Wuhan Coronavirus Resource Thread

[brar_w]

Arrogance, I remember reading and hearing a lot of comments in channels such as fox news and other similar platforms that Coronavirus is an "Asian" thing or 3rd world diseases and it won't have much of impact on US. As we are cleaner, better prepared, we don't need masks washing hands is better etc.

Yes, and Fox has had to fire one of its hosts because of this claim and there are even reports that Fox's legal team thinks it may be liable to law suits given some of what its opinion programs have stated (as opposed to its news coverage) as people can't really distinguish between the two.

Needless to say Trump admin was poorly prepared and cut backs to CDC greatly hurt the response.

There were no substantial CDC cuts. The way the US budget process works is that the President presents a budget that the Congress tears to shreds and then negotiates something that can pass with 60 votes in the Senate. As it turns out, each of the CDC budgets that have been enacted (remember there is a difference between what is requested, vs what is enacted) has been higher than what Obama managed to get through in the last two years of his administration. In fact for FY20 (money that is being used now) the CDC received nearly $7.7 Billion, roughly a billion dollars more than what Trump requested. You cannot pass a budget in the US by A) cutting CDC and SS spending and B ) cutting defense spending. Doesn't matter if you are Trump or Obama. This dynamic may change in 2022 but for a decade it has been this way.

Current projection calls for mill cases in US by end of April

36% of those being tested in NY are turning out positive. That # is >40% for New Jersey. They haven't done surveillance testing but if they did, between NY, NJ, and CT there would probably be more than a million cases already. Now add other hotspots and those that are running a few weeks behind NYC. There is a reason why IHME projects up to 177K deaths and the official Covid-19 task force model projects up to 200+K deaths by August (both upper limits).

[chola]

I am not surprised by how it spread so fast in US because of 2 reasons:
Arrogance, I remember reading and hearing a lot of comments in channels such as fox news and other similar platforms that Coronavirus is an "Asian" thing or 3rd world diseases and it won't have much of impact on US. As we are cleaner, better prepared, we don't need masks washing hands is better etc.

Poor central planning and lack of coordination. Needless to say Trump admin was poorly prepared and cut backs to CDC greatly hurt the response. The states were are also poorly prepared and still are, you need to have centralized response not just let the state/cities do whatever they want.

Current projection calls for mill cases in US by end of April

It wasn't just arrogance. It was a stupid form of racism. When the flight ban and entry controls were place on Cheen and "Asia" the virus was held in check but when the virus arrived in Europe the Amreekis response completely fell apart. We posted those stories in this very thread weeks before the virus exploded in the US. Travelers were pouring in from Italy and the rest of Europe unchecked. All of the CDC designated airports were for Cheen and Asia.

I think it is safe to say that the vast majority of the infections in the US right now originated in Europe, especially from a superspreading event that was the big BioGen management at a Boston hotel which was attended by a group of BioGen managers from the EU.

Trump did very well in clamping down flights from Cheen but leaving the back door open from Europe undid everything.

[hanumadu]

Anshul Saxena
@AskAnshul
Now in UP:

1. Aligarh: Mob attacked Police for objecting to group Namaz in Mosque due to Coronavirus

2. Kannauj: Mob which gathered to offer Namaz at Mosque, pelted stones at Police. One cop critically injured

3. Bareilly: 200 people from different states evacuated from Dargah

[nam]

so if we had some sort of antidote for SARS, we would have been much better off in dealing with the Chinese virus.

And we had no less than 16 years to prepare from the outbreak.

I guess, as long as any disease doesn't infect medically advanced countries, there is no chance of any investment in antidotes.

[brar_w]

When the flight ban and entry controls were place on Cheen and "Asia" the virus was held in check but when the virus arrived in Europe the Amreekis response completely fell apart.

I haven't been following this closely, but how many countries instituted a complete or partial travel ban from the impacted EU countries before the US? How many days before this did they do? I think the Trump administration did an OK job with the travel restrictions. Where they displayed complete incompetence was that they refused to make productive use of the time this travel restriction bought them. National industry should have been mobilized, test kit production ramped up, and a mass testing plan should have been put in place to identify early hot spots and put in place containment measures and contact tracing. Instead those with power (and not necc. the SME's) in the administration were claiming that this will all go away etc etc etc. While public health and ID experts were raising alarms, influential (to POTUS) people from within the White House, like Larry Kudlow, were claiming that it has been contained.

