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Covid case Update: India records 3.47 lakh new cases

by Vaishali Sharma
written by Vaishali Sharma

According to the latest data issued by the Union health ministry on Friday, India had 3,47,254 new cases of coronavirus illness (Covid-19). According to the ministry’s figures, the country also had 703 fatalities in the last 24 hours.

The active cases of Covid-19 topped the two-million mark as the Omicron-led surge continued in the country. The active cases have increased to 20,18,825, the highest in 235 days, the ministry data showed. The active cases comprise 5.23 per cent of the total infections, as per the data.

The overall caseload now stands at 3,85,66,027, according to the data published by the Union health ministry. While the related-death toll is at 488,396.

The number of Omicron cases reached 9,692, the ministry also informed. According to the data, Friday recorded an increase of 4.36 per cent since yesterday in daily Omicron cases.

The daily positivity rate surged to 17.94 per cent, while the weekly positivity rate is at 16.56 per cent, the ministry also added.

As many as 2,51,777 people have been recuperated from the viral disease in the last 24 hours, taking the total recoveries to 3,60,58,806. Meanwhile, the country has administered 160.43 crore vaccine doses so far under the nationwide vaccination drive.

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Covid News and Updates

Scientists develop Covid diagnosis test using X-rays, claim 98% accuracy

by Vaishali Sharma
written by Vaishali Sharma

Using X-rays, a group of Scottish scientists discovered a means to detect the presence of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) infection in a person. Artificial intelligence (AI) is used in the diagnosis test to anticipate the existence of the virus within a person.

The scientists from University of West Scotland (UWS), who developed the test, claim it is 98 per cent effective.

They also said that it will be faster than the PCR test, which takes to hours to return a result.

“There has long been a need for a quick and reliable tool that can detect Covid-19, and this has become even more true with the upswing of the Omicron variant,” said Professor Naeem Ramzan, who led the three-person team at the UWS.

How the test works?

According to UWS researchers, the new technique utilises X-ray technology to compare scans to a database of around 3,000 images, belonging to patients with Covid-19, healthy individuals and those with viral pneumonia.

An AI process, known as the deep convolutional neural network, then uses an algorithm to analyse visual imagery and make a diagnosis. During an extensive testing phase, the technique proved to be more than 98 per cent accurate, said UWS scientists.

What is the utility of the new testing technique?

Professor Ramzan said that there are many countries are unable to carry out large numbers of Covid tests because of limited diagnosis tools. Their research utilises easily accessible technology to quickly detect the virus.

“It could prove to be crucial, and potentially life-saving, when diagnosing severe cases of the virus, helping determine what treatment may be required,” said the professor.

He, however, acknowledged that Covid-19 symptoms are not visible in X-rays during the early stages of infection so it cannot fully replace the PCR tests.

 

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Covid News and Updates

Covid more lethal to children in this wave? Top US Doctor explains

by Vaishali Sharma
written by Vaishali Sharma

More children are becoming COVID positive in this period, according to Dr Faheem Younus, Chief of Infectious Diseases at the University of Maryland Upper Chesapeake Health in the United States, who is a renowned medical specialist. This is not because the coronavirus is more harmful for children. Because total infections are substantially greater than in previous rounds of the Covid-19 epidemic, this is the case.

Dr Faheem while speaking to news agency ANI said,”There is a belief with Omicron variant of Covid-19 that it tends to infect the upper respiratory tract more as compared to our lungs and lower respiratory tract. Children have anatomically their upper respiratory tract in a developing phase. So that’s probably one of the reasons that we’re seeing more hospitalizations. But by and large, children are still doing much better than adults and people who are elderly and immunocompromised.”

In a detailed interaction with ANI, the doctor also said that people who got infected with Delta are now coming back with Omicron. Those who get Omicron will not have complete immunity against reinfections from future variants.

On  people getting herd immunity due to the prevalent Omicron variant  of Covid-19, Dr Younus said that Every time an individual get infected with any variant, it build up some immunity. It does give you a better chance to fight the virus in the future.  He suggested that people must take all precaution to get infected , but if an individual gets infected,  the body is clearly not as naive.

