Wuhan Coronavirus Resource Thread

[chola]

Our ventilaters are finaly able to take rest after almost 2 months.. New admissions have drasticaly came down.. Many beds are now vacant in all covid hospitals.. MH is on its way to defeat this second wave..

Great news, Doctor Sir.

Could you opine as to what you attribute this to? Was it mainly the lockdown? Or did vaccinations have some impact over the course of time?

What is your opinion on the need for a nation-wide lockdown? Or are the state lockdowns at their choosing good enough to ride this thing through?

[vera_k]

Without it, I fear a plateau that still leaves daily cases in the lakhs as one city in lockdown has cases go down while another without lockdown has cases go up.

Unfortunately, this is going to be the state of affairs worldwide from this point on, unless somewhat universal vaccination coverage is achieved. The virus is just too widespread to contain. There was a chance of nipping it in the bud while it was in China, but the goof-up with the CDC testing and delayed travel restrictions meant that it spread throughout the world.

Aside from the economic consequences, lockdowns hamper virus containment efforts too. Just getting to a vaccination center or moving supplies in a locked down area becomes that much more difficult.

[sas]

Has any one been able to book vaccine slots for 18+ in Chennai ?

Currently no primary health center in Chennai is providing vaccine slots for 18+, only a few pvt hospitals are providing the vaccine slots for 18+.

Whenever I try to book a slot, within half minute of slot opening it gets booked completely.

Don't understand how the slots are filled so quickly.

[srin]

^^^ One of my friends (not in Chennai) called up the nearby hospitals and asked when the slots open (apparently some open in morning, and some in the evening). And kept checking at precisely the right time with the right PIN code. And it worked !

[Aditya_V]

^^^ One of my friends (not in Chennai) called up the nearby hospitals and asked when the slots open (apparently some open in morning, and some in the evening). And kept checking at precisely the right time with the right PIN code. And it worked !

out of 100 slots in Chennai 2 are given to the public and rest are filled offline, I got a confirmation which was overnight cancelled since I am not a influencial person who booked through Cowin. Till there is shortage mafia will make merry.

[vijayk]

Our ventilaters are finaly able to take rest after almost 2 months.. New admissions have drasticaly came down.. Many beds are now vacant in all covid hospitals.. MH is on its way to defeat this second wave..

Great news

[arshyam]

Has any one been able to book vaccine slots for 18+ in Chennai ?

Currently no primary health center in Chennai is providing vaccine slots for 18+, only a few pvt hospitals are providing the vaccine slots for 18+.

Whenever I try to book a slot, within half minute of slot opening it gets booked completely.

Don't understand how the slots are filled so quickly.

^^^ One of my friends (not in Chennai) called up the nearby hospitals and asked when the slots open (apparently some open in morning, and some in the evening). And kept checking at precisely the right time with the right PIN code. And it worked !

out of 100 slots in Chennai 2 are given to the public and rest are filled offline, I got a confirmation which was overnight cancelled since I am not a influencial person who booked through Cowin. Till there is shortage mafia will make merry.

You can subscribe to alerts via the Telegram groups linked in this Twitter thread. They are using the Cowin APIs to post notifications of new slots opening up. I know a few people who were able to book via this route. Good luck.

https://twitter.com/BertyThomas/status/ ... 0043438081

[Adrija]

I know folks here have faced and are facing a lot of difficulties in both treatment and for getting vaccinations.. but FWIW, thought I would share my experience - SHQ got her second dose today (Covaxin) in a drive-in facility organized by the local administration (Gurugram, HR).