[nam]

Heard of an incident about a friend. He had the exact symptoms of Corona. High fever, cough, not able to breath. He is self isolating at home for the past 15 days.

He called an ambulance, because he had difficulty breathing. He was taken to the hospital and he was found negative!

He was told it was some sort of bacterial infection, given antibiotics and send home!

[Primus]

^

Well, community acquired pneumonia has not gone away simply because we have a new player in town. These things will continue to happen. The other thing is that anyone with a sore throat will now be thinking they have COVID-19, and I can't say I would blame them. We just have to live with this thing for several months more.

[John]

It wasn't just arrogance. It was a stupid form of racism. When the flight ban and entry controls were place on Cheen and "Asia" the virus was held in check but when the virus arrived in Europe the Amreekis response completely fell apart. We posted those stories in this very thread weeks before the virus exploded in the US. Travelers were pouring in from Italy and the rest of Europe unchecked. All of the CDC designated airports were for Cheen and Asia.

I think it is safe to say that the vast majority of the infections in the US right now originated in Europe, especially from a superspreading event that was the big BioGen management at a Boston hotel which was attended by a group of BioGen managers from the EU.

Trump did very well in clamping down flights from Cheen but leaving the back door open from Europe undid everything.

I was actually few blocks from that biogen meetings I was telling mgmt all these large company conferences need to be stopped but no one would listen it was rubbed off as it would not affect us.

Yes, and Fox has had to fire one of its hosts because of this claim and there are even reports that Fox's legal team thinks it may be liable to law suits given some of what its opinion programs have stated (as opposed to its news coverage) as people can't really distinguish between the two.

Cannot call yourself a news program and run opinion piece which is mixed in with news constantly. At the same time call other media fake news.

There were no substantial CDC cuts.

Aw you a right but yes CDC was marginalized under Trump, i know CNN just ran a piece that Chinese presence was drastically scaled down last year and some of the suggestions and warning went on deaf years in WH.

I haven't been following this closely, but how many countries instituted a complete or partial travel ban from the impacted EU countries before the US? How many days before this did they do? I think the Trump administration did an OK job with the travel restrictions. Where they displayed complete incompetence was that they refused to make productive use of the time this travel restriction bought them. National industry should have been mobilized, test kit production ramped up, and a mass testing plan should have been put in place to identify early hot spots and put in place containment measures and contact tracing. Instead those with power (and not necc. the SME's) in the administration were claiming that this will all go away etc etc etc. While public health and ID experts were raising alarms, influential (to POTUS) people from within the White House, like Larry Kudlow, were claiming that it has been contained.

I agree with your assessment the preparedness was a major issue. I am stunned the lack of national stay home order along with requirement of masks and gloves (starting with first responders/grocery & delivery workers).

[Rahul M]

Can't the local companies ask/apply for a travel pass and "drive" themselves to Pune for submission of the kits?

Well it's NDTV so no idea if that's true. If it is, they should simply ask AI or IAF to fly them to Pune.

[nam]

575 positive in the past 24 hours. Based on 10K test. Infection rate of 5.75%.

For reference UK, 10K test. 4k infected. 40% infection. Sign of community transmission.

[brar_w]

Aw you a right but yes CDC was marginalized under Trump, i know CNN just ran a piece that Chinese presence was drastically scaled down last year and some of the suggestions and warning went on deaf years in WH.

I think this part was overblown. CDC had a robust budget thanks to Congress (and also Trump because he had no problem with what the Congress added). The Chinese post was removed as a resource allocation decision within the organization, and not because of Trump (who probably didn't even know that such a position even existed). It is quite likely that, had the position still existed, China would have asked them to leave or stop their activity, given that China never granted access to the CDC, and may have not done so even now. The problem in the US wasn't with the subject matter experts not having good situational awareness about the situation or its implication at home. The problem was that this was falling on deaf political ears.

Here's a good contrast (just a sample not exhaustive) on what the experts were saying -

JANUARY-

- In January, Anthony Fauci - ""There's no doubt after reading this paper that asymptomatic transmission is occurring," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases."

- "Alex Azar, secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services, declared on Friday that the novel coronavirus is now a public health emergency in the United States"

- IN January, Anthony Fauci and others on his team published an article in JAMA warning against equating COVID-19 with the flu.

