Wuhan Coronavirus Resource Thread

[greatde]

Is it true?

[anmol]

Is it true?

Because testing in India increasing, and in other countries it is slowing down.

[jpremnath]

The fact is we are nowhere near the peak and will soon be next to US and Brazil in terms of total confirmed cases. With lockdown easing, it is not going to slow down...The only silver lining is that our recoveries are also rising fast...Almost 50% of total cases now

[Zynda]

For folks who have WFH option, count your blessings...opportunity to minimize exposure/contact as much as possible. I hear that many companies are planning on asking employees to return to office starting next week. I guess initially they will start-off with around 30%-50% strength and test waters. From what I hear, most major MNCs have approved WFH for better part of the year.

Any further traction on thoughts about using HCQ on a large scale basis to contain Covid?

Read today that 2nd patient in Bangalore/Karnataka who has recovered from covalent plasma therapy. Also an article had appeared that cytokine storm trials in Bangalore had initial success in Phase-1 (?) trails. Apparently, it was administered to 6 or so patients and they did not show any adverse reactions. The HCG Cancer Institute will submit the results of Phase-1 with in the next 2 weeks to ICMR and DGCI for review and approval to progress to Phase-2 trials.

With further opening of activities starting next week, we will need some sort of solution to contain not only infections but also anxiety/fear among populace.

[vijayk]

Any further traction on thoughts about using HCQ on a large scale basis to contain Covid?

Read today that 2nd patient in Bangalore/Karnataka who has recovered from covalent plasma therapy. Also an article had appeared that cytokine storm trials in Bangalore had initial success in Phase-1 (?) trails. Apparently, it was administered to 6 or so patients and they did not show any adverse reactions. The HCG Cancer Institute will submit the results of Phase-1 with in the next 2 weeks to ICMR and DGCI for review and approval to progress to Phase-2 trials.

With further opening of activities starting next week, we will need some sort of solution to contain not only infections but also anxiety/fear among populace.

I know Dr. Vishal Rao from HCG who is the brains behind this. Will see if I can reach out to him. He is a great visionary and passionate/excellent doctor.

Also an article had appeared that cytokine storm trials

Can you give the link to this article?

[vijayk]

From whatsapp ...

Important points from the panel discussion of Dr.Sanjay Oak, Chairman Covid Task Force, Maharashtra and Dr.Shashank Joshi ,Dean ,Indian college of Physicians.

1.Covid 19 positive patient if symptomatic and having comorbidities should only be admitted.

2.Initial line of treatment
Vit C 1000 mg per day plus
Zinc 50 mg per day plus
Tab HCQ 400 mg BD for day 1,followed by 400 mg OD for 4 days
plus Tab. Azithromycin 500 mg OD for 5 days .

3.If HCQ plus Azee contraindicated ,then Cap Doxy for 5 days plus Tab Ivermectin for 3 days.

4.Drop in spo2 is mostly seen in day 8 to 10 of illness

5.Most lives are lost during day 7 to day 14 , when febrile stage already over.

6.Death rate has come down from 7.7 to 3% in Mumbai.

7.Doubling rate of cases has improved from 3.5 days to 16 days.

8. Putting patients on invasive ventilator has not helped much as 88 % of those on ventilator died.

9.High flow Nasal Cannula Oxygen is the only and only way of treating patients.

10. Antibody tests are not to be done for diagnosis of cases.
Quantitative titre of IgG can only tell us about the amount of resistance a person has developed against virus.
Also individuals with high titre of IgG are appropriate candidates as plasma donars. It is something like having immunity passport if IgG titres are high.

11. By now 5 to 10,% of population must have developed antibodies against the virus.

12. After 10 days of illness virus is no longer replicating, hence though person is symptomatic he is not infectious to others.

13.It may take few weeks for the test to become negative in some individuals.

14.HCQ is a protective and well tolerated drug for Indians. Police people who received HCQ prophylaxis had milder illness and lesser deaths as compared to the group that didn't receive HCQ prophylaxis. Can be safely use in person below 55 years of age .A baseline ECG is recommended.

