Wuhan Coronavirus Resource Thread

The Strategic Issues & International Relations Forum is a venue to discuss issues pertaining to India's security environment, her strategic outlook on global affairs and as well as the effect of international relations in the Indian Subcontinent. We request members to kindly stay within the mandate of this forum and keep their exchanges of views, on a civilised level, however vehemently any disagreement may be felt. All feedback regarding forum usage may be sent to the moderators using the Feedback Form or by clicking the Report Post Icon in any objectionable post for proper action. Please note that the views expressed by the Members and Moderators on these discussion boards are that of the individuals only and do not reflect the official policy or view of the Bharat-Rakshak.com Website. Copyright Violation is strictly prohibited and may result in revocation of your posting rights - please read the FAQ for full details. Users must also abide by the Forum Guidelines at all times.
Mollick.R
BRFite
Posts: 1033
Joined: 15 Aug 2016 10:26

Re: Wuhan Coronavirus Resource Thread

Post by Mollick.R »

Coronavirus live updates: MHA extends lockdown for two more weeks from May 4


In Orange Zones, inter-district movement of individuals and vehicles will be allowed for permitted activities only. Four-wheelers will have a maximum of 2 passengers besides the driver and pillion riding will be allowed on two-wheelers: MHA

18:39 (IST), MAY 01
In Orange Zones, in addition to activities permitted in Red Zone, taxis and cab aggregators will be permitted with 1 driver and 1 passenger only: MHA

A limited number of activities will remain prohibited across India, irrespective of the zone, including travel by air, rail, metro and inter-State movement by road; running of schools, colleges, and other educational & training/coaching institutions: MHA

In red zones, outside containment zones, certain activities are prohibited in addition to those prohibited throughout India. These are: plying of cycle rickshaws and auto rickshaws; taxis and cab aggregators; intra-district and inter-district plying of buses and barber shops,spas and saloons: MHA

Naval ships will conduct special drill and illuminate vessels to convey gratitude to corona warriors: Gen Bipin Rawat

Our police personnel are doing their job very well and they are deployed in the red zone. They are capable of undertaking actions in red zones also. No need has been felt for military deployment so far: Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat

Ensure UP borders are sealed to stop entry of 'coronavirus carriers': CM Yogi Adityanath to officials

MHA issues order under the Disaster Management Act, 2005 to further extend the Lockdown for a further period of two weeks beyond May 4: MHA


https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/ind ... 461685.cms
Deans
BRF Oldie
Posts: 2500
Joined: 26 Aug 2004 19:13
Location: Moscow

Re: Wuhan Coronavirus Resource Thread

Post by Deans »

In terms of no of cases each day, I'm going with the 1902 we recorded on 28th Apr as the peak. There have been 2 setbacks since -
Punjab/Chandigarh have had 150 cases from pilgrims in the Gurudwara at Nanded &
A super spreader barber shop in TN contributed another 100 cases today.

Testing has been ramped up from 15,000 /day as late as 14th April to 70,000 today. That's a large enough sample size to give some interesting data.
The only states with a positive rate exceeding 5% are
Delhi 8.3 % Maharashtra 7.2% Gujarat 6.8% & MP 6.3%
Of these, Delhi seems to have got numbers under control (well under the 300 peak it had). The remaining 3 are a concern - within the 3 states
its Greater Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Surat and Indore. (high cases and continued high percent of positive results).

West Bengal is at 4.8% testing positive though hopefully that should fall when testing no's (the lowest in India on a per million basis, are scaled up). Rajasthan & UP are at 2.5 & 2.3% positive, so I don't see a risk here. Same with Bihar - rise in % of cases, but positive tested is under 3%
nvishal
BRFite
Posts: 992
Joined: 14 Aug 2010 18:03

Re: Wuhan Coronavirus Resource Thread

Post by nvishal »

New cases in Mumbai are coming from bank employees, govt workers, municipality workers, police, hospital nurses etc, all of whom are exempt from lockdown. When they return home, some neighbours too are contracting it.

Many border regions of Maharashtra(with telangana) have a huge hyderabadi Muslim population. Some as far as bhiwandi, byculla, mumbra, malegaon, govandi etc, all of which are ghettos. In simple words, the conditions in Maharashtra are ripe for epidemics, especially a novel(highly infectious) one.

