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As part of the Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav festivities and Azadi Ka Amrit Kaal, the government announced on Wednesday that residents above the age of 18 will get booster doses free of charge beginning on July 15 and continuing for the following 75 days. All government facilities will have this feature.

“India is celebrating 75 years of independence. On the occasion of Azadi ka Amrit Kaal, it has been decided that from 15th July 2022 till the next 75 days, citizens above 18 years of age will be given booster doses free of cost,” Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur told the media here. India’s COVID-19 vaccination coverage has exceeded 199.12 crore as per provisional reports till 7 am on Wednesday. This has been achieved through 2,61,58,303 sessions.

The COVID-19 immunisation programme for children aged 12 to 14 years old began on March 16, 2022. The first dose of the COVID-19 vaccination has been given to more than 3.76 crore adolescents thus far. Beginning on April 10, the COVID-19 cautionary dosage was administered to those between the ages of 18 and 59.

Also Read: India’s first qHPV vaccine gets DCGI nod to treat cervical cancer

The Center has been working to speed up and broaden the reach of COVID-19 immunisation across the nation. On January 16, 2021, the countrywide COVID 19 immunisation campaign began. Beginning on June 21, 2021, a new phase of COVID-19 immunisation was made mandatory. The availability of more vaccinations, early notification of vaccine availability to states and UTs to enable better planning by them, and simplification of the vaccine supply chain have all increased the vaccination effort.

The Indian government has been assisting the states and UTs by giving them free COVID vaccinations as part of the country-wide immunisation push. The Center will purchase and provide (free of charge) to states and UTs 75% of the vaccinations being manufactured by the country’s vaccine producers as part of the next phase of the COVID-19 immunisation programme.

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The number of COVID-19 cases in India increased as the country registered 20,139 new infections in the past 24 hours, a 19% increase from the day before, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare reported on Thursday.

This is an increase in infections from yesterday of 3,233. On Wednesday, the nation recorded 16,906 new COVID cases. The number of open cases has increased to 1,36,076 and makes up 0.31 percent of all cases in the nation.

According to the Health Ministry, the weekly positive rate was 4.37 and the daily positivity rate in the past 24 hours was 5.10 percent.

On Wednesday, the daily positivity rate was at 3.68 per cent and the total weekly positivity rate was 4.26 per cent.

The recovery rate in the country is currently at 98.49 per cent. As many as 16,482 recoveries were recorded in the last 24 hours thereby taking total recoveries to 4,30,28,356.

The government data added that 38 new fatalities have pushed India’s COVID-19 death toll to 5,25,557.

A total of 3,94,774 COVID samples were tested during this period. 86.81 crore tests have been conducted in the country so far.

Covid vaccine

Under the nationwide vaccination drive, 13,44,714 COVID vaccines were administered in the last 24 hours. A total of 1,99,27,27,559 vaccines have been administered so far.

In the new phase of the universalization of the COVID vaccination drive, the Union Government will procure and supply (free of cost) 75 per cent of the vaccines being produced by the vaccine manufacturers in the country to States and UTs.

Also Read: Free COVID-19 booster dose for adults for 75 days from July 15

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Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Limited (Glenmark), an innovation-driven, global pharmaceutical company, and SaNOtize Research and Development Corp, today announced that The Lancet Regional Health Southeast Asia (TLRHSEA) – peer reviewed, high impact journal published the successful phase 3 clinical trial results of SaNOtize’s Nitric Oxide Nasal Spray (NONS) study titled: ‘SARS-CoV-2 accelerated clearance using a novel nitric oxide nasal spray (NONS) treatment: A randomized trial’.

“We are excited to publish the study of the novel Nitric Oxide Nasal Spray, which positively impacts the lives of people, in The Lancet group of journals. The robust double-blind trial demonstrated significant efficacy and remarkable safety of NONS. This therapy has the potential to make a crucial contribution to COVID-19 management, with its ease of use in the current highly transmissible phase of pandemic,” said Dr Monika Tandon, Senior VP & Head – Clinical Development, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd.

According to the study, patients who received NONS saw a substantial drop in viral load after 24 hours, which persisted over the course of seven days of therapy. After receiving NONS therapy, viral load decreased by 93.7% in 24 hours and by 99.7% in 48 hours.

The average change in log viral RNA load from baseline throughout the course of the entire therapy was significantly better with NONS than with placebo. Both populations with and without vaccinations had comparable outcomes.

The investigation was carried out during the omicron and delta surges. The extent/speed of virologic recovery, as measured by the WHO Clinical Progression Scale Score, and other important secondary objectives were shown in patients utilising NONS. After therapy began, the median time to virological cure was three days in the NONS group and seven days in the placebo group (four days sooner).