15.Doctors should not start treatment for Covid only on clinical suspicion.
Better get the test done. If ECG and Chest Xray are normal,then can start Tab Azee and Tab HCQ till reports of test awaited.

16.Xrays and HRCT have significant role in diagnosis of Covid19.

17.Close contacts of covid positive patient should also take HCQ prophylaxis if asymptomatic.

18.There are already 11 variants of corona virus found in India.

19.Peak of epidemic is over in Mumbai may be in next week. But number of cases will increase again after lockdown is over ,may be a second spike will come.

20.Other red zones will reach their peak in next 2 to 3 months.

21.In the month of November,December we may get a second peak, but with less mutated form of virus may be with vaccine and herd immunity.

22.We have to live with corona virus for the next 2 years.

23.Specific advice for home quarantine people to improve their immune status is as follows:
Eat healthy, eat on time, eat little less (as lesser activity)
Take good protein supplements .
Vit C 500 mg BD
Zinc 50 mg daily
Vit D daily 60000 for 3 days and then once a week
2 drops of virgin coconut oil daily
Minimum 8 hours sleep.
Yoga,Pranayam,Exercise.
Avoid oily, spicy food, fast foods, cold drinks, icecream which make you vulnerable for sore throat.

24.Avoid alcohol as it makes you vulnerable , each drink increases your chances of getting infection 6 times.

25 .Follow SMS i.e.
Sanitization
Masking (even at home if having cough,cold) and
Social distancing.

26. Uncontrolled emotions are equally bad as uncontrolled diabetes.
Dont be Coronised mentally.

27. Be self disciplined and don't try to oversmart Corona!!

[Jay]

From whatsapp ...

Important points from the panel discussion of Dr.Sanjay Oak, Chairman Covid Task Force, Maharashtra and Dr.Shashank Joshi ,Dean ,Indian college of Physicians.

Thanks for sharing this. Very comprehensive overview on what is going on.

[Zynda]

Cocktail of chemicals to combat Covid

Doctors in Bengaluru are using a ‘special power’ to combat the Coronavirus. Called Cytokine therapy, this drug was injected into six healthy volunteers, in the young to middle-age group. According to the doctors, all the six individuals are well so far and their first responses look fine.

Dr US Vishal Rao, regional director of head and neck surgical oncology and robotic surgery, HCG Cancer Centre, said, “On Tuesday and Wednesday, we started the first round of the Cytokine therapy. Two rounds of injections were administered. We are monitoring them continuously.”

The first parameter of success is that the moment the cytokine is injected, these individuals should not show any negative signs. “Generally, we admit them one day prior to this therapy, and after four to six hours of injecting, we discharge them. So far, we have not seen any kind of hypo- immune response like allergy or fever. These things have to be monitored for the next four days,” he added.

“On day one and three, we monitor the blood parameters to see if there is a rise in the blood count. We will also check for skin rashes at the site of injection or if there is fever. We also need to see if there are any symptoms like vomiting, pain -- in which case we need to do a scan,” said Dr Rao.

Experts said that once doctors clear Phase 1 trials they will go ahead with Phase 2. “The results of Phase 1 will be out the next week. Then we will move towards Phase 2 of the clinical study when we will inject Cytokine to Covid-19 patients, which is going to be a litmus test for us. A report will be sent to the Drugs Control Authority of India after Phase 1,” added Rao.

It is indeed Dr. Vishal Rao who is heading the trials and it seems like they are yet to test the cocktail on Covid patients.

[DavidD]

Thanks, but both links just say "page not found" for me, not sure why. Maybe it's locked by region?