We landed at 9:30 am, got a token, and were out by 12:10 pm after the mandatory 35 minute post vaccination period... extremely smooth process and very well organized. And to top it all, I was able to download the vaccine certificate within 2 hours of the event, with full details included (date, batch number, location, person administering the dose)

My kudos to the entire government machinery for the effort.... and koti koti pranaams

It is easy to forget what we don't see, and coutner-factual analysis is never easy.......had it been ANY other government we would have had probably seen tens and hundreds of millions of casualties and even then the populace would have shrugged it off and accepted it. Just think -no one till 2014 expected any better from the government... as someone previously has already remarked, Modiji must be the unluckiest leader in history....... in spite of such outstanding efforts and yes, outcomes, all he gets are curses from an ungrateful nation

All I can say is that we should count ourselves extremely lucky to have him as our PM now... my prayers and bets wishes are with him and the government... we will get through these bad times as well

[Jarita]

Tanaji & VijayKji, thanks.

Personally, I do not hold any candle for any political party or person. I just see that Modi & team overall is working hard & working right.

Ppl are fickle. And media will twist. 2024 is too far ahead.

India has the best PM at the worst possible time. That's all.

Correct. But the India middle class has changed Over the last few years. It’s always someone else’s fault. I was shocked to learn how people I know, were still entertaining at home till a week or so ago. They are not sending kids to school or going to work but are continuing to call people home.
Add to this, so many families were vaccine hesitant when the time was right.
I see the same bunch spewing away on social media. As if any government can be prepared for a spike like this.

If we had any other government, we would be busy selling off our national resources and capitulating to every country in the guise of getting 1 bn doses of some random vaccines. Remember how congress had shut down Indian vaccine factories. We would have concluded our new colonization.

[vijayk]

Just want to keep track of this some where ...







https://news.yahoo.com/biosafety-expert ... 53796.html
Biosafety Expert Explains Why Fauci’s NIH ‘Gain-of-Function’ Testimony Was ‘Demonstrably False’

Dr. Roger Ebright, a professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Rutgers University and biosafety expert, is contesting NIH director Dr. Anthony Fauci’s testimony before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee on Tuesday.

Dr. Fauci’s claim — made during an exchange with Senator Rand Paul — that “the NIH [National Institutes of Health] has not ever and does not now fund gain of function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology [WIV]” is “demonstrably false,” according to Ebright.

At least some of the NIH-funded research conducted at the WIV “unequivocally” qualifies as gain-of-function, Ebright told National Review.

A research article written by WIV scientists, “Discovery of a rich gene pool of bat SARS-related coronaviruses provides new insights into the origin of SARS coronavirus”, for example, qualifies as gain-of-function and was clearly a product of NIH-funding.

Ebright insists that the research can be classified as gain-of-function under a number of different definitions, including those found in two pieces of Department of Health and Human Services guidance on the subject.

The first details the Obama administration’s 2014 decision to halt domestic gain-of-function research, which it defines as that which “may be reasonably anticipated to confer attributes to influenza, MERS, or SARS viruses such that the virus would have enhanced pathogenicity and/or transmissibility in mammals via the respiratory route.”

[sanjayc]

Not many equipped to make Covaxin
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/arti ... aign=cppst

Good article on how very difficult it is for others to make Covaxin as people have to deal with live viruses, which nobody wants to do. That is why Kejri asking "Share the formula for Covaxin so that everyone can make it" is stupid.

"Basically, nobody actually wants to deal with or work with live viruses. In the rest of the world, nobody would dare do it, that's why most manufacturers go for protein based vaccines. But in terms of the pandemic, the quickest way to develop a vaccine is to take the live virus and inactivate it."

[vijayk]

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cit ... 675257.cms

Second consignment of Sputnik V lands in Hyderabad

[Jarita]

Repeating ad nauseam - please have daily press conferences to counter nonsense propaganda and disinformation. Have a decent neutral person providing information and taking questions. There is no way out.

Have a 30 minute daily conference with a fresh technocrat providing basic data for 15 minutes. Then take 5-6 questions for 15 minutes.

[vijayk]

[vijayk]

[SriKumar]

Repeating ad nauseam - please have daily press conferences to counter nonsense propaganda and disinformation. Have a decent neutral person providing information and taking questions. There is no way out.