Now contrast this with -

- Despite his own HHS calling for a national public health emergency, Trump was holding large political rallies as late as March 2nd.
- Trump, along with Sean Hannity and others were routinely, through at least early March, were comparing it to the flu and even later, once this thing exploded, Trump did a virtual town-hall from the WH lawns where he brought up that people die from car accidents etc etc
- Numerous WH political apointees claimed this was under control (including Trump who claimed that there were 15 cases and soon they'd be down to zero) all the while his own SME's were pointing to what was down the pike and what they needed to prepare for.

The US issue isn't about the experts not having the resources or the comptence to understand this. It is almost 100% about politicians (from both parties if you think about what the NYC mayor did) not heeding to their advise. No point in having some of the best researchers and scientists in the world and completely ignoring their advise. The science journal interview of Fauci was very telling where he mentioned that "he hasn't been fired yet" or something like that. There is probably fear within many experts given Trump's tantrums and his itch to fire at will based on his whims.

In contrast, Modi and Indian CM's (as far as I have read) have done a 100 times better job. You have to talk straight and call it for what it is. That's the only way you'll get people to take it seriously. Here in the US, as polling suggests, there is a huge disparity between how seriously Democrats took the outbreak vs the Republicans..

"Elect a clown, expect a circus". Trump and De Blasio are hard at work on proving that.

[Suraj]

Here's a collection of timeline events for India. Please feel free to repurpose this post and add more, but keep the format consistent.
This is a work in progress and additional contributions are welcome, but please use news sources and not your memory to populate entries.

India COVID-19 Event and Action Timeline

Jan 30 2020
First case of student from Wuhan University returning to Kerala

Feb 1 2020
India bans export of N95 masks

Feb 2 2020
India announces 2nd case

Feb 3 2020
India announces 3rd case
India invalidates all e-Visas to Chinese nationals since Jan 15, ends all e-Visa issuance to Chinese nationals, issues travel advisory for China.

Feb 4 2020
Air India announces suspension of flights to Hong Kong effective Feb 8

Feb 5 2020
Screening of ASEAN inbound passengers begins with Singapore/Thailand arrivals. China travel advisory made more restrictive.

March 7 2020
Visa bans for all arrivals from China, Iran, Italy, South Korea and Japan.

Mar 11 2020
All visas issued stand suspended until April 15 2020 at least, effective Mar 13.
Mandatory 14 day quarantine of everyone returning from China, France, Germany, Iran, Italy, South Korea and Spain.

March 18 2020
All air traffic from Western Europe/Turkey banned.

Mar 19 2020
All incoming international flights banned. All public gatherings restricted. JK UT blocked due to coronavirus cases.
Janata Curfew day

March 24 2020
21 day countrywide curfew announced

[chola]

The infection rate in Italy is slowing down. They are "flattening the curve." So some positive news (as it is.)

Once the social distancing is enforced instead of being left to choice then it seems to work no matter how badly affected like in Italy or Wuhan (supposedly.)

The question is how to do you safely come out of a lockdown without things going out of hand again.

https://www.foxnews.com/world/italy-fla ... curve-data

https://www.sharecast.com/news/internat ... 15807.html

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... t-24-hours

Italy saw the number of new coronavirus cases and deaths stabilizing on Friday, as officials express optimism that a four-week lockdown is beginning to check Europe’s worst outbreak.

[brar_w]

^^ It seems as Italy and Spain begin to stabilize, New York and London will be nearing their peaks. And who knows where else this will spike beyond that.

[vijayk]

https://swarajyamag.com/health/why-deat ... din-markaz
Why Death Rate Could Be Higher For Tablighi Jamaat Members Who Stayed At Nizamuddin Markaz

According to official numbers put out by the Minister of Health and Family Welfare, out of 2,301 cases reported, 647 are now being linked to this single cluster, which translates to a whopping 28 per cent of the cases caused by a single event.

Of course, these are not the final numbers and tests of scores of people who were present at the Markaz are awaited.

While everyone is more focused on the case load the Markaz is contributing to overall numbers, one more aspect that needs attention is the mortality figures.

Telangana has reported nine deaths and all had attended Nizamuddin Markaz. Yesterday (2 April), Delhi reported four deaths, two of which were of people who were in the Markaz. The share of deaths linked to Nizamuddin cluster as percentage of total casualties in high.

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao said in a media briefing that the virus that has attacked the people who attended the Nizamuddin meeting “appears to be more virulent than the ones that afflicted people who had returned from foreign trips earlier on as is evident from the fact that they (foreign returnees) are all on the road to recovery”.

But it’s most likely not the virus that is different but the level of exposure to the virus that could be the problem.

