Coronavirus update: Karnataka govt issues new guidelines for home isolation

Karnataka government issued the guidelines for home isolation of Covid-19 patients in the state.

Karnataka Government on Wednesday issued the guidelines for home isolation of COVID-19 patients in the state. After the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the state government has permitted the persons tested with COVID-19 to be under home isolation with some conditions. According to the government, only asymptomatic or mild symptomatic people shall be allowed to be in isolation at home. The health team from district health authority will be visiting the house of COVID-19 positive patient to assess the suitability for home isolation and triage of the patient.

They have mandated the regular check-up, tele-consultation for COVID-19 patients while the patient has to report to the physician or health authorities about their health status every day. The patient shall have pulse oximeter, digital thermometer and personal protective equipment (facemasks, gloves) to be used during home isolation, read the guideline. The home isolation shall be with the knowledge of the family members, neighbours, treating physician and local health authorities, it said.

Covid-19 has not changed in terms of transmissibility, severity: WHO expert

The statement came in the wake of the recent media reports, citing Alberto Zangrillo, the head of the San Raffaele Hospital in Italy’s Milan, that the novel coronavirus was losing its potency

There is no evidence that the novel coronavirus has changed both in terms of the transmissibility and the severity of the disease, said Maria Van Kerkhove, Covid-19 technical lead at the World Health Organization.

The statement came in the wake of the recent media reports, citing Alberto Zangrillo, the head of the San Raffaele Hospital in Italy’s Milan, that the novel coronavirus was losing its potency, while the fatality risk was decreasing. According to the doctor, a test run over the past 10 days showed that a viral load in quantitative terms was much less compared to the one carried out a month or two months ago.

“In terms of the transmissibility, that has not changed. In terms of the severity that has not changed,” Van Kerkhove said.Meanwhile, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that the world is “losing its ability” to use critically important antimicrobial medicines. Speaking at a virtual press conference on Monday, the WHO chief said that the Covid-19 pandemic has led to an increased use of antibiotics, which ultimately will lead to higher bacterial resistance rates, news agency IANS reported…Read More

Coronavirus scare: Over 140,000 fliers under surveillance, says Kejriwal

The chief minister said that 168 isolation beds have been set up at 25 hospitals for coronavirus patients.

The Delhi government has requested DTC and group transports, metro and emergency clinics to be cleaned all the time as a careful step to manage the novel coronavirus, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Sunday. Tending to a question and answer session, Kejriwal said that three instances of coronavirus have been accounted for in Delhi up until this point and one case is still under scrutiny. The central priest said that 168 detachment beds have been set up at 25 emergency clinics for coronavirus patients. He spoke to the individuals in Delhi that in the event that anyone from their neighborhood had come back from outside nations in the previous 14 days, they ought to educate the administration.

The main priest, who led a state team on Sunday, said the legislature was completely arranged to manage the novel coronavirus, including that individuals don’t have to freeze. “A request has been given to sterilize DTC, group transports, Delhi Metro and emergency clinics consistently,” he said. “Three instances of coronavirus have been accounted for in Delhi up until now. One case is still under scrutiny. I need to advise this to everybody that the Delhi government is stressed over it yet we are completely arranged to handle it.

There is no compelling reason to frenzy and we need everybody’s participation,” he said. In the wake of looking at the three cases, it was found out that the main tainted individual interacted with 105 individuals, second interacted with 168 over the most recent 14 days while the third individual interacted with 64 individuals, he said.”All the individuals who interacted with them are being disengaged and their examples are being gathered and checked for manifestations,” he included. Sound individuals need not wear cover and there is no compelling reason to stock up veils at your homes it is possible that, he said.

Low health care expenditure to impact risk-pooling model: NITI Aayog

Think tank plans building up system for middle class, which isn’t covered under any health scheme

The country’s low expenditure on public health care (estimated to be 0.9-1.1 per cent of GDP) is a big constraint in growing the subsidised risk pooling model in health care.

This is particularly true for the poor and sick and those who need them the most, a report by NITI Aayog, released on Monday, said. The current Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY), commonly known as Ayushman Bharat, is an example of a subsidised risk pooling model in the health care sector.

The report titled, ‘Health Systems for a New India: Building Blocks – Potential Pathways to Reforms’ that was released by NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Rajiv Kumar, in the presence of Bill Gates, said better evidence-based decisions on what components of the health care package are to be subsidised for these populations are the need of the hour.

The Aayog, meanwhile, is mulling building up a health care system for the middle class, which is still not covered under any public health care system. The system would exclude those covered under the newly-launched Ayushman Bharat scheme that mainly caters to the bottom 40 per cent population of the country.

Meanwhile, the report said that estimates suggest that per-capita expenditures in health care for the poor (after cost-effective public goods are financed for the entire population) would more than triple if public funds were to be fully targeted only for the poor. While India’s public expenditure on health care has stagnated at around 0.9-1.1 per cent of GDP, in China it is 3.2 per cent of GDP. In Chile, it is 4.9 per cent and 9.4 per cent of GDP in Germany.

Mental health to trauma, what are the unimaginable costs of sexual assault?

Economists measure the cost of health and mental health care and days of productivity lost

What is the cost of sexual assault? The answer depends on whom you ask.

Social and behavioural scientists like me measure the consequences of sexual assault in terms of mental health, physical health and educational outcomes. |BS|  We know that post-traumatic stress symptoms may last for years and even decades. Health is compromised indirectly, in ways unknown and unknowable to victims.

Economists measure the cost of health and mental health care and days of productivity lost. Other costs, however, are intangible, harder to quantify. We might call them quality-of-life issues. What might these costs include?

Two doors

Dr. Christine Blasey Ford might put her desire to have two doors in the front of her house – and the couple’s therapy bills that followed that panic-driven request – into the intangible category.

As for me, I have lived in a single-story house for 25 years. I have avoided leaving my home after dark so that I don’t have to re-enter it. (Sexual assault) Errands I don’t complete in daylight stray into the next day. I ask for restaurant seats against the wall, arrange my desk to face the door, and am always aware of the nearest exits. I have loved successive German shepherd dogs who gave me comfort while I slept and security to stroll my neighbourhood. Twenty-five years ago, I descended a staircase and encountered a man wielding a tire iron. He bludgeoned my head and tried to rape me.

I suffered multiple surgeries, endured years of therapy, and still startle more easily than a cat. But far from being damaged, I consider myself thriving, some might say flourishing – despite the costs I incur. I have fixed the problem of who lurks on the first floor by not having a second one. But the problem of entering my house after dark remains. I am wary of who may be there when I return, even with multiple locks, an alarm system and those sweet German shepherds. | Business Standard