While it rose quantitatively in the placebo group during the course of treatment, the exploratory examination of the proportion of immediate contacts who had a positive COVID-19 test or developed symptoms stayed practically constant in the NONS group.

“The Phase 3 study results strongly support the safety and efficacy of NONS in the treatment of COVID-19 and its known variants,” said Gilly Regev, PhD, SaNOtize Co-Founder and CEO. ” Nitric oxide blocks entry into the nasal passage, kills the virus, and stops its replication, which is why viral load is reduced so rapidly with NONS. Viral load has been linked to infectivity, poorer health outcomes, and complications from long COVID. The evidence is mounting that NONS represents an effective, well tolerated antiviral treatment that significantly shortens the course of COVID-19.”

Study by Glenmark

The investigation was carried out by Glenmark in 306 persons with moderate COVID-19 symptoms who were both vaccinated and unvaccinated across 20 clinical locations in India. In patients with symptomatic COVID-19, this randomised, double-blind phase 3 clinical study compared a seven-day therapy of NONS plus standard care to a placebo nasal spray with standard care.

The effectiveness of this transformative NONS in high-risk patients (unvaccinated, or 45 years of age, or had one or more comorbidities) was evaluated after seven days of therapy using the key outcome measure of nasal SARS-CoV-2 RNA rapid clearance. It was also investigated to see if NONS might be used experimentally to prevent infection in these COVID-19 patients’ close contacts.

Also Read: Covid case update: India reports 20,139 new cases in last 24 hours

The benefit of locally acting nasal therapy was shown by the finding that NONS treatment was well tolerated. None of the patients reported any adverse effects that were serious or severe. Methemoglobin levels did not alter clinically from baseline, indicating that the nasal spray’s nitric oxide was not available systemically. Additionally, neither therapy showed indicators of systemic vasodilation nor nasal vasodilation.

Strategic Partnership with SaNOtize

To manufacture, market, and distribute its ground-breaking nitric oxide nasal spray for COVID-19 treatment in India and other Asian markets including Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Nepal, Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Timor-Leste, and Vietnam, Glenmark and Canadian biotech company SaNOtize entered into an exclusive long-term strategic partnership in July 2021.

Global NONS Approvals

After getting manufacturing and marketing permission from the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) as part of the expedited approval procedure, Glenmark introduced NONS under the trade name FabiSpray® in February 2022. In Europe, NONS has already been granted a CE mark, which is the equivalent of a marketing authorisation for medical devices.

NONS is also approved and being sold in Singapore, Hong Kong, Israel, Thailand, Indonesia and Bahrain, under the name enovid™ or VirX™. Outside of India, NONS has also been approved globally for protection against viruses, including SARS COV-2.

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According to the Ministry of Science and Technology on Wednesday, scientists from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and the CSIR-Institute of Microbial Technology have created a novel mechanism to inactivate the COVID (SARS-CoV-2) virus by preventing its entry into cells and lowering its capacity to infect people.

Researchers have described the creation of a new family of synthetic peptides that can both prevent COVID (SARS-CoV-2) viral entrance into cells and clump the virus’s infectious virions (particles) together. This innovative strategy offers a different way to render viruses like SARS-CoV-2 dormant and holds promise for a new family of peptides as antivirals.

The fast introduction of new SARS-CoV-2 virus strains has reduced the level of protection provided by COVID-19 vaccinations, necessitating additional measures to avoid viral infection.

Protein-protein interactions are recognised to frequently resemble a lock and a key. Synthetic peptides that imitate, compete with, and block the binding of the “key” to the “lock” or vice versa can interfere with this interaction.

The Ministry claims that IISc researchers have taken use of this strategy to create peptides that can bind to and inhibit the spike protein on the surface of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. With the use of cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) and other biophysical techniques, this binding was further and thoroughly characterised.

The study was funded by the Department of Science and Technology’s Department of Engineering and Research Board (SERB), a governmental authority, under the COVID-19 IRPHA call (DST).

The created peptides have helical, hairpin-like shapes and are each capable of producing a dimer by joining forces with another of their sort. Two “faces” are presented by each dimeric “bundle” to interact with two target molecules.

In the study published in Nature Chemical Biology, the researchers hypothesised that the two faces would bind to two separate target proteins locking all four in a complex and blocking the targets’ action. The team decided to test their hypothesis by using a peptide called SIH-5 to target the interaction between the Spike (S) protein of SARS-CoV-2 and ACE2 protein, the SARS-CoV-2 receptor in human cells.

The S protein is a trimer – a complex of three identical polypeptides. Each polypeptide contains a Receptor Binding Domain (RBD) that binds to the ACE2 receptor on the host cell surface. This interaction facilitates viral entry into the cell.