Maharashtra will witness a disaster once the real peak hits in winter season.
Last edited by nvishal on 01 May 2020 20:26, edited 2 times in total.
Zynda
BRF Oldie
Posts: 2309
Joined: 07 Jan 2006 00:37
Location: J4

Re: Wuhan Coronavirus Resource Thread

Post by Zynda »

Raja wrote:What is the source for this?
Found it on some other forum. The original image link I think was made on FB.
Bart S
BRF Oldie
Posts: 2938
Joined: 15 Aug 2016 00:03

Re: Wuhan Coronavirus Resource Thread

Post by Bart S »

What is the exit plan? I don't see the red zone going away in 2 weeks in Mum/Del/Chn or Ahmedabad. Without those cities a large section of the economy is out of action. And with non-essential shops now allowed to open (so long as they are standalone) in the red zones as well, the case load will probably not reduce much. I am not getting the logic of this 2-week extension. Hope there is a clear plan in mind rather than keeping on extending 2-3 weeks at a time. I think baboons are providing bad advice to the govt in order to pass the buck on to someone else and cover their ass.
Zynda
BRF Oldie
Posts: 2309
Joined: 07 Jan 2006 00:37
Location: J4

Re: Wuhan Coronavirus Resource Thread

Post by Zynda »

nvishal wrote:New cases in Mumbai are coming from bank employees, govt workers, municipality workers, police, hospital nurses etc, all of whom are exempt from lockdown. When they return home, some neighbours too are contracting it.
Quite scary...but how is the virus transmitting to neighbours assuming no contact plus social distancing? I understand mortality rate in Indian Covid patients are quite low...still a drug (not vaccine) which could increase the chances of survival + faster recovery (something like favipiravir turns out to be effective) would bring in a lot of ease on mind and people won't be that fearful of stepping out. I also understand the need to get the economy going on & stuff, but there is a certain element of fear when stepping out & anecdotes like the above does not help in reducing the fear!

The other issue is that many younger folks in India stay along with elderly folks at home unlike in West. If the younger folks get infected, the chances of transmission to vulnerable aged group increases...which means more people needing medical support -> increased pressure on hospitals/healthcare system.

All of the above makes it more imperative that at least a drug is found which makes the condition more manageable (may be if that drug is prescribed, number of people needing ICU support reduces drastically) until a true blue vaccine comes out.
nvishal
BRFite
Posts: 992
Joined: 14 Aug 2010 18:03

Re: Wuhan Coronavirus Resource Thread

Post by nvishal »

Zynda wrote:but how is the virus transmitting to neighbours assuming no contact plus social distancing?
Because of common social practices

What do people do during load shedding?
They come out of the house and gather at a spot to gossip.

During this lockdown, people in many housing complexes/ socities/chawls prefer to stay at home till 5pm for the sun to do down. Then they all come out on their terraces, main gathering spaces with carom boards(men), playing cards(women), puzzle games(kids) etc till 1am in the night.
habal
BRF Oldie
Posts: 6919
Joined: 24 Dec 2009 18:46

Re: Wuhan Coronavirus Resource Thread

Post by habal »

Bart S wrote:What is the exit plan? I don't see the red zone going away in 2 weeks in Mum/Del/Chn or Ahmedabad. Without those cities a large section of the economy is out of action. And with non-essential shops now allowed to open (so long as they are standalone) in the red zones as well, the case load will probably not reduce much. I am not getting the logic of this 2-week extension. Hope there is a clear plan in mind rather than keeping on extending 2-3 weeks at a time. I think baboons are providing bad advice to the govt in order to pass the buck on to someone else and 7 their ass.
I doubt anything is being done as per Indian logic. India is simply following generic WHO/UN guidelines. This model is going to be a big failure, and there is no one in India at the moment to break away from this risk averse strategy. This strategy also doesn't take into consideration Indian immunity factor or mortality rate or risk factors.
Mort Walker
BRF Oldie
Posts: 10032
Joined: 31 May 2004 11:31
Location: The rings around Uranus.

Re: Wuhan Coronavirus Resource Thread

Post by Mort Walker »

The exit plan is to reduce the number of deaths and hospitalizations in a short period of time until a vaccine comes by Sep/Oct. People will still die, but at least it will be manageable and reduce further infections. GoI is doing this right.
Deans
BRF Oldie
Posts: 2500
Joined: 26 Aug 2004 19:13
Location: Moscow

Re: Wuhan Coronavirus Resource Thread

Post by Deans »

nvishal wrote:New cases in Mumbai are coming from bank employees, govt workers, municipality workers, police, hospital nurses etc, all of whom are exempt from lockdown. When they return home, some neighbours too are contracting it.

Many border regions of Maharashtra(with telangana) have a huge hyderabadi Muslim population. Some as far as bhiwandi, byculla, mumbra, malegaon, govandi etc, all of which are ghettos. In simple words, the conditions in Maharashtra are ripe for epidemics, especially a novel(highly infectious) one.

Maharashtra will witness a disaster once the real peak hits in winter season.
yes, I have to take back my words from my previous post. The 1000+ cases in Maharashtra today have given us an all time high- hopefully one that will not be surpassed. While Mah, TN & Punjab have recorded their highest totals today, the latter two have been from a one off super spreader event.
The other major states have peaked between 13 & 25th April (in terms of new cases for that day).
The states which are flattening the curve (Kerala, Haryana & Telangana) have peaked between 1 & 7 April.
Raja
BRFite
Posts: 342
Joined: 01 Jan 1970 05:30

Re: Wuhan Coronavirus Resource Thread

Post by Raja »

Zynda wrote:
Raja wrote:What is the source for this?
Found it on some other forum. The original image link I think was made on FB.
So you are simply spreading imaginary made up statistics. Great.
Zynda
BRF Oldie
Posts: 2309
Joined: 07 Jan 2006 00:37
Location: J4

Re: Wuhan Coronavirus Resource Thread

Post by Zynda »

Raja wrote:
Zynda wrote: Found it on some other forum. The original image link I think was made on FB.
So you are simply spreading imaginary made up statistics. Great.
Thanks for pushing me to research on the image. Apparently, the numbers mentioned in the image are not backed up by any official health org. Since I cannot edit my post & remove the image, I've reported that post to the mods and hopefully they'll do the needful.

