establish its safety and efficacy and Drugs Controller General of India would be approached soon in this regard, Dr Samiran Panda, the head of epidemiology and communicable diseases at the ICMR said.
WHO has urged people at risk to keep up with their vaccinations with boosters.
The study, published in the Journal of Pediatrics, also challenges the current hypothesis that because children have lower numbers of immune receptors for SARS-CoV2, the virus that causes COVID-19, this makes them less likely to become infected or seriously ill.
The Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine provides less immunity against Omicron than from other coronavirus variants, according to a lab study that suggests a booster may still provide good protection.
Results from early-phase non-randomised vaccine trials in a total of 76 people show that two formulations of the vaccine have a good safety profile detected over 42 days, and induce antibody responses in all participants within 21 days.
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