The SIH-5 peptide was designed to block the binding of the RBD to human ACE2. When a SIH-5 dimer encountered an S protein, one of its faces bound tightly to one of the three RBDs on the S protein trimer, and the other face bound to an RBD from a different S protein. This ‘cross-linking’ allowed the SIH-5 to block both S proteins at the same time.

The SIH-5 peptide was designed to block the binding of the RBD to human ACE2. When a SIH-5 dimer encountered an S protein, one of its faces bound tightly to one of the three RBDs on the S protein trimer, and the other face bound to an RBD from a different S protein. This ‘cross-linking’ allowed the SIH-5 to block both S proteins at the same time.

Under cryo-EM, the S proteins targeted by SIH-5 appeared to be attached head-to-head, and the spike proteins were being forced to form dimers. Subsequently, the researchers showed that SIH-5 inactivated the viruses efficiently by cross-linking the spike proteins from different virus particles.

The team consisting of researchers of IISc and CSIR-Institute of Microbial Technology tested the peptide for toxicity in mammalian cells in the lab and found it to be safe. When hamsters were dosed with the peptide and subsequently exposed to a high dose of SARS-CoV-2, they showed decreased viral load as well as much less cell damage in the lungs compared to hamsters exposed only to the virus, demonstrating the promise of this class of peptides as antivirals.

The researchers believe that with minor modifications and peptide engineering, this lab-made mini protein could inhibit other protein-protein interactions as well.

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Also Read: Covid case update: India reports 20,139 new cases in last 24 hours

Although the winter is cold and dry, we need still be conscious of the changes that our skin goes through so that we can take better care of it. In this weather, it is typical to experience dry skin, eczemas, rashes, and allergies. Patients who also suffer from comorbid conditions like diabetes, thyroid disorders, etc. may experience these problems to a greater extent.

Dr. Sneha Ghunawat, consultant dermatologist, cosmetologist, director, and co-founder of Meraki Skin Clinic in Gurugram, advised keeping in mind the following suggestions to avoid having extremely dry skin in the winter:

1. Cleansers: For your skin, use gentle, soap-free cleansers. They are gentle on the skin and do not strip it of its protective oil layer. Face washing is a little more abrasive. Because there are stronger foaming agents present, they lather up more. Especially during the winter, these compounds might cause skin dryness.

2. Moisturization: When discussing how to treat dryness in the winter, the need of a good quality, thick moisturiser cannot be understated. Since creams are thicker and more suited for winters than lotions, choose them instead. Oils are a fantastic option because they are effective emollients as well. Pre-bathing oiling can aid in retaining moisture and maintaining moisturised, smooth skin. Good options include coconut oil, avocado oil, and sesame seed oil. One minute after taking a shower, when the skin is still somewhat damp, apply a thick coating of moisturiser. The skin is more moisturised as a result of this treatment.

3. Refrain from taking lengthy hot water showers: While we like taking a relaxing hot water shower, we must remember that hot water destroys the skin’s protective oil layer, leaving it harsh and dry.

In order to prepare your skin for the big day, Dr. Sravya C. Tipirneni, Consultant Dermatologist, Cosmetologist, and Trichologist at Manipal Hospitals in Bangalore, addressed the skincare concerns of those worried about a winter wedding. The following is the ideal winter-proof solution for your skin:

1. Cleanse properly: Healthy skin may be attained by using a great cleanser (followed by a toner), but don’t overdo it. Because excessive cleaning can strip the skin of its natural moisturisers.

2. Remove the dryness by moisturising: For normal to dry skin, petroleum/cream-based moisturisers work better than lotions. Additionally, if you have sensitive skin, it might be wise to use a moisturiser free of scent and lanolin! Apply the moisturiser immediately to your damp skin after showering to assist it trap moisture on the surface.

3. Limit the use of hot water and soap: If you frequently get “winter itch,” try a fast lukewarm shower or bath with a cleanser that is not based on detergent and does not irritate the skin (do NOT forget to moisturise immediately after).

4. Fill in the gaps: In addition to your face, your lips, feet, and hands all require your love and attention. Use a lip balm and moisturiser with a petroleum basis to stop chapping and cracking.

5. Avoid tanning in the winter: If you want to spend a lot of time outside, use sunscreen with a UV protection factor of 15 or higher.

6. Check your vitamin D levels: As winter approaches, the amount of time you spend exposed to natural sunshine reduces, which has an impact on your vitamin D levels. Taking vitamin supplements may be quite beneficial for your skin.

7. Increase humidity in your surroundings: Dry air tends to rob your skin of moisture; in these situations, room humidifiers might seem like a godsend!

8. Speak with a dermatologist: This is especially important if you have persistently dry, itchy, or scaling skin. Additionally, the earlier you treat any skin problems you may be having before your big day, the better.