I request you to do the same in your post as well (where you replied to my entire OP).

Sorry folks for posting misleading info without corroborating it first.
Karan M
Forum Moderator
Posts: 20772
Joined: 19 Mar 2010 00:58

Re: Wuhan Coronavirus Resource Thread

Post by Karan M »

Raja wrote:
Zynda wrote: Found it on some other forum. The original image link I think was made on FB.
So you are simply spreading imaginary made up statistics. Great.
See this for mask effectiveness:

Respiratory virus shedding in exhaled breath and efficacy of face masks
“Surgical face masks significantly reduced detection of influenza virus RNA in respiratory droplets and coronavirus RNA in aerosols, with a trend toward reduced detection of coronavirus RNA in respiratory droplets. Our results indicate that surgical face masks could prevent transmission of human coronaviruses and influenza viruses from symptomatic individuals.”
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-0843-2

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30229968/
Analyses show that if 50% of the population were to wear masks, only 50% of the population would be infected by the virus. Once 80% of the population wears a mask, the outbreak can be stopped immediately.
More stats here, PSA Govt of India:
http://164.100.117.97/WriteReadData/use ... MANUAL.pdf

The casual attitude towards masks in the Indian public cheeses me off. When I have to go outside for essential items seeing folks walk around as if masks are a decorative item.
pgbhat
BRF Oldie
Posts: 4163
Joined: 16 Dec 2008 21:47
Location: Hayden's Ferry

Re: Wuhan Coronavirus Resource Thread

Post by pgbhat »

Zynda wrote:
Raja wrote:
So you are simply spreading imaginary made up statistics. Great.
Thanks for pushing me to research on the image. Apparently, the numbers mentioned in the image are not backed up by any official health org. Since I cannot edit my post & remove the image, I've reported that post to the mods and hopefully they'll do the needful.

I request you to do the same in your post as well (where you replied to my entire OP).

Sorry folks for posting misleading info without corroborating it first.
https://twitter.com/nntaleb/status/1249296844712218624

Good thread explaining why masks are good, even the bad ones.
Krita
BRFite
Posts: 202
Joined: 23 Jul 2009 13:33

Re: Wuhan Coronavirus Resource Thread

Post by Krita »

Raja wrote:
Zynda wrote: Found it on some other forum. The original image link I think was made on FB.
So you are simply spreading imaginary made up statistics. Great.
Ignore the statistics part and apply some common sense. Wearing a mask is a no brainer.
schinnas
BRFite
Posts: 1773
Joined: 11 Jun 2009 09:44

Re: Wuhan Coronavirus Resource Thread

Post by schinnas »

India has announced a well calibrated gradual relaxation of lockdown based on zone coding. The zone definition is not only based on existing cases, doubling rate, population density, etc., but also other factors such as nearness to other red zones and containment areas.

https://www.news18.com/news/india/coron ... 01505.html

The next step after 2 weeks could be to make the zones more granular already for metros. District level granularity impacts metros substantially.
nam
BRF Oldie
Posts: 4712
Joined: 05 Jan 2017 20:48

Re: Wuhan Coronavirus Resource Thread

Post by nam »

g.sarkar wrote:https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/c ... ef=taboola
Covid-19: India virus deaths pass 1,000, but low toll puzzles experts
India's confirmed coronavirus death toll passed 1,000 on Wednesday following its highest daily increase, but the numbers remain low compared with Europe and the United States in a phenomenon that is puzzling experts.
Agence France-Presse, New Delhi, April 30, 2020

India's confirmed coronavirus death toll passed 1,000 on Wednesday following its highest daily increase, but the numbers remain low compared with Snip................
....
Gautam
If the toll is puzzling the "experts", they should not be called experts.
Karan M
Forum Moderator
Posts: 20772
Joined: 19 Mar 2010 00:58

Re: Wuhan Coronavirus Resource Thread

Post by Karan M »

Great video on what industry is facing, details etc L&T interview with Bharat Shakti

Bart S
BRF Oldie
Posts: 2938
Joined: 15 Aug 2016 00:03

Re: Wuhan Coronavirus Resource Thread

Post by Bart S »

Mort Walker wrote:The exit plan is to reduce the number of deaths and hospitalizations in a short period of time until a vaccine comes by Sep/Oct. People will still die, but at least it will be manageable and reduce further infections. GoI is doing this right.
That is not an exit plan, just delusional thinking. Economy, patience and the social fabric will not last that long. The availability of vaccines by Sep is again wishful thinking rather than a strategy. Lockdown to flatten the curve has run it's course, at this point we need to take the gains of the lockdown so far and move forward with it, perhaps by locking down specific containment zones rather than entire districts. Locking down entire districts may be ok for a sparsely populated rural area but is disastrous for places like Del/Mum/Ahd/Chn.