And this could be the reason why we are seeing so many who attended Tablighi congregation are succumbing to the virus. Of course, one factor is many of these maulvis are old and have other health issues.

But one other critical factor could be the viral load.

As some reports on the lifestyle inside such congregations by Tablighi Jamaat suggest, the attendees live in close proximity to each other under very unhygienic conditions, even using the same utensils for eating without washing them first.

So, if anyone is infected inside, there are not only chances of most of other residents getting infected but infected with larger amounts of virus in the beginning itself. And more the exposure to virus particles (viral load), higher the severity of illness.

[chola]

Lockdowns are necessary but they are like powerful drugs that can kill the patient if overprescribed. Let's not react to every story about the suffering of people under lockdown as whining. There are many articles on the damage of lockdowns in rich places like New York and Milan too. Need to find a way to allow activity while still maintaining containment.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/worl ... 45596.html

Coronavirus: Italy races to get support to homeless after lockdown ‘apocalypse’

Authorities have been confronted with a mammoth task: getting support to rough sleepers while avoiding further contagion, and providing for a new swath of people below the poverty line

Federica Marsi Milan
2 hours ago

With the deadly virus ravaging the industrial north and an economic crisis looming, authorities have been confronted with a two-fold task: avoiding contagion at the same time as protecting the needy, and broadening the response in order to assist a swath of the population who are about to fall below the poverty line.

...

The coronavirus emergency has highlighted Italy’s economic vulnerabilities and now the country is at risk of a serious recession – with Goldman Sachs forecasting a contraction of 11.6 per cent in GDP.

Authorities have been reticent to make predictions about the economic repercussions of the lockdown, but its effects are already being felt. Alessandro Radicchi, founder of Binario 95, a social cooperative aimed at fostering social inclusion, says his team is already catering for “the new poor”.

“We have been approached by families in need of food who are relying on dwindling savings to get by,” he says. While authorities in Milan have been quick to set up a strategy to cater to the needy, aid has been lagging behind in Rome – where he is based – and in the southern regions.

[Ashokk]

With Ministers Sleeping Over, Control Rooms To Monitor Crisis Situation, Home Ministry Turns Into Covid-19 ‘War Room’

Union Home Ministry’s office at the North Block in New Delhi has been transformed like a ‘war room’ by Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led central government to lead India’s fight against the Novel Coronavirus pandemic, The Print has reported.

According to the report, about 50 phone lines, multiple screens to monitor live situation across the country along with top bureaucrats doing 10-hour work shifts and ministers of state (MoS) working on 12-hour-shifts. The ministers are also sleeping in their offices.

Apart from this, there are four specialised control rooms in the building that are constantly tracking all Covid-19 related information under the supervision of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, the report says attributing a source in the government.

While Shah who is monitoring all the task form his residence has been conducting virtual meetings with officials, his MoSs G Kishan Reddy and Nityanand Rai are stationed at the ministry to supervise the work at nights.

The two ministers have been taking turns to sleep in their offices to work in 12-hour-long shifts.

Quoting another source in the report, the news website wrote, “This is happening on rotation. While one night Rai is in office, the other night, Reddy is there. This is to ensure that some senior authority is present in office in case of an emergency or crisis situation.”

Task specific teams

There is a specific team assigned to collect all information related to the outbreak from the Union Health Ministry and all state health departments. The team keeps a track of India’s position in the world by compiling figures from countries across the world making comparative timelines and graphs.

“It collates all data to show where India stands on the Covid-19 graph as compared to other countries in the world,” a government source said.

“It has all data on how many cases and deaths were reported in India in the first week of the pandemic, as compared to other countries like the USA, Italy, and Spain,” the source added, while also telling that It helps officials measure a factual position on the progression of the virus spread.

Another team has been tasked with being in constant touch with all the states and union territories to share information and answer their queries.

The team receives calls around the clock from states regarding the challenges they have been facing. “Many issues that need to be resolved are state-specific. Many have doubts about procedures on how to implement the lockdown. Many have questions regarding the healthcare systems,” the website quoted the source as saying.

Various departments operating from one location

In order to maintain co-ordination, officials from various ministries such as health, education, labour, skill development are present in the control rooms to resolve several issues that come up.

The health advisories, guidelines, notifications, standard operating procedures, or any Covid-19 information is being framed and released from the North Block amid this situation.

“All senior functionaries are working tirelessly to ensure that necessary steps related to Covid-19 are taken and communicated from these control rooms,” the source said.

