25% of patients could have caught Covid-19 in all 3 waves: Practo Report

 The report ‘Understanding Covid-19: Comparing all three waves in India’ analyses how Indians accessed healthcare during the three covid waves.

The data collated by health tech firm Practo about the three waves of Covid-19 pandemic shows that about 25 per cent of the patients could have caught the Covid-19 in all three waves. The report ‘Understanding Covid-19: Comparing all three waves in India’ analyses how Indians accessed healthcare during the three covid waves. The average time spent by a patient with a doctor online during this time was 30 minutes, which is comparable to in-person visits.

In the last two years, digital healthcare has played an important role in managing the Covid-19 pandemic. With speculations about the impending fourth wave going on, it is necessary to understand the health trends from the first three waves so that we, as a community, are better prepared for it.

Report findings during all three waves:

70% of all online consultations for Covid-19

Second wave was the deadliest with a 690% surge in online consultations at its peak

57% of all telemedicine users experienced it for the first time

54% of all online consultations were from millennials and Gen Zs

There was 50% growth in alternative medicine like Ayurveda and Homeopathy… Read More

Trump wants a vaccine by end of this year but the barriers are too high

But the administration has also offered timelines for a vaccine that fly in the face of almost every experience in pharmaceutical history

Every effort to develop a new medicine is like launching a ship across the ocean to hunt for riches. Over the years, we’ve improved the hulls and masts, the maps are better, the sailors more experienced. But even so, vessels get turned back or new lands are barren. And, sometimes, a squall takes down the boat and all her crew.

The Trump administration has set sail on one of the most ambitious vaccine development efforts in history. Operation Warp Speed is likely to deliver a Covid-19 inoculation in a fraction of the years it would usually take. If it does so, it could save the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and economies around the world.

But the administration has also offered timelines for a corona vaccine that fly in the face of almost every experience in pharmaceutical history. On Tuesday night, President Donald Trump said a shot could be ready in three or four weeks. Then, on Wednesday, Paul Mango, deputy chief of staff for policy at the Department of Health and Human Services and one of the senior leaders of the Warp Speed program, said every American could be vaccinated by the end of March.

Mango said that there are enough doses in production and that trials are moving at a speed so that “the combination of those two will permit us to vaccinate every American before the end of first quarter 2021.” A few hours later, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said that “we do believe that it will be widely available by the end of” this year, though also referred to doses of the vaccine being production by then, as opposed to actually distributed.

Hong Kong begins mass-testing for virus amid public doubts

The virus-testing program has become a flash point of political debate in Hong Kong, with many distrustful over resources and staff being provided by the China

Hong Kong began a voluntary mass-testing programme for coronavirus on Tuesday as part of a strategy to break the chain of transmission in the city’s third outbreak of the disease. The virus-testing programme has become a flash point of political debate in Hong Kong, with many distrustful over resources and staff being provided by the China’s central government and fears that the residents’ DNA could be collected during the exercise.

The Hong Kong government has dismissed such concerns, saying that no personal data will be attached to the specimen bottles and that samples will be destroyed in Hong Kong after the exercise. The testing programme began at 8 am with residents heading to more than 100 testing centres staffed by over 5,000 volunteers.

More than 500,000 people in the city of 7.5 million signed up in advance for the programme, which will last at least a week. It is aimed at identifying silent carriers of the virus those without symptoms who could be spreading the disease. The government expects 5 million people will take part in the programme, which could be extended to two weeks depending on demand. Hong Kong’s worst outbreak in early July was blamed in part on an exemption from quarantine requirements for airline staff, truck drivers from mainland China and sailors on cargo ships.

Blood clots, lung injuries found in patients who have died of Covid: Study

The research team behind the study believe that the findings could help guide clinicians on treating complications as a result of Covid

Ten post-mortem examinations performed on patients with confirmed COVID-19 found that all patients had lung injuries and early scarring of the lungs as a result of the virus, as well as injury to their kidneys. Nine patients also had thrombosis – a blood clot, in at least one major organ (heart, lung or kidney).

The team was unable to investigate thrombosis in the tenth patient. The research team behind the study believe that the findings could help guide clinicians on treating complications as a result of COVID-19, such as using blood thinners to prevent blood clots from developing. They also hope that a better understanding of the key complications in severe cases could help clinicians develop new ways to monitor and treat the disease.

The study, published in The Lancet Microbe, was led by researchers at Imperial College London and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. Although the number of patients examined is small, this is the largest study to date of post-mortem examinations on COVID-19 patients in England.

Dr Michael Osborn, Honorary Clinical Senior Lecturer at Imperial College London, Consultant Pathologist at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and co-author of the study, said: “COVID-19 is a new disease and we have only had limited opportunities to comprehensively analyse tissues from patients at autopsy, to better understand what caused a patient’s illness and death for research purposes.

PM Modi to launch ‘high-throughput’ Covid-19 testing facilities in 3 cities

Facilities will ramp up testing capacity in the country and help in strengthening early detection and treatment

Current Affair : Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Monday launch ‘high-throughput’ Covid-19 testing facilities in three cities — Noida, Mumbai and Kolkata — via video conferencing. According to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), these facilities will ramp up testing capacity in the country and help in strengthening early detection and treatment, thus assisting in controlling the spread of the pandemic.