Have a 30 minute daily conference with a fresh technocrat providing basic data for 15 minutes. Then take 5-6 questions for 15 minutes.

Indeed. Communication is a integral part of governance. Not everyone can read and digest data-intense press releases. In fact, it is clear an overwhelming majority cannot. During election times, messages are simplified for the common man to understand. Same is the need today as well- this is a nation-wide emergency situation. Even daily briefings are not needed, 3 times a week for 30 minutes is good enough. Providing re-assurance when people are panicked is also an integral part of governance. One man does not have to do everything. A team of 2-3 mid-level functionaries at a press meeting- a technical guy, an administrator/bureaucrat and a politician/elected official- are more than enough to convey new developments and ground realities (which is all that is needed to provide info to people who are looking for it. This on its own can counter propaganda and rumours).

[sas]

Has any one been able to book vaccine slots for 18+ in Chennai ?

Currently no primary health center in Chennai is providing vaccine slots for 18+, only a few pvt hospitals are providing the vaccine slots for 18+.

Whenever I try to book a slot, within half minute of slot opening it gets booked completely.

Don't understand how the slots are filled so quickly.

out of 100 slots in Chennai 2 are given to the public and rest are filled offline, I got a confirmation which was overnight cancelled since I am not a influencial person who booked through Cowin. Till there is shortage mafia will make merry.

You can subscribe to alerts via the Telegram groups linked in this Twitter thread. They are using the Cowin APIs to post notifications of new slots opening up. I know a few people who were able to book via this route. Good luck.

https://twitter.com/BertyThomas/status/ ... 0043438081

I have been using the "Telegram" app for getting the slot opening notifications, still no joy. Whenever there is a notification on slot opening, say for example I receive a notification @ 10:00 AM for 100 slots available for May 17th, it gets booked completely by 10:01 AM.

I keep my web browser opened and regularly refresh the cowin page, within 35-40 seconds of receiving the notification all the slots are filled.

By the time I start entering the CAPTCHA and press the "SUBMIT" button all the slots are filled.

Earlier there were reports of automating the booking process through the use of API's, but now they have added the CAPTCHA feature to prevent the automation.

When I booked the vaccination slots for my parents in March, at that time there were was no CAPTCHA feature for registration.

What bothers me the most is, how these pvt hospitals are able to get vaccine supplies, when there is a shortage and why none of the govt primary health care centers are providing the inoculation for 18+.

[Shivaji]

None of the first wave corona positive families were in the families who turned crona positive in second wave.

This is my personal observation as well. Take this FWIW.

In early-April, one of my employees got Covid positive. Myself and other employee got exposed to virus as we had extensive discussion across table the day before in relation to a planned site visit. My other employee tested positive a few days later. He had tough time, but he being just out of college grad recovered without major issue. This was my third infection, other two being in first wave. I had major symptoms first time and was carrier second time. This time I had mild fever and runny nose for a day. Wife, kids did not develop any symptoms at all. My brother-in-law who was visiting and has been spared by Covid so far also was NOT latched on to by virus. May be I ceased to be carrier this time...

At native place, 2 weeks back, our maid's husband expired due to Covid. Few days later my elder sister showed symptoms and was hospitalized. She had her first covaxin dose and did not need Oxygen support but was administered Remdesivir injections. She is recovering well and will hopefully be discharged in a day or two. No one else, including my mother aged 65, showed any serious symptom in these last 2 weeks.

As no one was available / willing to support (this is one heavy toll Covid has taken on society as a whole; covid affected family has to fend for itself), I travelled to native place to attend to my sister. Again runny nose and little irritation in throat for few days....

[Shivaji]

All I can say is that we should count ourselves extremely lucky to have him as our PM now... my prayers and bets wishes are with him and the government... we will get through these bad times as well

Bengal election and second wave has taken the shine off a little from brand Modi.

Everyone has realized by now how timely and stupendous decision first nationwide lockdown was. Everyone was expecting similar leadership from Modi ji this time. However, he did not impose lockdown this time even with huge second wave, Oxygen shortage, vaccine unavailability and no communication made people feel abandoned.

