Heena Sharma Blog

  The civic limits of Kalyan and Navi Mumbai have over 3,000 active cases of coronavirus , while Thane city is nearing 2,000 active cases, district authorities said on Friday. According to an official report, with an addition of 1,172 new cases on Thursday, the COVID-19 tally in Thane district has now reached 1,18,911. Moreover, 37 latest casualties in the district, including 10 from Kalyan alone, have raised the toll to 3,423, the report stated. Most COVID-19 cases have been reported from Kalyan, Thane and Navi Mumbai areas that have so far recorded 27,684, 25,076 and 24,585 cases respectively, an official said. The recovery rate in the district stood at 86.75 per cent, while the mortality was at 2.88 per cent, he said. Read More

  N95 masks may be the most effective at reducing the spread of the novel coronavirus, according a study by researchers, including those from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), which suggests that any mask is better than no mask at preventing COVID-19 . The researchers noted that airborne transmission by respiratory aerosol droplets produced during coughing and sneezing is the dominant mode of spreading for infectious diseases such as COVID-19. Padmanabha Prasanna Simha, from ISRO, and Prasanna Simha Mohan Rao, from the Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Research in Karnataka, experimentally visualised the flow fields of coughs under various common mouth covering scenarios. The, study published in the journal Physics of Fluids, found N95 masks to be the most effective at reducing the horizontal spread of a cough. Read More  

  The global count of coronavirus cases has now reached 23.8 million, expected to cross 24 million soon. Of this, roughly 27 per cent of cases, or over 6.6 million, are currently active. The global death toll stands at 817,000 plus, with the US having the highest number of fatalities. India’s confirmed case tally is over 3.1 million now, with 22.2 per cent cases still active. Recovery rate has now risen to over 75 per cent, with over 2.4 million successfully cured. India's mortality rate stands at 1.84 per cent, with 58,390 deaths till now. In a positive trend, India witnessed its highest drop in active cases in a single day, a fall of 6,423 cases. However, in over two months, daily active cases have been in the negative just four times, of which one instance was of quite negligible consequence, with the gap between new cases and new recoveries at just 54 cases. Read More

  Due to the increase in the number of tests in the country, the positive rate of the virus has reduced, Rajesh Bhushan, Secretary, Union Health Ministry said on Tuesday. Addressing a press conference he said, "The positive rate of Covid-19 has decreased due to the increase in the number of tests. In the last 24 hours, 60 thousand 975 new cases of the corona were reported in the country. 848 people died. 66 thousand 550 patients recovered." Divulging further Bhushan said that only less than 3 per cent of the total active cases are on oxygen support and active cases are decreasing day by day in the country. "A total of 7,04,348 patients are undergoing treatment. The number of active cases is decreasing day by day in the country. Today only 15 per cent of cases come in hospitals while only 2.70 per cent of the total active cases are on oxygen support," he said. Read More

  With a record 66,550 patients recovering from COVID-19 in a day,the total recoveries have surged to 24.04 lakh pushing the recovery rate to 75.92 per cent, while the active cases comprise only 22.24 per centof the total cases, the Union Health Ministry said on Tuesday. In a testimony of the government's policy of testingaggressively, tracking comprehensively and treating efficiently, the total number of recoveries haveoutpaced the active cases by more than 17 lakh. "The steadily fallingCOVID-19 case fatality rates stands at 1.84 per cent as on date.There has been more than100 per cent increase in the recoveries in the last 25 days," the ministry highlighted. "India's recovery rate amongst the COVID-19 patients has reached75.92 per cent.The recovered patients are 3.41 times the active cases, as on date," it said. Read More               

  India's Covid-19 recovery rate soared past 74 per cent on Friday with a record 62,282 patients having recuperated and discharged in a day taking the total recoveries to 21.5 lakh, the Union Health Ministry said. The Covid-19 case fatality rate has dropped further to 1.89 per cent as on date. With more patients recovering and being discharged from hospitals and home isolation, the total recoveries have surged to21,58,946 and exceeds active cases of coronavirus infection by 14,66,918 as on date. India's Covid-19 recovery rate has risen to 74.30 per cent which is further bolstered by 33 states and UTs reporting recovery rate more than 50 per cent, it said. From 52.8 per cent on June 17, the recovery rate improved to 63.24 per cent on July 16 and further to 74.30 per cent as on date. Read More