Just google the article title sir. The article comes up.
Edit: http://www.ijmr.org.in/preprintarticle. ... 520;type=0

Abstract:
Background & objectives: Healthcare workers (HCWs) are at an elevated risk of contracting COVID-19. While intense occupational exposure associated with aerosol-generating procedures underlines the necessity of using personal protective equipment (PPE) by HCWs, high-transmission efficiency of the causative agent [severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)] could also lead to infections beyond such settings. Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), a repurposed antimalarial drug, was empirically recommended as prophylaxis by the National COVID-19 Task Force in India to cover such added risk. Against this background, the current investigation was carried out to identify the factors associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection among HCWs in the country. Methods: A case-control design was adopted and participants were randomly drawn from the countrywide COVID-19 testing data portal maintained by the ICMR. The test results and contact details of HCWs, diagnosed as positive (cases) or negative (controls) for SARS-CoV-2 using real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR), were available from this database. A 20-item brief-questionnaire elicited information on place of work, procedures conducted and use of PPE. Results : Compared to controls, cases were slightly older (34.7 vs. 33.5 yr) and had more males (58 vs. 50%). In multivariate analyses, HCWs performing endotracheal intubation had higher odds of being SARS-CoV-2 infected [adjusted odds ratio (AOR): 4.33, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.16-16.07]. Consumption of four or more maintenance doses of HCQ was associated with a significant decline in the odds of getting infected (AOR: 0.44; 95% CI: 0.22-0.88); a dose-response relationship existed between frequency of exposure to HCQ and such reductions (χ2 for trend=48.88; P<0.001). In addition, the use of PPE was independently associated with the reduction in odds of getting infected with SARS-CoV-2. Interpretations & conclusions: Until results of clinical trials for HCQ prophylaxis become available, this study provides actionable information for policymakers to protect HCWs at the forefront of COVID-19 response. The public health message of sustained intake of HCQ prophylaxis as well as appropriate PPE use need to be considered in conjunction with risk homoeostasis operating at individual levels.

Thanks! I'll be reading that today.

[chetak]

Indians sabotaging India

sowmya has been sent to the WHO by the govt of India and she does not verify data in a seriously anti India article in the lancet that resulted in WHO trying to seriously negate and venomously undermine India's strong line of research and HCQ related studies.

राजीवः श्रीनिवासः @RajeevSrinivasa

Really, Sowmya? You should have verified the data, not accepted it on faith? Gee.

Presenting @who, @harvard, @TheLancet.

The axis of fraud.

The ultimate in credentialism.

Who would've thunk?

[csaurabh]

How can you get antibodies against the virus without having the virus?
If you have 5-10% of your pop with antibodies, does that mean that's the real number of covid 19 infections?

[Zynda]

Anand Ranganathan
@ARanganathan72
New evidence suggests SARS-CoV2 causes blood vessels to leak and the blood to clot, sparking inflammation resulting in acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).

Scientists think anti-clotting drugs or Statins might be of some help.
Blood vessel attack could trigger coronavirus’ fatal ‘second phase’

[Zynda]

Drug used to treat blood cancers might help reduce COVID-19 severity in patients: Study

Scientists have observed that a drug which is already approved to treat several blood cancers, is associated with reduced respiratory distress and a reduction in the overactive immune response in COVID-19 patients, an advance that may lead to a potential therapeutic for novel coronavirus infection.

According to the researchers, including those from the National Cancer Institute in the US, the cancer drug acalabrutinib blocked the protein Bruton tyrosine kinase (BTK) in COVID-19 patients, and provided clinical benefit to a small group of them.

The study, published in the journal Science Immunology, noted that the findings should not be considered clinical advice, and remain to be tested in a randomised, controlled clinical trial.

The BTK protein, according to the scientists, plays an important role in the immune system, including in macrophages which are immune cells that can cause inflammation by producing proteins known as cytokines.

These proteins, the researchers said, act as chemical messengers that help to stimulate and direct the immune response.

In some patients with severe COVID-19, the study said a large amount of cytokines are released in the body all at once, causing the immune system to damage the function of organs such as the lungs -- a process known as a "cytokine storm."

The current study involved 19 patients with a confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis that required hospitalisation, as well as with low blood-oxygen levels and evidence of inflammation.

According to the scientists, 11 of the 19 patients had been receiving supplemental oxygen for a median of two days, and eight others had been on ventilators for a median of 1.5 days.

The study noted that within one to three days after they began receiving the cancer drug, majority of patients in the supplemental oxygen group experienced a substantial drop in inflammation, and their breathing improved.