There is also no point in having a lockdown that is not strictly enforced, instead of NSA being slapped on people we have their sins ignored and PM/CM level folks just tweet fatherly advice instead. In fact the TN govt and Chennai corporation went one step further and manufactured a crisis out of nothing by announcing a 3-day so-called 'strict lockdown' due to which panic buying ensued and lead to new cases going up from the declining trend of around 50 per day to 150-200 per day by causing multiple super-spreader events in vegetable markets.
Karan M
Forum Moderator
Posts: 20772
Joined: 19 Mar 2010 00:58

Re: Wuhan Coronavirus Resource Thread

Post by Karan M »

Good for masks etc. Otherwise this too would have been imported from China. Looks like a rough prototype, but as long as it works and is reliable, much more inexpensive than a regular microwave. A pvt partner can smoothen the edges later.
https://www.financialexpress.com/defenc ... s/1945501/
milindc
BRFite
Posts: 740
Joined: 11 Feb 2006 00:03

Re: Wuhan Coronavirus Resource Thread

Post by milindc »

Deans wrote:
nvishal wrote:New cases in Mumbai are coming from bank employees, govt workers, municipality workers, police, hospital nurses etc, all of whom are exempt from lockdown. When they return home, some neighbours too are contracting it.

Many border regions of Maharashtra(with telangana) have a huge hyderabadi Muslim population. Some as far as bhiwandi, byculla, mumbra, malegaon, govandi etc, all of which are ghettos. In simple words, the conditions in Maharashtra are ripe for epidemics, especially a novel(highly infectious) one.

Maharashtra will witness a disaster once the real peak hits in winter season.
yes, I have to take back my words from my previous post. The 1000+ cases in Maharashtra today have given us an all time high- hopefully one that will not be surpassed. While Mah, TN & Punjab have recorded their highest totals today, the latter two have been from a one off super spreader event.
The other major states have peaked between 13 & 25th April (in terms of new cases for that day).
The states which are flattening the curve (Kerala, Haryana & Telangana) have peaked between 1 & 7 April.
I don't trust any numbers coming from Telangana. The govt has stopped testing even for very obvious Wuhan virus symptoms. Only the folks with severe respiratory problems are being tested and counted. AP has done 5X the testing of what TL has done.
Whoever made this decision is hopefully prepared for consequences if the virus takes hold in Hyderabad. It is absolutely crazy not to test and isolate when you have enough testing kits.
Mort Walker
BRF Oldie
Posts: 10032
Joined: 31 May 2004 11:31
Location: The rings around Uranus.

Re: Wuhan Coronavirus Resource Thread

Post by Mort Walker »

Krita wrote:
Raja wrote:
So you are simply spreading imaginary made up statistics. Great.
Ignore the statistics part and apply some common sense. Wearing a mask is a no brainer.

There was a link earlier in this thread of a Japanese study about aerosols spreading readily from sneezing and coughing, but I can't find it. It was very informative and clearly you can see that this contagion would spread less by asymptomatic persons wearing any kind of mask.
arshyam
BRF Oldie
Posts: 4570
Joined: 11 Aug 2016 06:14

Re: Wuhan Coronavirus Resource Thread

Post by arshyam »

Government Opts For A Calibrated Exit From Countrywide Lockdown, Many Restrictions Eased Except In Red Zones - Swarajya
The Home Ministry today (1 May) announced the extension of the nationwide lockdown by two weeks till 14 May but provided relief to citizens by lifting a slew of restrictions.

The facilities enjoyed by individuals during the two week lockdown extension will depend on whether their current location falls in - Red, Orange or Green Zones.

As a result the government has opted for a calibrated exit from the lockdown with the Green zones providing the maximum freedom. Here’s how the three zones are classified and the list of activities permitted in the respective zones.

Red Zones

Movement of individuals and vehicles is allowed only for permitted activities, with a maximum of 2 persons (besides the driver) in four-wheeler vehicles, and with no pillion rider in the case of two-wheelers.

Industrial establishments in urban areas, viz., Special Economic Zones (SEZs), Export Oriented Units (EOUs), industrial estates and industrial townships with access control have been permitted.

The other industrial activities permitted are manufacturing units of essential goods, including drugs, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, their raw material and intermediates; production units, which require continuous process, and their supply chain; manufacturing of IT hardware; jute industry with staggered shifts and social distancing; and, manufacturing units of packaging material.

Construction activities in urban areas have been limited to in-situ construction (where workers are available on site and no workers are required to be brought in from outside) and construction of renewable energy projects.

Shops in urban areas, for non-essential goods, are not allowed in malls, markets and market complexes. However, all standalone (single) shops, neighborhood (colony) shops and shops in residential complexes are permitted to remain open in urban areas, without any distinction of essential and non-essential.