Further explaining the importance of boosters by giving an example of our body’s requirement of water, Dr Faheem said, “When you drink a glass of water in the morning, you drink another glass in the afternoon you drink another glass at night, right? That one glass is not enough. It’s not going to last you for months. And when you drink that second or third glass, no one says why you’re drinking water again we all understand right? So similarly your immune system cannot last forever. On one shot. It needs repeated reminders, boosters, this is nothing unusual. Other vaccines also require repeated doses. So that’s why it’s important. If people had their vaccine 6,8,10, 12 months ago. That’s like having a glass of water last week.”
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Covid News and Updates

If Omicron replaces Delta, Covid will become endemic by March 11: ICMR Chief Scientist

by Vaishali Sharma
written by Vaishali Sharma

Covid will become endemic by March 11, according to Samiran Panda, head of the Epidemiological Department of the Indian Council of Medical Research.

“If we don’t let our guards down and no new variant emerges, Covid will be endemic by March 11,” he said. “If Omicron replaces Delta it will become endemic. If there is no new variant catching up, there is a possibility that Covid may become endemic,” he added.

Our mathematical projection shows the Omicron wave will last three months starting December 11.

“From March 11, we will see some respite. We need to wait two more weeks to say if Delhi and Mumbai have reached their peaks of Covid cases and if the worst is over. We can’t establish a trend like that in a few days,” he said.

“We can’t say that right now even with the decline in cases and positivity [in Delhi and Mumbai],” he said.

Panda added Delhi and Mumbai have a roughly 80:20 ratio for Omicron and Delta variants of coronavirus.

Different states are in different stages of the pandemic and the ICMR has also changed its testing strategy because of the epidemiological variations in the virus and the pandemic changing its course.

“We never asked states not to reduce testing. We asked for more directed and purposive testing. The pandemic has also changed its character and, hence, the testing and management strategies will change. Making guidelines available in local languages on home testing etc will send out the right message,” Samiran Panda said.

Speaking about the genomic sequencing, he said: “Genomic sequencing is a dynamic phenomenon. But genomic sequencing on a dead body to understand if he had Omicron is a simplistic argument. Many patients die of underlying conditions. Yes, we are studying infections in hospitals to understand the severity.”

Dismissing, speculation of a disconnect between ICMR and DCGI over Molnupiravir’s exclusion from the government’s Covid guidelines, he said: “Molnupiravir can be given to unvaccinated patients, but there is no guideline to administer it to pregnant women, lactating women, and kids. That’s why it is not in the protocol.”

 

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Covid News and Updates

India reduces use of Remdesivir, Tocilizumab, multivitamins, steroids as part of new Covid guidelines

by Vaishali Sharma
written by Vaishali Sharma

For the treatment of COVID-19, India has reduced the usage of the investigational medicine Remdesivir and the immunosuppressive drug Tocilizumab.

The revised treatment guidelines for COVID-19 management were issued on Monday by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the country’s highest medical research agency.

 

Remdesivir should only be evaluated in individuals who have had their symptoms for at least 10 days and require supplementary oxygen, according to the updated guidelines.

 

It has been underlined, however, that the medicine cannot be given to patients who are on a ventilator or who are receiving extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), a treatment that employs a pump to transfer blood through an artificial lung back into a very ill baby’s bloodstream.

While it states that doctors can “consider Remdesivir for five days to treat hospitalised patients with COVID-19”, it also mentions that “no evidence of benefit for treatment more than five days”.

Designed by AIIMS and ICMR-led COVID-19 National Task Force, the latest protocol, apart from curtailing the role of controversial drug Remdesivir, has waived off the use of multivitamin pills which was earlier advised for the treatment of mild cases.

Under the management of mild Covid disease, the list of “must-do” activities includes hydration, anti-pyretics and anti-tussive, removing the need to pop multivitamins.