It said eight of the 11 patients were able to come off supplemental oxygen, and were discharged from the hospital.

Although the benefit of acalabrutinib was reported to be less dramatic in patients on ventilators, the scientists said four of the eight patients were able to come off the ventilator, two of whom were eventually discharged.

According to the scientists, the ventilator patient group was extremely clinically diverse and included patients who had been on a ventilator for prolonged periods of time and had major organ dysfunction.

Two of the patients in this group died, they said.

An analysis of blood samples from the patients revealed that the levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6), a major cytokine associated with hyperinflammation in severe COVID-19, decreased after treatment with acalabrutinib.

The scientists said counts of lymphocytes, an immune cell type associated with worse outcome in COVID-19 patients, also rapidly improved in most patients.

When the researchers tested blood cells from patients with severe COVID-19, who were not in the study, and compared it with samples from healthy volunteers, they found that the patients with severe COVID-19 had higher activity of the BTK protein and greater production of IL-6.

Based on these findings, they suggested that acalabrutinib may have been effective since its target, BTK, is hyperactive in severe COVID-19 immune cells.

However, in a note of caution, the scientists also mentioned in the study that the most common adverse events associated with long-term acalabrutinib therapy included "low-grade headache, diarrhea, pyrexia and upper respiratory tract infections."

They said the safety profile of acalabrutinib in patients with severe COVID-19 needs to be confirmed in a prospective clinical trial.

"Further correlative studies will be needed to understand the basis for response or resistance to BTK inhibition in patients with such advanced disease," the scientists wrote in the study.

[Zynda]

Reading reports on Twitter about dire situation in Mumbai where people are not able to get tested as many doctors are not willing to give out prescriptions which is needed to get tested in a private lab for Covid. BMC hospitals are over-run and read at least one report of a patient dying even before test results came out.

And an article on Deccan Herald said that based on Bailey's mathematical model, two public health experts from Health Ministry are saying that Corona pandemic might be over in India by mid-Sept, which is still good 3.5 months away.

COVID-19 pandemic may be over in India around mid-September, claims mathematical model-based analysis

The analysis shows that when the number of infected becomes equal to those removed from circulation by recovery and death, the coefficient will reach the 100 per cent threshold and the epidemic will be "extinguished".

I dunno if any efforts are being made to increase the number of beds as well as critical infrastructure and mainly man power needed to tackle the increase in cases.

I do hope not only recovery rate improves but period of recovery also goes down because given our population, opening up and highly infectious nature, we will end up having large number of people who will need hospital support. And it is certainly not encouraging to read Dr. Ratnadip's reports of reluctance by Govt regarding AB tests for surveillance. Perhaps one reason is that if it shows huge increase in number of cases, it might lead to panic among the populace and probably over whelm already strained healthcare infrastructure?

[vijayk]

https://www.facebook.com/ProfCong/video ... 555990145/

Look Shashi/ CON eco system Kiran Shaw of BioCon trying to address COVID-19/HCQ but same time talking of Ayushman ignoring PM/Modi/BJP at the same time defaming BJP on stimulus package for ignoring pharma. Wonder if BJP can do similar events for feedback/policy propagation

[srai]

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

Date: April 2, 2020
1 million cases
50,000 deaths

5% death rate average
...

Date: April 15, 2020
Over 2 million cases today
134,000 deaths

6.7% death rate average (known cases and deaths)

Known cases doubled in two weeks.

Date: April 27, 2020
Coronavirus Cases: 3,055,498
Deaths: 211,035
Recovered: 918,184

6.9% death rate average (known cases and deaths)
30% Recovery average

Another million in 12-days. Recovered inching towards a million (1/3 of known infections).