Ecommerce activities, in the Red Zones, are permitted only in respect of essential goods.

Private offices can operate with upto 33% strength as per requirement, with the remaining persons working from home. All Government offices shall function with senior officers of the level of Deputy Secretary and above at full strength, and the remaining staff attending upto 33% as per requirement.

However, Defense and Security services, Health and Family Welfare, Police, Prisons, Home Guards, Civil Defence, Fire and Emergency Services, Disaster management and related services, National Informatics Centre (NIC), Customs, Food Corporation of India (FCI), National Cadet Corps (NCC), Nehru Yuvak Kendra (NYK) and Municipal services shall function without any restrictions; delivery of public services shall be ensured and necessary staff will be deployed for such purpose.

All industrial and construction activities in rural areas, including MNREGA works, food-processing units and brick-kilns are permitted; besides, in rural areas, without distinction to the nature of goods, all shops, except in shopping malls are permitted.

All agriculture activities, e.g., sowing, harvesting, procurement and marketing operations in the agricultural supply chain are permitted. Animal husbandry activities are fully permitted, including inland and marine fisheries. All plantation activities are allowed, including their processing and marketing.

All health services (including AYUSH) are to remain functional, including transport of medical personnel and patients through air ambulances. A large part of the financial sector remains open, which includes banks, non-banking finance companies (NBFCs), insurance and capital market activities, and credit co-operative societies. Operation of homes for children, senior citizens, destitutes, women and widows etc.; and operation of Anganwadis has also been permitted.

Public utilities, e.g., utilities in power, water, sanitation, waste management, telecommunications and internet will remain open, and courier and postal services will be allowed to operate.

Most of the commercial and private establishments have been allowed in the Red Zones. These include print and electronic media, IT and IT enabled services, data and call centres, cold storage and warehousing services, private security and facility management services, and services provided by self-employed persons, except for barbers etc., as mentioned earlier.

Manufacturing units of essential goods, including drugs, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, their raw material and intermediates; production units, which require continuous process, and their supply chain; Jute industry with staggered shifts and social distancing; and manufacturing of IT hardware and manufacturing units of packaging material will continue to be permitted.

Orange Zones

In addition to activities permitted in Red Zone, taxis and cab aggregators will be permitted with 1 driver and 1 passenger only. Inter-district movement of individuals and vehicles will be allowed for permitted activities only. Four wheeler vehicles will have maximum two passengers besides the driver and pillion riding will be allowed on two-wheelers.

Green Zones

All activities are permitted except the limited number of activities which are prohibited throughout the country, irrespective of the zone. However buses can operate with up to 50% seating capacity and bus depots can operate with up to 50% capacity.

All goods traffic is to be permitted. No State/ UT shall stop the movement of cargo for cross land-border trade under treaties with neighbouring countries. No separate pass of any sort is needed for such movement, which is essential for maintaining the supply chain of goods and services across the country during the lockdown period.
arshyam
BRF Oldie
Posts: 4570
Joined: 11 Aug 2016 06:14

Re: Wuhan Coronavirus Resource Thread

Post by arshyam »

A couple more follow-up resources to the above article:

Lockdown 3.0: Religious Places, Cinemas, Shopping Malls, Bars To Remain Shut In All Zones

Virtually All Top Indian Cities Remain Red Zones While 16 States And UTs Emerge Free, Here’s A List

Here’s A Statewide List Of All Green Zones In India Which Will Enjoy Maximum Rules Relaxation From 4 May

Any district that is neither red nor green is classified Orange, with a relaxation of some restrictions operating in the red zones.

So it is not a blanket extension of the lockdown with no exit strategy as some feared. IR will continue to not operate passenger trains, and airlines are also shut. Inter-state movement is also shut, though inter-district movement is allowed with some caveats.

I'd say for those who can, better continue to stay/work from home to the max possible extent. If you have to step out, please use a mask, even a homemade one will do. This manual from the PSA to the GoI is very useful to make your own re-usable mask, with a sewing machine, or even a handkerchief. Please refer to it, and share wherever possible (it's available in many languages).

Manual on homemade protective covers for face and mouth in different languages - PSA.gov.in
nandakumar
BRFite
Posts: 1638
Joined: 10 May 2010 13:37

Re: Wuhan Coronavirus Resource Thread

Post by nandakumar »

schinnas wrote:India has announced a well calibrated gradual relaxation of lockdown based on zone coding. The zone definition is not only based on existing cases, doubling rate, population density, etc., but also other factors such as nearness to other red zones and containment areas.

https://www.news18.com/news/india/coron ... 01505.html


The next step after 2 weeks could be to make the zones more granular already for metros. District level granularity impacts metros substantially.
I think district with a population exceeding 1 crore must be further broken up into Taluk level classification and red, orange and green zones. For instance Zone 13, in Chennai Corporation which must easily account for about 5 lakh population has just 3 active infection cases and 2 recovered with zero casualties. Yesterday the technician who came to repair my water filter was late by 24 hours. I asked him what happened. He said his motor cycle silencer had broken down. He couldn't get it repaired. He made some jugaad type repair and came. I see little logic in keeping hatdware, electrical stores being shut. I grant that hair dressing saloons and dine in restaurants being kept shut but whole lot of others? I am unconvinced.
Deans
BRF Oldie
Posts: 2500
Joined: 26 Aug 2004 19:13
Location: Moscow