But with third and fourth waves being talked about, people will eventually realise that lockdown is not the answer. To his credit Modi ji always advocated masking, vaccines even when covid cases were almost nil. Just like people realised how timely lockdown was necessary for first wave, they will realise how lockdowns for every wave is not the answer. Rather capacity building with beds, oxygen plants, doctors and nusring staff availability is the way to go which he is trying to emphasize this time around.

[srai]

Our ventilaters are finaly able to take rest after almost 2 months.. New admissions have drasticaly came down.. Many beds are now vacant in all covid hospitals.. MH is on its way to defeat this second wave..

Good news from the frontlines!

Hopefully enough lessons learnt to minimize the third wave.

[Kakkaji]

Status of the vaccine doses released by GoI to states

More than 20 crore vaccine doses provided to States/UTs Free of Cost by Govt. of India, so far

More than 1.84 crore doses still available with States/UTs to be administered

Nearly 51 lakh doses in addition will be received by States/UTs in next 3 days

Table in the story shows statewise break-up of doses received and doses consumed.

[Kakkaji]

CoWin registration for 18-44: Ratio of vaccine availability to people is 1:230

The Covid-19 registration challenges faced by those in the 18-44 age group on the CoWin platform are mainly due to vaccine availability issues rather than glitches in the platform, RS Sharma, Chief Executive Officer of National Health Authority and in-charge of CoWin platform, has said.

Total doses administered to those in the 18-44 age group over the last 12-13 days are about 30 lakh (the supply figure) against the demand of 7.35 crore. So, around three lakh people in the 18-44 age group have been vaccinated per day on average. The ratio of vaccine availability to number of candidates is 1:230. It’s the problem of availability of vaccine shots.”

Sharma also rejected the contention of some people that a large number of Indians will get left out of vaccination due to the digital divide being faced in the country as a result of several being technologically challenged.

“This whole talk of people getting left out is absolutely incorrect. It is important to note that if you go directly without registering yourself, you are not sure of getting a seat. It is like boarding a train without getting the reservation done,” Sharma said.

Rural drive
When asked how he was ensuring that maximum people in the rural areas get inoculated, Sharma said, there are 700 million internet users in India and one family has at least one smartphone through which four registrations can be done. “If people don’t have smartphones or computers, they can go to one of the 250,000 common service centres for registration. So this whole issue of digital divide raised by a certain section of urban people is unnecessary,” he argued.

On the issue of coders and programmers being able to block slots, Sharma said that most people do not succeed in getting a slot due to non-availability of vaccines, so these claims are not correct. “But yes, we have opened the search capabilities which makes it easy for people if they do an algorithm search,” he added.

New feature
Sharma also said CoWin platform will soon have a new feature to connect to the vaccination centre.

[Kakkaji]

Now, vaccination pop ups in parking lots driven by a mobile app

A big reason for vaccine hesitancy is the fear of crowds at vaccination centres. Here comes a solution for that. A mobile app, Park+ that offers smart parking solutions has partnered with State Health Departments and Malls to organise drive-through vaccination camps inside parking lots.

After successfully organising vaccination camps at three locations in Gurugram’s Ambience Mall, DLF City Centre and DLF Cyber Hub, Park+ will be organising a drive-through vaccination camp in DLF Mall of India, Noida on May 17.

The initiative, launched in association with Gautam Budh Nagar administration and DLF Mall of India, will allow citizens to get vaccinated between 9 am and 5 pm in the parking lot of the mall through prior appointments. Citizens can book their vaccination appointments on the CoWIN portal. The location and availability of the vaccine can be tracked on the Park+ app too.

The no-charge initiative is offering the first dose of vaccination to anybody above 45 years of age. The idea behind the vaccination pop ups at parking lots is to help people who are not stepping out to get vaccinated due to fear of exposure to the virus. At the parking lots, there is assurance of social distancing.