Date: May 9, 2020
Coronavirus Cases: 4,032,763
Deaths: 276,677
Recovered: 1,399,718

6.86% death rate average (known cases and deaths)
34.7% recovery average (known cases and recovery)

Three times in a row ... 12-to-14 days another million case



Date: May 20, 2020
Coronavirus Cases: 5,000,599
Deaths: 325,156
Recovered: 1,970,918

11-days to another million
6.5% death rate average (known cases and deaths)
39.4% recovery average (known cases and recovery)

Date: May 30, 2020
Coronavirus Cases: 6,033,835
Deaths: 366,891
Recovered: 2,661,163

10-days to another million
6.08% death rate average (known cases and deaths)
44.10% recovery average (known cases and recovery)

Recovery inching upwards while death rate dropping down.

7 June 2020

Coronavirus Cases: 7,008,898
Deaths: 402,691
Recovered: 3,429,150

8-days to another million
5.75% death rate average (known cases and deaths)
48.93% recovery average (known cases and recovery)

Cases are accelerating but death rate decreasing while recovery at nearly half of the cases.

[Krita]

And it is certainly not encouraging to read Dr. Ratnadip's reports of reluctance by Govt regarding AB tests for surveillance. Perhaps one reason is that if it shows huge increase in number of cases, it might lead to panic among the populace and probably over whelm already strained healthcare infrastructure?

From UP data posted on UP health ministry twitter handle,of the 3927 active cases, 89 require oxygen support and 5 require ventilator support.
Which means 2.4 percent of the infected require critical care. I know 4 people infected with Chinavirus. Three are asymptomatic and one had mild symptoms (a temp of 102F initially) and on the way to full recovery.
Vadodara 73 out of 1236 is under critical care (45 O2 and 28 ventilator. Which is 5.9 percent of active cases.

[sajo]

It seems my fellow countrymen have buried their heads in the sand as far as the Wuhan Virus is concerned. This pic is a representation of whats probably happening in every single corner of the country.



I think people who have never gone for a walk in their life also came out, just because they can.

[Cyrano]

Good to see most people wearing masks !

[Aarvee]

Drug used to treat blood cancers might help reduce COVID-19 severity in patients: Study

More information regarding this drug:

BTK inhibitors and potential use in treating Covid19
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/btk-inhi ... n-vedururu

[vijayk]

Looks like Kejriwal has symptoms. I am sure he will get plasma treatment and all.

[sum]

Good to see most people wearing masks !

Actually really heartening pic indeed!

[Manish_P]

It seems my fellow countrymen have buried their heads in the sand as far as the Wuhan Virus is concerned. This pic is a representation of whats probably happening in every single corner of the country.

I think people who have never gone for a walk in their life also came out, just because they can.

Perhaps, but a lot of those would be regular walkers (and some gym goers). There is a good prevalence of diabetes in city based Indians, especially Mumbai. Besides controlled diet, weight management becomes crucial. With gyms closed and only limited in-home exercising option (space constraints etc), walking is the easiest form of exercise.

Personal example - i was nearly full blown diabetic (sugar levels 350+ average) 2 years ago. The family doctor advised me to lose weight and lay of junk food. As i was never a gym goer, i simply took to walking. Ended up walking nearly 8 kms a day average. Lost 25 kgs in 3 months flat and some more thereafter before hitting a plateau. Anyway sugar levels got in regular range and no medicines required. During my daily walks met all age group walkers.. and found the most common issue was Diabetes. And to a much lesser extent joints issues. The joints issue folk were mostly senior citizen. The diabetes folk were mostly middle aged and even younger. I am lucky as i stay in a gated society with an internal garden with a walking perimeter. Most buildings are stand alone though. I didn't step out the entire month of April and May. Despite some discipline, my weight has gone up and the temptation to resume daily walks has restarted. Still holding out though as the fear of the virus is slightly more than the fear of the type 2

[chetak]

Decisive leadership and the qualitative difference of being elected by a 23 crore awam Vs. being selected by 23 generals of the ghq makes all the difference.

‘Must know what it did right’: Pak journalist praises UP’s handling of Covid-19 crisis

Hussain also compared Pakistan’s performance with Maharashtra, saying the western Indian state has performed terribly in relation to Pakistan.

Fahd Hussain, the Editor of Pakistan’s ‘Dawn’ newspaper, tweeted that UP has lower mortality rate than Pakistan and that what it did right.