Re: Wuhan Coronavirus Resource Thread

Post by Deans »

nandakumar wrote: I think district with a population exceeding 1 crore must be further broken up into Taluk level classification and red, orange and green zones. For instance Zone 13, in Chennai Corporation which must easily account for about 5 lakh population has just 3 active infection cases and 2 recovered with zero casualties. Yesterday the technician who came to repair my water filter was late by 24 hours. I asked him what happened. He said his motor cycle silencer had broken down. He couldn't get it repaired. He made some jugaad type repair and came. I see little logic in keeping hatdware, electrical stores being shut. I grant that hair dressing saloons and dine in restaurants being kept shut but whole lot of others? I am unconvinced.
Agreed. That would be quite logical. Most districts should be broken down to taluk level and ward level in the cities.
Also some interstate movement (into 2 continuous green-orange zones for e.g) could have been allowed with the consent of both state govt's. Similarly, bus services from a green to orange district (or taluk) to a green one and vice-versa, within a state.
The govt might have been a bit more flexible on malls. Most of them are fairly deserted on weekdays. Inflow of customers can easily be controlled to manageable levels. Similarly, 50% staffing in offices instead of 33% (neither of them can really be monitored though).
anmol
BRFite
Posts: 1922
Joined: 05 May 2009 17:39

Re: Wuhan Coronavirus Resource Thread

Post by anmol »

SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) Testing: Status Update:
A total of 902654 samples have been tested as on 2 May 2020, 9 AM IST.


23 April 2020 - 500542
24 April 2020 - 541789
25 April 2020 - 579957
26 April 2020 - 625309
27 April 2020 - 665819
28 April 2020 - 716733
29 April 2020 - 770764
30 April 2020 - 830201
1 May 2020 - 902654
2 May 2020 - 976363

According to covid19india.org, 2396 confirmed cases were reported yesterday.

73709 tested, 3.25% positive.
Rahul M
Forum Moderator
Posts: 17167
Joined: 17 Aug 2005 21:09
Location: Skies over BRFATA
Contact:

Re: Wuhan Coronavirus Resource Thread

Post by Rahul M »

A granular ward wise list for cities would be given by local administration, in time for 4th May. LG Delhi has initiated the effort for Delhi, f.e.
suryag
Forum Moderator
Posts: 4040
Joined: 11 Jan 2009 00:14

Re: Wuhan Coronavirus Resource Thread

Post by suryag »

Doctors on forum trust and pray you are all safe.
vijayk
BRF Oldie
Posts: 8760
Joined: 22 Jun 1999 11:31

Re: Wuhan Coronavirus Resource Thread

Post by vijayk »

Anand Ranganathan
@ARanganathan72
·
May 2
Japanese scientists report today Antibody test results of Kobe City, estimate 500 times more CoVID cases than thought earlier.

Kobe Death Rate now reduces from 4.2% to just 0.01%. Panic QUELLED.

But we are busy charting RT-PCR cases. https://medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/202 ... 1.full.pdf (via
@_insilico)
RamSuresh
BRFite -Trainee
Posts: 55
Joined: 17 Aug 2016 15:30

Re: Wuhan Coronavirus Resource Thread

Post by RamSuresh »

Google has shared its analysis of footfalls in April. This is collated from all the mobile phone data. They declare drop in footfalls compared to February. Report updated for data till about 24th April

Key messages

Lockdown seems to be very effective.

Footfalls down 86% in entertainment areas, down 51% in grocery, down 68% in parks(?) , 66% in transport stations(only?).

Footfall at home higher by 22%.

The report also has statewide trends. Industrialised States report more than 50% drop in workplace footfalls.

https://www.gstatic.com/covid19/mobilit ... ort_en.pdf
anmol
BRFite
Posts: 1922
Joined: 05 May 2009 17:39

Re: Wuhan Coronavirus Resource Thread

Post by anmol »

We found and tested 47 old drugs that might treat the coronavirus: Results show promising leads and a whole new way to fight COVID-19

May 1, 2020 4.26am AEST

Nevan Krogan,
Professor and Director of Quantitative Biosciences Institute & Senior Investigator at the Gladstone Institutes, University of California, San Francisco

The more researchers know about how the coronavirus attaches, invades and hijacks human cells, the more effective the search for drugs to fight it. That was the idea my colleagues and I hoped to be true when we began building a map of the coronavirus two months ago. The map shows all of the coronavirus proteins and all of the proteins found in the human body that those viral proteins could interact with.In theory, any intersection on the map between viral and human proteins is a place where drugs could fight the coronavirus. But instead of trying to develop new drugs to work on these points of interaction, we turned to the more than 2,000 unique drugs already approved by the FDA for human use. We believed that somewhere on this long list would be a few drugs or compounds that interact with the very same human proteins as the coronavirus.