“We are a socially responsible start-up and realised the potential of offering our expertise in smart parking services to contribute to the Covid-19 vaccination efforts in cities. We can vaccinate 2-3 lakh people per day and are looking to replicate this model in multiple cities pan India,”

[IndraD]

https://academic.oup.com/cid/advance-ar ... m=fulltext
Neutralization of variant under investigation B.1.617 with sera of BBV152 vaccinees https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101 ... 1.full.pdf

Covaxin able to neutralise Indian variant in sera, though less effective, still adequate titre to neutralise.

[ranneel]

There is a youtube streaming by T.Jacob John (CMC Vellore) with topic :"Why did the second wave hit India so hard ?" on 18th May 5:30 p.m IST.
Here is the link:http://www.youtube.com/c/apsciitm

[Aditya_V]

Has any one been able to book vaccine slots for 18+ in Chennai ?

Currently no primary health center in Chennai is providing vaccine slots for 18+, only a few pvt hospitals are providing the vaccine slots for 18+.

Whenever I try to book a slot, within half minute of slot opening it gets booked completely.

Don't understand how the slots are filled so quickly.

out of 100 slots in Chennai 2 are given to the public and rest are filled offline, I got a confirmation which was overnight cancelled since I am not a influencial person who booked through Cowin. Till there is shortage mafia will make merry.

You can subscribe to alerts via the Telegram groups linked in this Twitter thread. They are using the Cowin APIs to post notifications of new slots opening up. I know a few people who were able to book via this route. Good luck.

https://twitter.com/BertyThomas/status/ ... 0043438081

With due respect this is FUD, my close relative has also got the vaccine through Cowin, no app helps, 98/100 vaccines are given to well the connected, I suggest people to try but not put themselves down. There is well entrenched Political Hospital Mafia nexus on which nothing can be done. Please try in Cowin to get the 1% or 2% slots open to general public as of now.

People who got the vaccine through connections are not going to boast they used their connections to get things done- as they will be under pressure to show their methods.

[Raja]

Only 600k vaccinations on Sunday (according to mohw)? Is that true?

[ani_sharma]

There is a youtube streaming by T.Jacob John (CMC Vellore) with topic :"Why did the second wave hit India so hard ?" on 18th May 5:30 p.m IST.
Here is the link:http://www.youtube.com/c/apsciitm

Can you re-check the link?

[SaraLax]

What bothers me the most is, how these pvt hospitals are able to get vaccine supplies, when there is a shortage and why none of the govt primary health care centers are providing the inoculation for 18+.

There is nothing untoward happening here. Private Hospitals in Chennai & other cities who can afford to buy directly from the Vaccine Manufacturers are doing the vaccination for 18+ years age group. Big private Hospitals in TN like Apollo, MGM, Global, SIMS, Kauvery & likewise are purchasing directly from SII & BB at their highest quoted price and one dose of these vaccines costs upwards of INR 1250 at minimum. For a 7 million+ city - these big pvt hospitals are getting only a few thousands of Vaccine doses per week. No wonder it gets quickly taken up.

I am less than 45+ years age but i go for periodic check-up to a very good private but medium sized hospital (well known for their reasonable cost in doing critical surgeries in spine & brain & with a very high success rate). When i went in March 2021 - the head doctor asked me if i was willing to take Covid-19 vaccine during my check-up and i was surprised. I said that i am not in the 45+ age group. The Doctor replied that they are getting vaccines thrice per week (from TN Medical Supplies Corporation? or is it Chennai Corporation ?) and they are advertising in their locality & personally calling up their prior patients in that age group to come and take the Vaccine. But still they are seeing nearly 5 % wastage of the vaccines and hence the reason why he asked me. They got informal permission to provide the vaccine to people in leftover age group and reduce wastage as much as possible. In that period even educated people in Chennai were circumspect about taking these Vaccines. They gave me Covishield & charged INR 250 for the same. Given the opportunity - i opted to take it. But the hospital indicated that people like me will not get the Covid Vaccination Certificate inspite of having paid money to take the vaccination. Then i called them in 2nd week of April and they asked me to come on a different date to get my 2nd dose. I again paid INR 250 and took the 2nd dose. The hospital's Vaccine co-ordinator was lamenting that people are still not coming to take up their 2nd dose !!.