This means that when a patient is suffering mild symptoms with no shortness of breath or low oxygen in blood (SpO2), they must keep themselves hydrated, consume anti-fever medicines and medicines to suppress cough.

For moderate cases, the protocol clarifies “there is no evidence for benefit for injectable steroids” in patients who are not requiring oxygen supplementation, or on continuation after discharge. The move is triggered by the increase in cases of black fungus after the second wave due to the overuse of steroids.

A total of 51,775 cases of mucormycosis or ‘Black Fungus’ had been reported till November 29, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya informed the Lok Sabha in December.

Discouraging the overuse of steroids, the protocol for both moderate and severe patients notes that “anti-inflammatory or immunomodulatory therapy (such as steroids) can have risk of secondary infection such as invasive mucormycosis when used too early, at higher dose or for longer than required.”

Additions in the new guidelines

The latest guidelines include “blood sugar” as an additional test under the laboratory monitoring protocol for both severe and moderate patients.

Earlier, the protocol suggested monitoring of “CRP and D-dimer, complete blood count (CBC), kidney function test (KFT), liver function test (LFT) and IL-6 levels”.

It also suggests that if cough, in mild cases, persists for more than two to three weeks, investigate for tuberculosis and other conditions. The protocol also added people with “active tuberculosis” under the category of high risk for severe disease or mortality.

For the mild, the new treatment does not promote the prescription of multivitamins.

Change inTocilizumab guidelines

It also mentions that Tocilizumab can be considered for patients who meet five criteria, including that the patient should not have active tuberculosis, fungal or any systemic bacterial infection.

The immunosuppressant drug can only be given to patients who are on oxygen therapy or on ventilators but not responding to steroids. Also, the inflammatory markers should be significantly raised. But the drug should preferably be given along steroids, it mentions.

The guidelines also emphasise that in case of administration of the drug, long-term follow-up should be done for secondary infections such as reactivation of TB or flaring of herpes.

Earlier, the guidelines included a wider set of patients who could be given the drug as it can be given to people with “presence of severe disease” without mentioning any criteria for patient selection.

Carefully selected subsets of patients

According to experts treating Covid-19 patients in hospitals across India, the latest guidelines are “evidence-based”, especially on reducing the role of Tocilizumab. However, they pointed out that Remdesivir should be on its way out as several trials have already proved that the drug is of no use in Covid-19.

“Remdesivir has been continued but with lots of caveats,” said Sumit Ray, head of the department of Critical Care Medicine at Holy Family Hospital. “The ministry is playing safe. The WHO guidelines have weak recommendations against its use. The time for Remdesivir is running out. It remains a drug in search of a disease. The role of antivirals in a rapidly replicating respiratory virus is going to be very questionable.”

Solidarity trial has not approved Remdesivir, experts said. The trial concluded that Remdesivir, Hydroxychloroquine, Lopinavir, and interferon regimens had little or no effect on hospitalised patients with Covid-19, as indicated by overall mortality, initiation of ventilation, and duration of hospital stay.

“Death occurred in 301 of 2,743 patients receiving Remdesivir and in 303 of 2,708 receiving its control, hence no difference was observed,” said Dr SP Kalantri, Professor of Medicine, Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, Maharashtra while suggesting that “we also need to ask what additional advantage does Remdesivir offer in hospitalised hypoxic patients who are already on dexamethasone — a steroid that has been shown to save lives in critically ill Covid patients.”

According to Dr Yatin Mehta, chairman of Institute of Critical Care and Anaesthesiology, Medanta, the move to retain Remdesivir makes sense.

“A new study on Remdesivir has shown significant benefit when given to patients at home for three days. However, these guidelines might have been formed prior to the release of the latest study,” he said, hinting that if useful, Remdesivir may also be considered for use in home settings.

India’s clamour for Remdesivir has been a misfit against the World Health Organization (WHO)’s advice. Earlier, WHO had said that there is no evidence to suggest that the antiviral drug can effectively treat Covid-19 patients.

However, guidelines of Tocilizumab are fine, Mehta said.