[Primus]

https://swarajyamag.com/health/why-deat ... din-markaz
Why Death Rate Could Be Higher For Tablighi Jamaat Members Who Stayed At Nizamuddin Markaz

According to official numbers put out by the Minister of Health and Family Welfare, out of 2,301 cases reported, 647 are now being linked to this single cluster, which translates to a whopping 28 per cent of the cases caused by a single event.

Of course, these are not the final numbers and tests of scores of people who were present at the Markaz are awaited.

While everyone is more focused on the case load the Markaz is contributing to overall numbers, one more aspect that needs attention is the mortality figures.

Telangana has reported nine deaths and all had attended Nizamuddin Markaz. Yesterday (2 April), Delhi reported four deaths, two of which were of people who were in the Markaz. The share of deaths linked to Nizamuddin cluster as percentage of total casualties in high.

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao said in a media briefing that the virus that has attacked the people who attended the Nizamuddin meeting “appears to be more virulent than the ones that afflicted people who had returned from foreign trips earlier on as is evident from the fact that they (foreign returnees) are all on the road to recovery”.

But it’s most likely not the virus that is different but the level of exposure to the virus that could be the problem.

And this could be the reason why we are seeing so many who attended Tablighi congregation are succumbing to the virus. Of course, one factor is many of these maulvis are old and have other health issues.

But one other critical factor could be the viral load.

As some reports on the lifestyle inside such congregations by Tablighi Jamaat suggest, the attendees live in close proximity to each other under very unhygienic conditions, even using the same utensils for eating without washing them first.

So, if anyone is infected inside, there are not only chances of most of other residents getting infected but infected with larger amounts of virus in the beginning itself. And more the exposure to virus particles (viral load), higher the severity of illness.

The amount of the initial exposure often determines the host response and outcome, it is a well known fact, also acknowledged this morning by the US media - ABC News health correspondent. The reason why so many healthcare providers in the US are critically ill (not just in the US but other countries too), is the dose of the initial inoculum and repeated exposure to the same levels before the body has had the time to mount a defense.

[Primus]

Requesting the Mods' indulgence on this one. These are terrible times and so many of us are under severe stress.

I honestly believe we need a release valve at times, this one is just what the doctor ordered. I am sure many of you have seen it before, but I simply loved it, not just because I am such a huge fan. The lyrics are absolutely spot on, especially in the context of India - just before the bass run comes in at 3:38.

The vocals are superbly sung and the mix is so close to the original it is unbelievable. Enough said, please enjoy the COVID Rhapsody, so ably performed by the "QUarantEEN"

[vijayk]

Hearing very bad news on this Tablighi ...

Thousands traveled from Telangana, stayed there. They came back. A friend said a principal in college came back to Ongole. Called all his students to give update. 6 of them are infected. But there are several others. They quarantined all of them. This is just one case.

[shaun]

575 positive in the past 24 hours. Based on 10K test. Infection rate of 5.75%.

For reference UK, 10K test. 4k infected. 40% infection. Sign of community transmission.

SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) Testing: Status Update 03 April 2020 9:00 PM IST
A total of 69,245 samples have been tested as on 03 April 2020, 9 PM IST. 2653 individuals have
been confirmed positive among suspected cases and contacts of known positive cases in India.
Today, on 03 April 2020, till 9 PM IST, 10,034 samples were tested and reported. Of these, 575
were positive for SARS-CoV-2.

SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) Testing: Status Update 03 April 2020 9:00 AM IST
Till 03 April 2020 9:00 AM IST, a total of 2183 individuals have been confirmed positive among
suspected cases and contacts of known positive cases in India.
On 02 April 2020, 8345 samples were tested and reported. Today, on 03 April 2020, till 9 AM IST
384 samples have been reported.

Yesterday Official figure was 2301 which means 352 new cases , even https://www.covid19india.org/ showing 486 new cases . I dont think with increase of test samples there is proportional increase in positive cases .

[John]

"Elect a clown, expect a circus". Trump and De Blasio are hard at work on proving that.

The thing is you need fairly competent to run a country and Trump/Kushner raise to fame is that they are billionaires, extremely arrogant because their belief they are smarter than everyone else and can do better job than you and me. Ignoring the fact they were born into extreme wealth and would have likely been failures if wasn't for that. Trump business failures are well documented and as is Kushner for example he run his family company into the ground by purchasing 666 fifth avenue in 07, he sold it off now and his company doubled down multi family apartments recently (have fun collecting rent in this economy).