Since this is a pvt hospital which is not treating Covid-19 patients i felt it was more safer to not get infected with Covid-19 during the process of taking the Covid-19 vaccination itself and called up to check on their vaccination appointments (it was not showing in CoWin site). The Vaccine co-ordinator told me that hospital has not got any supply of vaccines for the last 3 weeks from the state body which used to distribute it previously . But they are now getting lots of calls & direct queries at the hospital as to whether they are doing vaccination because they are a private hospital & other private hospitals are also doing vaccination in all age groups. But the hospital is not big enough to buy the vaccines directly from SII or BB and suffer wastage. They are willing to vaccinate people if state govt provides them the vaccines. So they are asking people to call back in 2 weeks to get an update. There was a change in state government in the middle and things got into a state of stasis on the Covid-19 front. In last week of April or so, the Health Minister from then ADMK run govt was seeking the Election Commission's permission to allow the State Govt to make some critical decisions on the COVID-19 handling front alone but it seems they did not get a proper response. Now the current SG in TN has just started the process of tendering to acquire Vaccines for the 18-45 years group. There is Oxygen shortage too and the whole state is in a very strict lock down (basically damaging the lower middle class and poor people the most after having earlier indicated that they will not enforce strict lockdowns). This lack of vaccines from state govt in TN for this 18 - 45 yrs group will continue until local vaccine manufacturers like SII, BB & Sputnik increase their production rate. Only 45+ years folks are still being provided vaccines in numerous pvt hospitals and state's hospitals & UHPCs. Till then folks in TN have to be patient, keep themselves safe from COVID-19 infection and wait their time out.

[DrRatnadip]

Our ventilaters are finaly able to take rest after almost 2 months.. New admissions have drasticaly came down.. Many beds are now vacant in all covid hospitals.. MH is on its way to defeat this second wave..

Great news, Doctor Sir.

Could you opine as to what you attribute this to? Was it mainly the lockdown? Or did vaccinations have some impact over the course of time?

What is your opinion on the need for a nation-wide lockdown? Or are the state lockdowns at their choosing good enough to ride this thing through?

-Vaccination has helped decrease mortality.. Vaccinated individuals rarely required ICU even after single dose.. But lockdown has greatly helped in controlling transmission rate.. lockdown needs to be selective in my opinion.. Nationwide lockdown wont help much..
-Few of my pediatrician friends have reported worrisome increase in post covid syndrome in children in last two wks.. Govt have also started preparation for possible third wave in children..

[RajaRudra]

All based on my relatives and friends first hand experience.

TN - Full concentration only on Chennai. Even the vaccine availability in private hospitals is only for the Chennai. May be, this is the way found by
new govt here to escape the media scrutiny.
Even the second tier cities in Tamil Nadu are running dry. For eg., All the branches of Apollo Hospital in Chennai are inoculating the vaccines. But the same Apollo hospitals in other cities are not having vaccines. That raises the question, if its at the oral advice of Tamil Nadu government.

[Shameek]

This is concerning if it becomes a rising trend. Mucormycosis cases seem to be rising in Pune and some adjacent areas. The article has some potential signs/symptoms to watch out for.

Link

[Kakkaji]

Bleeding and clotting events following COVID vaccination miniscule in India

National AEFI (Adverse Event Following Immunization) Committee submits report to the Union Health Ministry

Bleeding and clotting cases following COVID vaccination in India are minuscule and in line with the expected number of diagnoses of these conditions in the country, a report submitted by the National AEFI (Adverse Event Following Immunization) Committee to the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare said.