“Look at this graph carefully. It compares death rate of Pakistan and Indian state of UP. Both have roughly same population profile & literacy. Pakistan has lesser density/km and higher GDP/capita. UP was strict with lockdown. We were not. See diff in death rate,” Hussain said.

Fahd Husain@Fahdhusain·Jun 7
Look at this graph carefully. It compares death rate of Pakistan and Indian state of UP. Both have roughly same population profile & literacy. Pakistan has lesser density/km and higher GDP/capita. UP was strict with lockdown. We were not. See diff in death rate #COVIDー19
(1/2)

Fahd Husain@Fahdhusain·Jun 7
Replying to @Fahdhusain
UP is not one of those "rich" places govt always refers to when justifying opening up lockdown. I would invite people to explain why so many had to die in Pakistan and so few in UP. Look closely at the chart. And think @zfrmrza @DrMusadikMalik @Rashidlangrial
#COVIDー19
(2/2)

[sajo]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-heal ... SKBN2351HX

Pakistan drug firm to import potential COVID-19 treatment from Bangladesh



Oh the delicious irony.

Sir, not just the Bakis.

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/in ... s?from=mdr

Maharashtra Govt is also going to import 10k Vials of Remdesivir from Bangladesh, at 12k per vial. Does a Vial = A dose ?

[Suraj]

It seems my fellow countrymen have buried their heads in the sand as far as the Wuhan Virus is concerned. This pic is a representation of whats probably happening in every single corner of the country.

I think people who have never gone for a walk in their life also came out, just because they can.

For what it's worth, it's not any better in the US. The Bay Area opened up last weekend allowing businesses to serve food at open air dining settings. Despite the requirement to maintain physical space, most places were packed tight - at least 2-3x as much density as that picture.

In comparison, there's lots of separation in that pic, and more importantly, any interaction is brief, as people are walking past and any exchange of viral load is mitigated by the fact that an individual is neither next to a person nor in the same spot, for more than a fleeting moment. Compare that to people sitting next to each other with barely a foot of separation for up to an hour, in a restaurant.

[vijayk]

Where are with Vaccine guys?

[sajo]

Restaurants are open from today onwards here as well.
Atleast in the one directly opposite my home, apart from the waiters wearing masks and transparent plastic gloves, I do not see any special provision made. I am sure there are others who take adequate precautions, but how do we minimize the weakest links?

[sudarshan]

^ Assuming the above is true - what is the thinking? Does that drug work at all, or is it desperation strategy? 10 k vials at 12 k per vial?

Maybe buddhu Thackeray wants to hand over the distribution job to D. Fadnavis. The thinking would be "he already did Jalyukt sivir yojana, now he will do remde sivir yojana and make sure everybody gets it."

On a different note - Italy has supposedly opened up for tourism from June 3. Need to see what effect that has - will cases spike again? France has also been opening up, so far no sign of another wave. Cause for cautious optimism. Don't know to what extent tourists are flocking back to Italy - probably not at all, although there have been some reports of increased travel between France and Italy.

If cases spike again, then the end game is still some distance away, and targeted lockdowns may be necessary. OTOH, if they do not spike, then these countries are probably in the herd immunity regime or beyond, regardless of what the infected fraction says, and how far it is from "The Herd Immunity Threshold of 60%."

My gut feeling is there will be some spike, but not a whole lot. But need to wait and see what happens over the next two weeks or so.

[sajo]

^ Assuming the above is true - what is the thinking? Does that drug work at all, or is it desperation strategy? 10 k vials at 12 k per vial?

Maybe buddhu Thackeray wants to hand over the distribution job to D. Fadnavis. The thinking would be "he already did Jalyukt sivir yojana, now he will do remde sivir yojana and make sure everybody gets it."

Further :

"Gilead has not provided a licence to Eskayef Pharmaceuticals or any other company in Bangladesh to manufacture remdesivir,” Gilead said in a statement to ET. “Gilead cannot comment on or verify the authenticity or effectiveness of this product as it is not manufactured by Gilead or one of our licensed partners.”