For better or worse Trump will spin this crises as not his fault and his electorate base (poor white rural Americans and wealthy older Americans) who is actually most affected by this will continue to support him.

[Gerard]

How China’s “Bat Woman” Hunted Down Viruses from SARS to the New Coronavirus

[Bart S]

Unlike the Janata Curfew day where the main message was to remain home and the appreciation window was a side note, this new announcement was purely for "Andheri Raat mein Diya Tere haath mein" as the left liberals are terming it.
He could have simply tweeted about it.

this is to test the population for extending the lockdown with even more stringent measures. it was done during janata curfew. looking at its success lockdown was initiated. need to see how long people will adhere or get cracked under lockdown pressure.

It is a pointless distraction and will see much less interest than the Janata Curfew. This is my opinion based on feedback from several Whatsapp groups with mostly RW folks who are Modi-supporters themselves. I think that he missed the target big-time, missed a great opportunity, and this will just backfire. Need of the hour was that he provide some reassurance on strict action and reiterate the need for compliance, because the whole country is in terror because of these Jamatis and their ilk who have been refusing to comply and trashing cops (Indore, Ahmedabad, several places in UP and Bihar, Tenkasi in TN etc all in the last 24 hours).

[devaraya]

Primus Ji.. I am big fan as well.. you just made my day.
Needed this break ! Hope Mods don't take out the danda!

[quote="Primus"]Requesting the Mods' indulgence on this one. These are terrible times and so many of us are under severe stress.

I honestly believe we need a release valve at times, this one is just what the doctor ordered. I am sure many of you have seen it before, but I simply loved it, not just because I am such a huge fan. The lyrics are absolutely spot on, especially in the context of India - just before the bass run comes in at 3:38.

The vocals are superbly sung and the mix is so close to the original it is unbelievable. Enough said, please enjoy the COVID Rhapsody, so ably performed by the "QUarantEEN"

[JayS]

Can't the local companies ask/apply for a travel pass and "drive" themselves to Pune for submission of the kits?

Well it's NDTV so no idea if that's true. If it is, they should simply ask AI or IAF to fly them to Pune.

ICMR made special arrangements from early on with a bunch of couriers agencies for transport of samples for testing in entire Country, AFAIK. I doubt they forgot to extend it to sample kits sent for validation or could not easily extend it.

ICMR has validated about 18-19 PCR kits and 5 antibody based fastkits. How did they manage to send the samples..?

BTW, We have two desi PCR and two desi antibody based fast-kits validated now. The kit from MyLabs, Pune is supposed to be giving quality performance. I dont think we have to depend on any import anymore. We can just scale mfg of these kits by roping in other companies for license manufacturing. I hope we do that to quickly build a strategic stockpile and also start exporting. We need to go in overdrive for testing in this second half of the lock-down, leveraging these desi kits now, some of the areas are not looking all that good. Mumbai looks in particularly bad shape. It was understandable we were trying to conserve kits till now due to availability of rather small quantity of kits and practically no success in buying from Countries like US or Germany. but now we have couple of options at hand each. More will come. So Time to push the peddle hard. Already testing rate per day is increased 5x in last week or so. We need to quickly isolate as many infected (including asymptomatic) patients as possible from the hot-spots which are looking in grim situation, so the infection can be slowed down and controlled. These areas will likely remain closed even after lock-down is ended, as the protocol for the containment zone is for 28 day lock-down AFAIK.

[Karan M]

This is literally validation for all of us who have pushed indigenization all these years.

https://health.economictimes.indiatimes ... s/74967208

DRDO develops bio suits for doctors, paramedics engaged in treating coronavirus patients

Scientists at several DRDO laboratories were involved in developing the "bio suit" which will act as Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for the healthcare personnel, officials said.

PTI April 03, 2020, 16:53 IST

https://etimg.etb2bimg.com/photo/74967261.cms

DRDO develops bio suits for doctors, paramedics engaged in treating coronavirus patientsNEW DELHI: India's premier defence research institution DRDO has developed a "bio suit" to protect doctors and paramedics engaged in treating coronavirus-affected people from the infection.

Scientists at several DRDO laboratories were involved in developing the "bio suit" which will act as Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for the healthcare personnel, officials said.

They said considering the high demand of PPEs across the country, steps are being taken to produce at least 15,000 suits per day.

India is currently reeling under increasing shortage of PPE for doctors and paramedics involved in taking care of coronavirus patients. The government is also scouting global markets to procure PPE, ventilators and N95 masks.