Scientists have genetically modified a " mild virus " which generates antibodies in humans just like the novel coronavirus, but without causing severe disease, an advance which they say will enable more labs across the world to safely test drugs and vaccine candidates against COVID-19 . The researchers from the Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis in the US engineered the mildly infecting vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) which virologists widely use in experiments by swapping one of its genes for one from the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. According to the study, published in the journal Cell Host & Microbe, the resulting hybrid virus infects cells, and is recognised by antibodies in humans just like SARS-CoV-2, but can be handled under ordinary laboratory safety conditions. Since the novel coronavirus spreads easily via aerosols, and is potentially deadly, the scientists said it is studied only under high-level biosafety conditions. Read More ...

The Covid-19 lockdown-led reduction in air pollution levels across five Indian cities in India, including Delhi and Mumbai, may have prevented about 630 premature deaths, and saved $690 million in health costs in the country, according to a new study. Scientists, including those from the University of Surrey in the UK, assessed the levels of harmful fine particulate matter (PM2.5) from vehicles and other sources in five Indian cities -- Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Hyderabad -- since the beginning of the lockdown period. The study, published in the journal Sustainable Cities and Society, compared these lockdown PM2.5 figures from 25 March up until 11 May, with those from similar periods of the preceding five years, and found that the measure reduced pollution levels in all these places. According to the scientists, during this period, the levels of these harmful air pollutants reduced by 10 per cent in Mumbai, and by up to 54 per cent in Delhi. Read More

Kerala finance minister Thomas Isaac on how his govt is handling the pandemic: Watch this interview with Kerala finance minister Issac Thomas about the successes and challenges of tackling the financial impact of the Covid-19 pandemic , public health systems, and on managing the future. How ‘disease detectives’ are battling the coronavirus pandemic: In this interview Professor Madhukar Pai, Canada Research Chair in Epidemiology and Global Health at McGill University, Montreal, explains the role of epidemiologists or ‘disease detectives’ in battling Covid-19, why it’s tough for epidemiological disease models to predict the future of the pandemic and the challenge of imperfect data.   Read More

Hetero Healthcare Ltd is supplying 60,000 vials of Covifor, generic version of Remdesivir injection in the country from July 13 to 20, the company website said. Covifor is the first generic brand of Remdesivir, which is meant for treatment of COVID-19 patients that are adults and children, hospitalised with severe symptoms of the disease. The drug is available in 100 mg vial (Injectable). It needs to be administered intravenously in a hospital, critical care setting, under the supervision of a registered medical practitioner. Out of 60,000 vials, Maharashtra, which has the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the country will get 12,500 followed by Delhi and Telangana with 10,000 and 9,000 respectively. According to the website, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka will get 7500, 6000, 2000 and 3000 respectively while the rest of the country will get 10,000 injections. Read More

Prisons across Maharashtra reported a total of 763 COVID-19 cases till date. The figure includes 596 inmates and 167 jail staff, informed the Maharashtra Prison Department on Friday. The highest number of cases was reported from Nagpur Central Prison with 219 inmates and 57 jail staff testing positive for the novel coronavirus. A total of 281 inmates and 93 jail staff have recovered so far. Four inmate deaths have been reported due to COVID-19. According to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Maharashtra continues to be the worst-hit state by the COVID-19 pandemic in the country with a total of 2.30 lakh cases. With the highest single-day spike of 26,506 COVID-19 cases and 475 deaths reported in the last 24 hours, the total number of COVID-19 cases in India reached 7,93,802 on Friday, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Read More

India's COVID-19 tally raced pastthe seven-lakh mark on Tuesday after a single-day spike of22,252 infections,five days after crossing the six-lakh post, while thedeath toll breached the 20,000 mark, according to theUnion Health Ministrydata. It took110days for coronavirus infections in the country to reach the one-lakh,while just 49 days more to go past theseven-lakhmark. This is the fifth consecutiveday that COVID-19 cases have increased by more than 20,000. The country's coronavirus infectioncaseload increased to 7,19,665 on Tuesday, while the death toll climbed to 20,160 with467 persons succumbing to the disease in the last 24 hours, the data updated at 8 am showed. The number of recoveries stands at 4,39,947, while there are 2,59,557 active cases of coronavirus infection presently in the country. Read More