“These three high-throughput testing facilities have been set up strategically at ICMR-National Institute of Cancer Prevention and Research, Noida; ICMR-National Institute for Research in Reproductive Health, Mumbai; and ICMR-National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases, Kolkata, and will be able to test over 10,000 samples in a day,” PMO said in a release.

Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan, along with Chief Ministers of Maharashtra, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh are expected to participate in the event. India reported a spike of 48,661 coronavirus cases, taking the total Covid-19 cases to 13,85,522, said the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Sunday.

US leading the world in Covid-19 testing, India at second, says Trump

Trump assures that the vaccines against the novel coronavirus will be coming a lot sooner than expected

The United States is leading the world in terms of Covid-19 testing and India is at second position, President Donald Trump said while giving an update on his administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. So far more than 140,000 Americans have died due to coronavirus and 3.8 million have tested positive. While the US economy is slowly coming back to normal, the pandemic is now spreading in the Sun Belt of the country.

“As one family, we mourn every precious life that’s been lost. I pledge in their honour that we will develop a vaccine and we will defeat the virus. We’re doing very well with vaccine development and therapeutic development,” Donald Trump said at a White House news conference on Tuesday, his first on coronavirus after several weeks. “We’ve learned so much about this disease. And we know who the vulnerable are, and we are going to indeed shield them,” he said.

Trump assured that the vaccines against the novel coronavirus will be coming a lot sooner than expected. Replying to a question, Trump said the US is leading the world” in terms of Covid-19 testing. “We’re going to be over 50 million tests,” he said, adding that “second country is India with 12 million (tests). Then you have seven million, six million, and four million. I think that we are doing a tremendous amount of testing.”

Covid-19: Alcohol-based hand sanitizers to attract 18% GST, rules AAR

Springfields (India) Distilleries had moved Goa AAR over classification of the hand sanitizer and the applicable rate of GST.

Amid the ongoing debate over goods and services tax (GST) rate on hand sanitizers, the Goa bench of the GST Authority of Advance Ruling (AAR) has held that the alcohol-based hygiene product will attract 18 per cent GST. It added that its classification as an essential commodity cannot be a criteria for exemption from GST.

Springfields (India) Distilleries had moved Goa AAR over classification of the hand sanitizer and the applicable rate of GST. It also sought an opinion on whether it will be exempt from GST as the consumer affairs ministry has classified hand sanitizers as essential commodity.

The applicant was of the view that hand sanitizers are covered under the medicament category, and should be taxed at 12 per cent under GST. However, the AAR bench ruled that, “Hand sanitizers manufactured by the applicant are of the category of alcohol-based sanitizers and are classifiable under heading 3808 of the Harmonised System of Nomenclature (HSN) to which the rate of GST applicable is 18 per cent.” Regarding the second query, the AAR said that there is a separate notification under GST law for exempted goods and services. “Merely classifying any goods as an essential commodity will not be the criteria for exempting such goods from GS.”

US Covid-19 vaccine test results bring 'good news,' final trial soon: Fauci

No matter how you slice this, this is good news, says Dr Anthony Fauci, the US government's top infectious disease expert

The first Covid-19 vaccine tested in the US revved up people's immune systems just the way scientists had hoped, researchers reported Tuesday, as the shots are poised to begin key final testing. No matter how you slice this, this is good news, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the US government's top infectious disease expert, told The Associated Press.

The experimental vaccine, developed by Fauci's colleagues at the National Institutes of Health and Moderna Inc., will start its most important step around July 27: A 30,000-person study to prove if the shots really are strong enough to protect against the coronavirus. But Tuesday, researchers reported anxiously awaited findings from the first 45 volunteers who rolled up their sleeves back in March. Sure enough, the vaccine provided a hoped-for immune boost.

Those early volunteers developed what are called neutralizing antibodies in their bloodstream -- molecules key to blocking infection -- at levels comparable to those found in people who survived Covid-19, the research team reported in the New England Journal of Medicine...Read More

Coronavirus outbreak: India cancels Chinese rapid antibody test kit orders

ICMR cancels Wondfo’s test kits; row on prices and efficacy erupts

By the middle of May, more clarity is expected on ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) test that has better sensitivity and is expected to have 95 per cent accuracy as opposed to 60 per cent accuracy of the rapid antibody tests. Another test, using chemiluminescence technology, is also under consideration. The accuracy is expected to be higher, in the range of 99 per cent.

The controversy around the efficacy and pricing of the rapid tests may change the way India now tests for the novel coronavirus. Sources say once the final results on these tests are out, India is likely to include these in the testing protocol for coronavirus disease (Covid-19). An industry source revealed that discussions are on with the government to consider these tests. “Once, the final outcomes on these tests come, in around a month or so, we can start importing these kits if the government approves,” said the source.

By the middle of May, more clarity is expected on ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) test that has better sensitivity and is expected to have 95 per cent accuracy as opposed to 60 per cent accuracy of the rapid antibody tests. Another test, using chemiluminescence technology, is also under consideration. The accuracy is expected to be higher, in the range of 99 per cent.

“ELISA is highly sensitive and specific and is able to detect HIV-1/ HIV-2 and variants. It requires sophisticated equipment, a constant supply of electricity, and skilled technicians. It is not suitable for small laboratories, but for testing large numbers of samples per day, as well as in blood banks or for surveillance studies. The simple or rapid tests are better for emergency testing, and in smaller laboratories with low numbers of tests per day,” the World Health Organization has said on its website…Read More