India has recorded over 1,965 positive cases of coronavirus and at least 50 deaths so far. Globally, the virus has infected more than 850,000 people and claimed around 42,000 lives.

"Scientists at various DRDO laboratories have applied their technical know-how and expertise in textile, coating and nanotechnology to develop the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) having specific type of fabric with coating," the defence ministry said in a statement.

It said the scientists have applied their technical know-how and expertise in textile, coating and nanotechnology to develop the PPE having specific type of fabric with coating.

"The suit has been prepared with the help of the industry and subjected to rigorous testing for textile parameters as well as protection against synthetic blood," the ministry said.

It said the DRDO is making all efforts to ensure that these suits are produced in large numbers and serve as robust line of defence for the medics, paramedics and other personnel in the front line combating COVID-19.

The current production capacity of the suit is 7,000 units per day.

An official said the bio suit production by DRDO partners and other industries was hampered due to non-availability of seam sealing tapes. The DRDO has prepared a special sealant as an alternative to seam sealing tape based on the sealant used in submarine applications.

The official said the DRDO is providing 1.5 lakh litres of sanitisers to various security entities and other organisations across the country.

He said a five-layered face mask, N99, is being made on war footing using nano technology. A total of 10,000 masks have already been made and soon per day production will be extended to 20,000.

He said DRDO labs have also supplied 40,000 other face masks to Delhi Police.

The official said DRDO is also engaged in minor modification of ventilators so that one machine can support four patients at the same time.

[Karan M]

https://www.thestatesman.com/india/read ... 72862.html

“Indeed, the ventilators are in great demand worldwide. China is also facing the pressure of rebound in pandemic,” she said, amid reports of rise of imported coronavirus cases.

“However, for a single ventilator, it involves over 1000 parts produced in different regions and countries including Europe and other parts of the world,” she said.

“So it’s not easy for us to scale up the production at this particular time. It’s very difficult to do so. But Chinese companies are working non-stop in this regards so as to expand their production…In a word, we will do our best to help India,” she said.

State-run Global Times quoted Xu Kemin, an official from China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology as saying that China has provided over 1,700 invasive ventilators to aid foreign countries since March 19.

Currently, China has 21 enterprises producing invasive ventilators with weekly production capacity is 2,200 units, accounting for about 20 percent of the global production capacity, Xu said.

The Chinese ventilator producers have received orders for 20,000 units and there are plenty of overseas orders being discussed every day, Xu said.

Amid shortage of medical equipment, the central government asked automobile manufacturers to use their facilities to produce ventilators to boost the country’s capacity of such machines in view of rising COVID-19 cases.

The Health ministry said that the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) will begin manufacturing 20,000 N-95 masks per day within the next week.

The ministry informed that over 14,000 existing ventilators are earmarked for COVID-19 patients in various hospitals in the country while there are 11.95 lakh N-95 masks in stock.

Additional 5 lakh masks were distributed during the last two days and 1.40 lakh were distributed on Monday. “Automobile manufacturers have been asked to manufacture ventilators and they are working towards this end,” the health ministry said in a tweet.

[Karan M]

https://www.defenceaviationpost.com/202 ... -occasion/

From adhesives used in submarines to special coating originally designed for high strength parachutes, India has been using spin offs from its available defence technology to quickly develop low cost, high volume equipment desperately needed in the fight against Covid-19.

More than half a dozen essential items—ranging from high protection face masks to full body protection suits and multi patient ventilators—have been churned out at high speed over the past week as the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has reoriented itself towards fighting the prevalent threat.

‘Missile man’ G Sateesh Reddy, who heads DRDO, said scientists throughout the country have been tasked with developing and sharing technologies at zero cost with the private sector to mass produce critical items identified by the government, with solutions being provided overnight and personnel working overtime to tackle stumbling blocks.

Reddy, who is also a member of the empowered working group tasked with ensuring adequate supply of medical equipment, shared with ET that more products are likely to be rolled out in the coming days in partnership with the industry as new needs arise.

“The scientific fraternity has felt the need of the hour and wants to use existing skills to create spin off technologies. We are coming out with quick solutions and products. Scientists have been working day and night to rise to the occasion,” Reddy told ET.

[Karan M]

Our production per month was 500, whereas PRCs is 8800.