We were right. Our multidisciplinary team of researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, called the QCRG, identified 69 existing drugs and compounds with potential to treat COVID-19. A month ago, we began shipping boxes of these drugs off to Institut Pasteur in Paris and Mount Sinai in New York to see if they do in fact fight the coronavirus. In the last four weeks, we have tested 47 of these drugs and compounds in the lab against live coronavirus. I’m happy to report we’ve identified some strong treatment leads and identified two separate mechanisms for how these drugs affect SARS-CoV-2 infection. Our findings were published on April 30 in the journal Nature.ImageEvery place that a coronavirus protein interacts with a human protein is a potential druggable site

The testing process

The map we developed and the FDA drug catalog we screened it against showed that there were potential interactions between the virus, human cells and existing drugs or compounds. But we didn’t know whether the drugs we identified would make a person more resistant to the virus, more susceptible or do anything at all.To find those answers we needed three things: the drugs, live virus and cells in which to test them. It would be optimal to test the drugs in infected human cells. However, scientists don’t yet know which human cells work best for studying the coronavirus in the laboratory. Instead we used African green monkey cells, which are frequently used in place of human cells to test antiviral drugs. They can be readily infected with the coronavirus and respond to drugs very closely to the way human cells do.

After infecting these monkey cells with live virus, our partners in Paris and New York added the drugs we identified to half and kept the other half as controls. They then measured the amount of virus in the samples and the number of cells that were alive. If the samples with drugs had a lower virus count and more cells alive compared to the control, that would suggest the drugs disrupt viral replication. The teams were also looking to see how toxic the drugs were to the cells.

After sorting through the results of hundreds of experiments using 47 of the predicted drugs, it seems our interaction predictions were correct. Some of the drugs do in fact work to fight the coronavirus, while others make cells more susceptible to infection.

It is incredibly important to remember that these are preliminary findings and have not been tested in people. No one should go out and buy these drugs.

But the results are interesting for two reasons. Not only did we find individual drugs that look promising to fight the coronavirus or may make people more susceptible to it; we know, at a cellular level, why this is happening.

We identified two groups of drugs that affect the virus and they do it two different ways, one of which has never been described.

Disrupting translation

At a basic level, viruses spread by entering a cell, hijacking some of the cell’s machinery and using it to make more copies of the virus. These new viruses then go on to infect other cells. One step of this process involves the cell making new viral proteins out of viral RNA. This is called translation.

When going through the map, we noticed that several viral proteins interacted with human proteins involved in translation and a number of drugs interacted with these proteins. After testing them, we found two compounds that disrupt the translation of the virus.The two compounds are called ternatin-4 and zotatifin. Both of these are currently used to treat multiple myeloma and seem to fight COVID-19 by binding to and inhibiting proteins in the cell that are needed for translation.Plitidepsin is a similar molecule to ternatin-4 and is currently undergoing a clinical trial to treat COVID-19. The second drug, zotatifin, hits a different protein involved in translation. We are working with the CEO of the company that produces it to get it into clinical trials as soon as possible.

Sigma receptors

The second group of drugs we identified work in an entirely different way. Cell receptors are found both inside of and on the surface of all cells. They act like specialized switches. When a specific molecule binds to a specific receptor, this tells a cell to do a specific task. Viruses often use receptors to infect cells.Our original map identified two promising MV cell receptors for drug treatments, SigmaR1 and SigmaR2. Testing confirmed our suspicions. We identified seven drugs or molecules that interact with these receptors. Two antipsychotics, haloperidol and melperone, which are used to treat schizophrenia, showed antiviral activity against SARS-CoV-2. Two potent antihistamines, clemastine and cloperastine, also displayed antiviral activity, as did the compound PB28 and the female hormone progesterone.

Remember, all these interactions have so far only been observed in monkey cells in petri dishes.

At this time we do not know exactly how the viral proteins manipulate the SigmaR1 and SigmaR2 receptors. We think the virus uses these receptors to help make copies of itself, so decreasing their activity likely inhibits replication and reduces infection.Interestingly, a seventh compound – an ingredient commonly found in cough suppressants, called dextromethorphan – does the opposite: Its presence helps the virus. When our partners tested infected cells with this compound, the virus was able to replicate more easily, and more cells died.

This is potentially a very important finding, but, and I cannot stress this enough, more tests are needed to determine if cough syrup with this ingredient should be avoided by someone who has COVID-19. All these findings, while exciting, need to undergo clinical trials before the FDA or anyone else should conclude whether to take or stop taking any of these drugs in response to COVID-19. Neither people nor policymakers nor media outlets should panic and jump to conclusions. Another interesting thing to note is that hydroxychloroquine – the controversial drug that has shown mixed results in treating COVID-19 – also binds to the SigmaR1 and SigmaR2 receptors. But based on our experiments in both labs, we do not think hydroxychloroquine binds to them efficiently.Researchers have long known that hydroxychloroquine easily binds to receptors in the heart and can cause damage. Because of these differences in binding tendencies, we don’t think hydroxychloroquine is a reliable treatment. Ongoing clinical trials should soon clarify these unknowns.