Ray from Holy Family Hospital emphasised that “the role for Tocilizumab lies in an extremely small carefully chosen subset”.

The problem with India is the clinicians’ ability to make those judgements. Sometimes, he said, these judgements are not well informed due to a lack of continuing medical education to upgrade one’s knowledge of disease processes.

“The side effects of immunosuppression with either high dose steroids or Tocilizumab are very serious, thus, patient selection has to be carefully evaluated, so that the benefits have a fair chance of outweighing the risks.”

This post has been published from a syndicate feed with some changes to the text and headline.

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OMICRON VARIANT
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US doc shares 5 lessons after recovering from Omicron

by Vaishali Sharma
written by Vaishali Sharma

A senior US doctor recently turned to Twitter to give five takeaways from his infection with the Omicron strain of Covid-19, which is presently spreading around the globe. Faheem Younus of the University of Maryland tweeted on January 15 that he had had symptoms two weeks ago and had tested positive for coronavirus.

“Sharing five lessons I learned from that experience and hoping you’ll find them helpful,” he said.

The first lesson Younus wrote about was that masks work. Although he was around Covid-19 patients for over 1000 times in the last two years, he did not get infected because of PPE and masks. However, being exposed for two days at a mask-less family gathering made him susceptible to Omicron. “So yes. Masks work. Wear an N95 or KN95 if you can,” he wrote.

According to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), an infected person without a mask can infect others in just 15 minutes if they are within 6 feet of each other. If the infected person is without a mask and the second person is wearing a surgical mask, the infection can transmit in 30 minutes. However, if the infected and uninfected individuals are wearing N95 masks, the virus will take 25 hours to transmit.

The second lesson Younus wrote about was the effectiveness of Covid-19 vaccines. The top US health expert said, “You know the vaccine+booster did its job when the patient is back to work after 5-days (with a mask:) and telling his story on Twitter instead of fighting for his life on a ventilator. I thank vaccines. I thank God.”

Younus’ opinion on vaccines was also recently shared by Dr Gautam Bhansali, a consultant physician at Bombay Hospital, who told Indian Express that it was because of the vaccine that the infection rate among the healthcare workers dropped drastically in the second wave. I am still alive and able to treat Covid-19 patients daily because of the vaccine,” Bhansali said.

Younus next said that he did not need monoclonal antibodies, steroids, antibiotics or paxlovid etc. for treating his infection. He said “definitely didn’t use ivermectin, HCQ, zinc” and that symptomatic therapy was enough to recover. However, Younus added that the protocol for severe infections might be different.

For the fourth lesson, he asked people to think of their mortality often. “COVID or no COVID, think of your own mortality, often. It puts everything in perspective and allows us to make brave, meaningful decisions,” he said.

Lastly, Younus advised people to know their risk tolerance and follow their heart after complying with science. He appealed to people to “get boosted” and “wear KN/N95 mask”. “If COVID still gets you, you’ll likely fully recover,” he wrote.

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Covid pandemic will end soon, says US virologist

by Vaishali Sharma
written by Vaishali Sharma

An American expert has described vaccination as the most effective weapon against COVID-19, claiming that the epidemic cannot last indefinitely and that its conclusion is nigh.

According to ANI, Dr. Kutub Mahmood, a scientist and virologist from Washington, DC, the virus will hide and humans will win.

There is pressure on the virus to mutate and to adapt to the changing immunity in humans and then it tries to make these mutants so that it can escape, the expert said and equated it to a chess game.

“I would say as an analogy between the virus and the humans. So, that virus is putting out its moves, we as humans are putting out our moves. We have small moves, which are the facemask, hand sanitisers, social distancing. We have weapons that we have used against the virus with the vaccines, the antivirals, and the antibodies,” ANI quoted him as saying.

Lauding India for achieving 60 per cent vaccination within a year, the virologist called it a really great achievement for the country and for the Indian vaccine manufacturers.

He further said that the scientific community will not be surprised if new mutations of COVID-19 viruses are seen in the near future.