Alerts have been raised in some countries on post-vaccination “embolic and thrombotic events” on 11 March 2021 particularly with AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine [Covishield in India]. A decision was taken to conduct an urgent in-depth analysis of the adverse events (AE) in India in the light of the global concerns.

The National AEFI committee noted that as of 03 April 2021, 75,435,381 vaccine doses had been administered (Covishield – 68,650,819; Covaxin – 6,784,562). Of these, 65,944,106 were first doses and 9,491,275 second dose. Since the COVID-19 vaccination drive was initiated – more than 23,000 adverse events were reported through the CO-WIN platform reported from 684 of the 753 districts of the country. Of these, only 700 cases (@ 9.3 cases /million doses administered) were reported to be serious and severe nature.

The AEFI Committee has completed an in-depth case review of 498 serious and severe events, of which 26 cases have been reported to be potential thromboembolic (formation of a clot in a blood vessel that might also break loose and carried by the blood stream to plug another vessel) events – following the administration of Covishield vaccine – with a reporting rate of 0.61 cases/ million doses.

There were no potential thromboembolic events reported following administration of Covaxin vaccine.

AEFI data in India showed that there is a very miniscule but definitive risk of thromboembolic events. The reporting rate of these events in India is around 0.61/million doses, which is much lower than the 4 cases/million reported by UK’s regulator Medical and Health Regulatory Authority (MHRA). Germany has reported 10 events per million doses.

It is important to know that thromboembolic events keep occurring in general population as background and scientific literature suggests that this risk is almost 70 per cent less in persons of South and South East Asian descent in comparison to those from European descent.

Covishield, the COVID-19 vaccine, continues to have a definite positive benefit risk profile with tremendous potential to prevent infections and reduce deaths due to COVID-19 across the world and in India. Over 13.4 crore doses of Covishield vaccine have been administered as on 27 April 2021 in India. MoHFW is continuously monitoring the safety of all COVID-19 vaccines and is promoting reporting of suspected adverse events.

[Kakkaji]

Bharat Biotech's Karnataka facility will have capacity to make 4-5 crore doses of Covaxin a month by Aug-end: Minister

Bharat Biotech's Covaxin manufacturing facility that is under construction in Kolar district in Karnataka would have a manufacturing capacity of four to five crore doses a month by August-end, state Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar said on Monday.

Sudhakar said he had a video conference with Bharat Biotech founder Dr Krishna Ella, his daughter Dr Jala Ella and rest of the team.

"Dr Ella has assured me that their facility at Malur in Kolar will be able to produce one crore vaccines by June- end. By July-end it will be by two to three crores, and their target by August-end is four crore to five crore vaccine doses,"

He also said that Bharat Biotech's facility in Hyderabad can produce one crore doses of COVID vaccine a month whereas the Karnataka unit will roll out four to five crore doses a month from August onwards.

[vijayk]

Bharat Biotech's Karnataka facility will have capacity to make 4-5 crore doses of Covaxin a month by Aug-end: Minister

Bharat Biotech's Covaxin manufacturing facility that is under construction in Kolar district in Karnataka would have a manufacturing capacity of four to five crore doses a month by August-end, state Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar said on Monday.

Sudhakar said he had a video conference with Bharat Biotech founder Dr Krishna Ella, his daughter Dr Jala Ella and rest of the team.

"Dr Ella has assured me that their facility at Malur in Kolar will be able to produce one crore vaccines by June- end. By July-end it will be by two to three crores, and their target by August-end is four crore to five crore vaccine doses,"

He also said that Bharat Biotech's facility in Hyderabad can produce one crore doses of COVID vaccine a month whereas the Karnataka unit will roll out four to five crore doses a month from August onwards.

Hope they plan ahead for Nasal vaccine too assuming it will succeed. Govt. should allocate enough money to build necessary infra by the time it gets approved. Much easier to deliver.

[Amber G.]