Indian firms said that the Bangladeshi company with which Mantralaya is in talks has neither the import licence, nor a manufacturing licence from Gilead to sell the drug in India. The procurement price of the drug, seemingly at more than double the rates of Dhaka, is also raising questions.

[chola]

Restaurants are open from today onwards here as well.
Atleast in the one directly opposite my home, apart from the waiters wearing masks and transparent plastic gloves, I do not see any special provision made. I am sure there are others who take adequate precautions, but how do we minimize the weakest links?

Your 4 and 5 star restaurants for phoren tourists and babus might have the space and moola to do more. What is the capacity of the mom-and-pop businesses -- not just restaurants but chai/kathi/dosas stalls -- that serve the vast majority especially our manual labor force? We can mandate gloves and masks as a minimum but that is a society directive not a restaurant one. The customer has to do his part.

Here in the US, we have selfish animals who attacked and injured restaurant workers telling them they can be served only if they wore masks.

[Ambar]

Btw, i can understand the gross negligence and utter mismanagement that made MH contribute 1 in 3 cases in India and nearly 1 in every 2 deaths, but why are the number of cases in TN so high ? I know there is a huge Tamil population who live and work in Mumbai and Thane, and many of them may have brought the virus with them back to TN, but yet the numbers coming out of Chennai is just staggering. This is surprising considering TN government did an excellent job in communication, tracing and containment in the early days, including adding a new jargon to secular Indian dictionary to call Tableeghi Jamaat as "Single source event", wonder what went wrong since ?

[sajo]

Your 4 and 5 star restaurants for phoren tourists and babus might have the space and moola to do more. What is the capacity of the mom-and-pop businesses -- not just restaurants but chai/kathi/dosas stalls -- that serve the vast majority especially our manual labor force? We can mandate gloves and masks as a minimum but that is a society directive not a restaurant one. The customer has to do his part.

Here in the US, we have selfish animals who attacked and injured restaurant workers telling them they can be served only if they wore masks.

Agree that the onus is on the customer to not overplay his/her cards given their new found so-called freedom. Simply keeping tables some distance away, and educating staff about correct mask usage can be a start. Mainly to protect staff from the patrons and not vice versa. I do really wish we can wish the virus away, but any tips for small business where prolonged exposure is inevitable are welcome.

[sudarshan]

From relatives in TN - govt. makes an announcement of "lockdown from tomorrow" at 3:00 PM today. People throng stores and supermarkets in panic. No masks, all clamoring together in close proximity, just to get supplies for next week or two. Now during lockdown, when one goes to a store, people show no sense of urgency of situation, brush against you, breathe at you from close quarters. Store owners take off masks, when asked, they say "all very well for you customers, you just come in for a few minutes, we have to stand here all day in these uncomfortable masks, we have to eat too in between." Same in banks.

One street in Chennai was locked down because one person (in late 70's or 80's I think) supposedly had it. That person passed away. People talked all kinds of things - "crazy old man didn't wear his mask" forgetting that they themselves haven't been so diligent about that kind of thing. Then - "he didn't really have it, he was on his way out anyway." IOW, he died of something else. Nobody really knows - was he actually tested?

Lockdowns in places like Chennai are very iffy. When people get a chance to head to the store or bank, they seem to forget all precautions, don't take it seriously enough. I doubt that the low death rate in Indian cities is really because of lockdowns (maybe govt's are doing their best, especially the central govt., but people don't seem to realize the seriousness of it), something else is saving India.

[disha]

Btw, i can understand the gross negligence and utter mismanagement that made MH contribute 1 in 3 cases in India and nearly 1 in every 2 deaths, but why are the number of cases in TN so high ? I know there is a huge Tamil population who live and work in Mumbai and Thane, and many of them may have brought the virus with them back to TN, but yet the numbers coming out of Chennai is just staggering. This is surprising considering TN government did an excellent job in communication, tracing and containment in the early days, including adding a new jargon to secular Indian dictionary to call Tableeghi Jamaat as "Single source event", wonder what went wrong since ?