Calling Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin a “unique product”, the virologist said that it has also shown safety in 2-year-old children.

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India’s first mRNA anti-Omicron vaccine developed by Gennova Pharmaceuticals

by Vaishali Sharma
written by Vaishali Sharma

According to official sources, an Indian pharmaceutical company has produced an Omicron variant-specific COVID-19 vaccination that would be tested on people in the near future.

Gennova Biopharmaceuticals has also submitted phase 2 data for its original mRNA vaccine candidate and has completed the phase 3 trial enrollment process, according to reports. Last year, the government announced that the vaccine candidate had been proven to be “safe, tolerable, and immunogenic” in trial participants.

“Pune-based Gennova Biopharmaceuticals has submitted phase 2 data of mRNA vaccine and has also completed the recruitment of phase 3 data. Drugs Controller General of India’s (DCGI) Subject Expert Committee (SEC) is expected to review the data soon,” official sources were reported as saying by ANI.

The sources added that the mRNA vaccine developed by Gennova Biopharmaceuticals for the Omicron variant will be tested on humans for efficacy and immunogenicity soon.

Separately, international news agency Reuters reported that Gennova Biopharmaceuticals’s Omicron-specific COVID-19 vaccine candidate could be ready in a month or two.

A source said on the condition of anonymity that the product is likely to undergo a small trial in the country before it could be made available as a booster or standalone vaccine.

Gennova is a unit of drugmaker Emcure Pharmaceuticals which has a presence in some 70 countries.

Pfizer Inc, which has also developed an mRNA vaccine for the COVID-19 disease, has said that it is likely to introduce its redesigned vaccine that specifically targets the Omicron variant by March.

If Gennova’s original vaccine candidate gets emergency-use approval, it would become India’s first mRNA COVID-19 vaccine similar to the ones developed by Pfizer and Moderna.

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Covid case Update: India records 2.58 lakh cases

by Vaishali Sharma
written by Vaishali Sharma

India’s Covid curve improved slightly today, with 2.58 lakh cases recorded, down about 5% from yesterday. According to the Health Ministry, 385 people have died as a result of Covid in the last 24 hours.

The country’s caseload now stands at 3.73 crore. This includes 8,209 cases of the Omicron variant which is now present in 29 states.

The active cases now comprise 4.43 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has decreased to 94.27 per cent. The daily positivity rate is up from 16.28% to 19.65% while the weekly positivity rate was recorded at 14.41 per cent.

Delhi on Sunday reported 18,286 COVID-19 cases and 28 deaths, while the positivity rate dropped to 27.87 per cent from 30.64 per cent a day ago, according to health department data. State Health Minister Satyendar Jain has said that the city is conducting three times more diagnostic tests than the number recommended by the ICMR.

On Sunday, the one-year national vaccination campaign against COVID-19 came to an end, with approximately 156.76 crore vaccine doses distributed. Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised the vaccine campaign, saying it has bolstered the fight against the virus and saved lives and livelihoods.

 

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Covid case Update: India records 2,68,833 new cases

by Vaishali Sharma
written by Vaishali Sharma

According to data released by the Union Health Ministry on Saturday, India reported 2,68,833 new Covid infections in a single day, bringing the total to 3,68,50,962, including 6,041 Omicron variant cases. With 402 more fatalities, the total number of persons who have died from the virus now stands at 4,85,752. The death rate in this event was 1.32 percent.

A total of 6,041 Omicron cases has been detected so far, an increase of 5.01 per cent since Friday, the data updated at 8 am showed.

The daily positivity rate was 16.66 per cent while the weekly positivity rate was 12.84 per cent.

Active cases have increased to 14,17,820, the highest in around 223 days, and comprise 3.85 per cent of the total infections. The national COVID-19 recovery rate has decreased to 94.83 per cent, the Health Ministry said.

In a day, the active caseload in the country has increased by 1,45,747. The total number of people who have recuperated from the disease so far has risen to 3,49,47,390.

The cumulative of 156.02 crore Covid vaccine doses have been administered till now.

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