Update: 5/15 India Covid data:
Another day of substantial drop (by 11,000+) for new infections. (8th May as peak of 7-day average of daily new infections at 390,000)



Also: More significantly: 7-day average of active infections came down for the first time since March! An important milestone -- as active infections determine load on health infrastructure.


Some less painful days are ahead now. Situation for O2 and beds in hospitals etc has improved and seem to be, in relative terms, in control. Good thing is hospitalization/morbidity among those who were fully vaccinated is *extremely* low - fortunate as most of the doctors and nurses were in that group.
Painful aspect is too many people who believed in reprehensible anti-vaccine propaganda made the situation worse. (By some reliable data - 90% of hospitalization was due to the fact that people did not get a vaccine while they were eligible and lines were small).

PLEASE STAY SAFE, WEAR MASKS (N95 if possible) and AVOID CROWDS. GET A VACCINE as soon as possible.

PS: Source: SUTRA and other reliable data.

https://sutra-india.in/ has state, district and some times city level data (and projection). The projections, I believe will be reliable within 10%)

(Active infections lag a few days from 'new infections' and death data lags about 10 days form new infections.

More update: 5/17: Number keeps dropping ( Yesterday by 12000). Here is the current values (Model computed in last week of April)

Much better fit for active infections which are dropping too..

[Kakkaji]

This is interesting. Company owned by Adar Poonawalla is interested in producing Covaxin under license from Bharat Biotech:

News about Panacea Biotec owned by Adar Poonawalla

Post the transaction, SII’s stake in Panacea Biotec will rise to 10.13 per cent. The effective ownership of the stake still lies indirectly with Poonawalla.

Panacea Biotec is a renowned contract manufacturer in the drug industry and is involved in production of both human and animal vaccines.

The company has reached out to Bharat Biotech to produce the latter’s Covid-19 vaccine Covaxin in order to ramp-up production of the lifesaving jab, which is in short supply in the country.

Earlier this month, a Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson said that the government has asked both Bharat Biotech and Panacea Biotec to ramp up production of Covaxin.

The Covaxin is turning out to be like LCA-Tejas of the vaccine industry. Because the patent belongs to India, you can scale it up inside the country without waiting for outside approval.

[vijayk]

This is interesting. Company owned by Adar Poonawalla is interested in producing Covaxin under license from Bharat Biotech:

News about Panacea Biotec owned by Adar Poonawalla

Post the transaction, SII’s stake in Panacea Biotec will rise to 10.13 per cent. The effective ownership of the stake still lies indirectly with Poonawalla.

Panacea Biotec is a renowned contract manufacturer in the drug industry and is involved in production of both human and animal vaccines.

The company has reached out to Bharat Biotech to produce the latter’s Covid-19 vaccine Covaxin in order to ramp-up production of the lifesaving jab, which is in short supply in the country.

Earlier this month, a Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson said that the government has asked both Bharat Biotech and Panacea Biotec to ramp up production of Covaxin.

The Covaxin is turning out to be like LCA-Tejas of the vaccine industry. Because the patent belongs to India, you can scale it up inside the country without waiting for outside approval.

Awesome

[Suraj]

The important element is that SII has no BSL-3 facility whereas Panacea has one of the three private BSL-3 lines in the country. The other two are Bharat Biotech and the Pune facility just acquired by Bharat Biotech . PSUs have BSL-3 lines too, e.g. IIL and BIBCOL do. Late last year, govt invested in scaling them up for Covaxin, and they're due to come online July. Haffkine also has a facility but it needs upgrades which is why it only starts production by end of year, based on current estimate.

Panacea ownership is a smart bet for SII. I wish there was more clarity on the Panacea/Bharat Biotech negotiations. I've read about it for 2-3 months now.

[Kakkaji]

Panacea ownership is a smart bet for SII. I wish there was more clarity on the Panacea/Bharat Biotech negotiations. I've read about it for 2-3 months now.

i think the GoI will 'gently guide' the negotiations to a successful conclusion.