The Delhi Fire Services has received over 750 applications for issuance of no objection certificates since the coronavirus lockdown began, but has not been able to conduct inspections amid the rising number of infections, officials said on Monday. Fire-safety no objection certificates (NOCs) are presently only being issued on an emergency basis during the lockdown for government establishments and hospitals after following the protocol, officials said. Officials said since the nationwide lockdown, they had received applications for NOCs from various establishments, including industries, restaurants, guest houses, hotels and schools. The maximum applications were received from guest houses and restaurants, a majority of which are still closed due to the restrictions imposed in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic. Read More

India’s caseload tops the 6 lakh-mark, six days after it breached the 5 lakh-mark, with 19,148 new cases in the last 24 hours. The country’s coronavirus tally now stands at 604,641 cases. The death toll, meanwhile, has reached 17,834, with 434 fatalities in a day. The states that have reported the biggest 24-hour jump in active cases are Maharashtra (3,096), Karnataka (1,120), Tamil Nadu (967), Delhi (737), and Gujarat (286). With 11,881 people being treated successfully in the last 24 hours, India’s recovery rate has improved marginally to 59.5% while the death rate has come down slightly to 2.9%. Pharma companies including Abbott India, Pfizer, and Ipca Lab are among the eleven companies that, according to ICICI Securities, are likely to be included in the futures & options (F&O) segment. Read More

The global count of confirmed coronavirus cases stands at almost 9 million, 467,418 people have lost their lives in the pandemic till now, while 4.8 million people have managed to beat the virus. Two countries, the US and Brazil, have more than a million million cases each in the world. In India, there are now more than 400,00 confirmed cases of coronavirus, of which 169,451 are still active. Recoveries, currently at 227,755, are growing well and have improved India’s recovery rate to over 55 per cent. There have been 13,254 fatalities in the country because of the virus. Read More

Maharashtra Chief Minister's Office (CMO) on Friday clarified that the lockdown in the state will not be extended and also appealed people to avoid crowding in order to halt the spread of coronavirus . At present, the lockdown is imposed in the state till June 30. "Lockdown will not be re-announced. Chief Minister Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray has requested and appealed to the people not to crowd anywhere. Follow the instructions given by the government and take care of yourself," the Maharashtra CMO tweeted. The statement from the CMO came after several reports surfaced that the government may further extend lockdown in the wake of the surge in Covid-19 cases in the state. Read More

India saw a record single-day jump of 9,851 coronavirus cases and 273 deaths on Friday, pushing the nationwide infection tally to 2,26,770 and the death toll to 6,348, according to the Union health ministry. With shopping malls outside the containment zones permitted to open from June 8, the Union health ministry said on Thursday that cinema halls, gaming arcades and children play areas in these establishments would remain closed. Many Indians, mostly on H-1B visa, have said that they feel being left out as their US-born children are ineligible to travel to India due to the restrictions put in place by the Indian government in view of the coronavirus pandemic . Read More

Michael Levitt, an American-British-Israeli biophysicist who received the 2013 Nobel Prize in chemistry for developing complex models of chemical systems, has an optimistic take on the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic . In his view, the fast-spreading disease is likely to come to a halt, but gradually. Levitt, whose specialty is not in epidemiology, cited the slowing rate of increase in the number of deaths in China to support his hypothesis. Levitt said that just like China, the United States too will get through the worst of the coronavirus outbreak sooner than many specialists anticipate, the Los Angeles Times reported on Monday. The laureate had already started studying the number of coronavirus cases around the world back in January this year. According to him, the world needs to control the panic, and abide by the reasonable social distancing measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19. Read More

The Health Ministry on Tuesday issued guidelines that have been formed for the management of dead bodies infected with novel coronavirus (Covid-19) to define a set of protocols in handling such cases. In a press briefing, Joint Secretary, Health Ministry Lav Aggarwal gave details about these. Guidelines for dead body management towards precautions, infection prevention and control measures, handling of body and environmental disinfection have been formed. Lav Aggarwal also said that all tests for coronavirus at private laboratories should be offered when prescribed by a qualified physician according to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) guidelines. "Private labs testing is to ensure real time reporting to Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) and the ICMR," he said. Read More