Treatment sooner rather than later

Our idea was that by better understanding how the coronavirus and human bodies interact, we could find treatments among the thousands of drugs and compounds that already exist.

Our idea worked. We not only found multiple drugs that might fight SARS-CoV-2, we learned how and why.But that is not the only thing to be excited about. These same proteins that SARS-CoV-2 uses to infect and replicate in human cells and that are targeted by these drugs are also hijacked by related coronaviruses SARS-1 and MERS. So if any of these drugs do work, they will likely be effective against COVID-22, COVID-24 or any future iterations of COVID that may emerge.

Are these promising leads going to have any effect?

The next step is to test these drugs in human trials. We have already started this process and through these trials researchers will examine important factors such as dosage, toxicity and potential beneficial or harmful interactions within the context of COVID-19.
mukkan
BRFite
Posts: 117
Joined: 01 May 2020 21:26

Re: Wuhan Coronavirus Resource Thread

Post by mukkan »

Image

COVID-19 vaccine primer: 100-plus in the works, 8 in clinical trials
https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/05 ... al-trials/
nam
BRF Oldie
Posts: 4712
Joined: 05 Jan 2017 20:48

Re: Wuhan Coronavirus Resource Thread

Post by nam »

Finally some good research on understanding the protein receptors on the Chinese virus. But still surprised it took so long to record them, which I presume would be a case of seeing the virus under a electron microscope and recognizing the protein structure? Even the Chinese haven't brought out any such detailed analysis, although they knew about it since January.

Ability to know which protein receptors are used to infect, would help in creating compounds accordingly.

female hormone progesterone.
I wonder if this could be the reason for less severity in females. Apparently it is produced during the menstrual cycle. Interestingly enough there are very very few causalities of women under 50. Post 50 most loose fertility..

Other than harmones, nothing else explains why women are less effected by the virus. That is the only major difference biological b/w man & woman.
Last edited by nam on 03 May 2020 01:45, edited 1 time in total.
SRoy
BRFite
Posts: 1938
Joined: 15 Jul 2005 06:45
Location: Kolkata
Contact:

Re: Wuhan Coronavirus Resource Thread

Post by SRoy »

Brace for jump in infection cases due to point to point transport arrangements for migrant workers.

The initial shutdown of interstate transport, railways, airways and then the lock down all without warning will now cost us.
arshyam
BRF Oldie
Posts: 4570
Joined: 11 Aug 2016 06:14

Re: Wuhan Coronavirus Resource Thread

Post by arshyam »

How exactly would a shutdown after prior warning have helped?
mappunni
BRFite
Posts: 364
Joined: 14 Jul 2017 19:07

Re: Wuhan Coronavirus Resource Thread

Post by mappunni »

Now that Oxford University has tied up with AstraZeneca, how does it impact the Serum Institute of India, which is also supposed to be making the same vaccine?
SRoy
BRFite
Posts: 1938
Joined: 15 Jul 2005 06:45
Location: Kolkata
Contact:

Re: Wuhan Coronavirus Resource Thread

Post by SRoy »

When the shutdown was announced the total countrywide infected count was odd 200. If the transport were available people would have left for their native places. The infection itself was limited to returnees from overseas travel. The working classes had no contact whatsoever with these people.

But, now we are opening the transports against a backdrop of 30K odd cases, combined with the fact that all recent infection/transmission are going through medical personnel, police personnel, civic service workers. The migrant population taking the transport will come in contact with these govt. staff. Once that happens the compact environment inside buses and trains will make in worse.

There is already a report of a single batch migrants returning from Maharashtra tested for 41 people positive.
IndraD
BRF Oldie
Posts: 9305
Joined: 26 Dec 2008 15:38
Location: भारत का निश्चेत गगन

Re: Wuhan Coronavirus Resource Thread

Post by IndraD »

mappunni wrote:Now that Oxford University has tied up with AstraZeneca, how does it impact the Serum Institute of India, which is also supposed to be making the same vaccine?
r
India has the mass manufacturing capacity of the vaccine hence Oxford uni will continue to collaborate with India's serum institute. This is also possible India starts producing vaccine before UK.
Rahul M
Forum Moderator
Posts: 17167
Joined: 17 Aug 2005 21:09
Location: Skies over BRFATA
Contact:

Re: Wuhan Coronavirus Resource Thread

Post by Rahul M »

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/04 ... oronavirus#
New York clinical trial quietly tests heartburn remedy against coronavirus
________
GoI has taken note.
https://theprint.in/health/40-paise-a-p ... up/412763/
40-paise a pill antacid is new hope to treat Covid, Modi govt wants to stock up
Modi govt has taken note of the buzz surrounding famotidine, and asked drug authorities to assess its domestic availability and production capacity.
Post Reply