1. TN managed it very well initially. Then came the Thookers and Thooblighis. TN called them single source

2. Thookers created a mini-explosion. And then the politicos - particularly the 'dravidian' parties allowed some markets to be open when they should have been shut down. This created multiple- mini clusters

3. The death rate among positive symptomatic chinavirus is low in TN. Compared to GJ and MH. It has been speculated that it is due to differences in viruses. I disagree. I think it is due to differences in immunizations and the clusters that is infected. In GJ, 70% are in the special clusters. And those special clusters tend to have lesser immunization compared to special cluster in TN.

I think, TN Government looking at very low CFR decided to go for herd immunity. It does turn out that the HIT for chinavirus is somewhere between 20-30%. Why sink the economy if the CFR of TB is greater than the CFR of chinavirus? The R0 of TB is greater than the R0 of chinavirus? Carrying around your work with masks decreases R0 substantially, particularly if all wear mask and minimize exposure in closed air centers like cinema, mall and other places.

However people need to be diligent and wear masks and maintain hygiene.

[IndraD]

Looks like Kejriwal has symptoms. I am sure he will get plasma treatment and all.

he certainly doesn't have virus. He is diabetic & Chronic bronchitic, a vulnerable group why would he delay getting tested by a day? He is setting stage to exit responsibility and blame it all on Modi.

[IndraD]

Where are with Vaccine guys?

here is vaccine update , starting with India

Serum Institute of India (SII) has partnered with University of Oxford to ramp up trials and vaccine development so that early prototypes of the safe vaccine would be made available to developing countries as early as October 2020. The private company has also struck a deal with US biotech firm Codagenix to develop a live-attenuated vaccine (based on a weakened strain) as well as an Austrian biotech company, Themis Bioscience which is modelling a vaccine based on a measles viral strain.

China

All of China's homegrown vaccines, five of them have reached phase II of trials, with most of them giving positive results, Sinovac Biotech's vaccine remains the most touted one.

Singpore
Singaporean vaccine is similar to that of the vaccine produced by Moderna Inc, which has received positive reviews in phase 1 of its clinical trials. However, even with production done in a speedy way, the Prime Minister of the country said it will take a minimum of a year or more before the vaccine becomes widely available for public consumption.

Researchers from Singapore meanwhile, have also produced a one of its kind test kit, 'cPass' which can help detect antibodies in the body and rule out chances of active coronavirus infection in just an hour.
US
The United States, which has recorded a surge of coronavirus cases in the recent months, has come ahead and said that they have procured over two million doses to be administered to prevent the spread of the virus (must be moderna) if they meet necessary safety checks. The government has shortlisted five companies to speed up the production of an effective vaccine in the global race.

Japan, which had to postpone the Olympics scheduled for 2020 has said that the officials are working round the clock to test a vaccine against COVID-19. According to reports, production is underway and plans to launch the vaccine for the population is set to roll out by the first half of 2021. Japan has also decided to pool resources with other countries to speed up production and vaccine development.

British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca, who has joined hands with the University of Oxford was one of the first ones to produce a vaccine prototype which reached the clinical trial stage. After early hiccups and observations, the researchers have now said that they are all set to "roll out" their vaccine candidate for the masses in the months of September or October, with production for two million doses underway.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/lif ... 261249.cms

[IndraD]

https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-ne ... kI7oM.html
US already has produced 2 million vaccines

[IndraD]

no wonder Trump calls them fake news and many people lap it up > Scientists are developing vaccine not Trump.
Cheap & pathetic newspaper/portal. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/08/opin ... ccine.html

In a desperate search for a boost, he could release a coronavirus vaccine that has not been shown to be safe and effective as an October surprise.

[chetak]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-heal ... SKBN2351HX

Pakistan drug firm to import potential COVID-19 treatment from Bangladesh



Oh the delicious irony.

Sir, not just the Bakis.

Maharashtra Govt is also going to import 10k Vials of Remdesivir from Bangladesh, at 12k per vial. Does a Vial = A dose ?

three Indian companies have asked permission to manufacture Remdesivir in India and the permission has not yet been given/may not be given.