Very detailed article - multiple startups, read.

https://www.forbesindia.com/article/cor ... rs/58601/1

Manufacturers in India churned out 500 ventilators per month, or 6,000 units a year, before the coronavirus outbreak, says Vishwaprasad Alva, founder and managing director of Skanray Technologies, a Mysuru-based ventilator maker. In a press note dated March 31, the Association of Indian Medical Device Industry (AiMeD) said that it had reached out to seven of its 10 ventilator manufacturing members who confirmed that the total current production capacity was 5,500-5,750 units per month. “Every country across the globe is busy assessing the available stock of working ventilators. It is like assessing the military equipment before starting a war,” said Rajiv Nath, forum coordinator, AiMeD, in the press note. The aim, he added, was to produce 50,000 ventilators per month by May.

But is this realistic? To ensure that it is, the government has issued a clarion call to public sector units (PSUs) and automakers alike. “We have given an order to a PSU to provide 10,000 ventilators. Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) has also been requested to purchase 30,000 additional ventilators in 1 or 2 months,” said Lav Aggarwal, joint secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, in his daily coronavirus briefing to the media on March 27.

Industry heavyweights including Maruti Suzuki, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Motors, Kalyani Group, and Hyundai India have been asked to explore the possibility of reconfiguring their plants to produce ventilators. A number of them have stepped up to the challenge.

Maruti Suzuki, in a statement on March 28, announced a partnership with AgVa Healthcare, a Delhi-based manufacturer of ventilators. According to the agreement, AgVa will be responsible for the “technology, performance and related matters” of the ventilators, while Maruti Suzuki will reach out to its suppliers to produce the required components as well as “upgrade systems” for quality control and production of higher volumes.

AgVa sells ventilators for Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 2 lakh, whereas imported machines cost between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 12 lakh. Prior to Maruti Suzuki’s announcement, when Forbes India spoke to Diwakar Vaish, co-founder and CEO of AgVa, he said they were looking to produce up to 20,000 ventilators in 30 days. But the nation-wide lockdown had affected production. “Our staff is unable to come in to work. We’re down from 350 employees to 150.” Also the flight ban had hit the supply of critical components such as sensors, chips and micro controllers sourced from China and Germany.

A day later, on March 27, Vaish took to Twitter to announce that shipments were now moving “with light speed”. Invest India, a national agency that looks into investment promotion and facilitation under the aegis of the central government, provided timely intervention and help, he tweeted.

On the following day, the tie-up with Maruti Suzuki was announced. The partners plan to scale production from 400 units a month currently to 4,000 units in April, and finally, 10,000 units by May.

Similarly, SkanRay has tied up with Mahindra & Mahindra, Bharat Heavy Electronics Limited (BHEL) and BEL to ramp up production. “Very soon, Tata Motors could also join in,” says Alva. He too notes that supply chain breakages are an issue. “There are about 10 components that are currently difficult to procure… it’s difficult, but not impossible.” At present, Skanray makes hospital ICU and anesthesia ventilators. The version now being considered is a derivative of those, with more local components that will make it easier to scale.

“The government, via BEL, is making all efforts to source these components,” says Alva. It might take a few days to locate suppliers; BEL might also manufacture the components, if necessary. What works in favour of manufacturers is that ventilators already being made in India are localised to about 90 percent. Only 10 percent of the components, mostly various kinds of sensors and amplifiers, are imported, says Alva.

As BEL searches for components, Skanray’s team is simultaneously working on finding alternatives to those components. “The first step is to try and procure the parts. The next step is to work around alternative designs. The last resort is to see what designs can be put together with existing available components,” explains Alva. The consortium hopes to be prepared to manufacture as many as 1 lakh ventilators in a period of 8 to 12 weeks. “It’s a challenging task, but that is the target. We should start getting volumes from the third week onwards,” says Alva.

Meanwhile, hospitals are also preparing—and innovating—for tough times ahead. The team at Max Healthcare, for instance, drew on a 2012 article by Richard D Branson on how to split one ventilator between four patients, and has retooled its machines. “The best inventions in medicine happened during wars and pandemics,” says Chairman Abhay Soi.

[shaun]

....

BTW, We have two desi PCR and two desi antibody based fast-kits validated now. The kit from MyLabs, Pune is supposed to be giving quality performance. I dont think we have to depend on any import anymore. We can just scale mfg of these kits by roping in other companies for license manufacturing......

Mylab ties up with SII, AP Globale to ramp up testing kit production

https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/ ... 242384.ece

[Karan M]

https://www.cnbctv18.com/healthcare/gov ... 605521.htm
Government relaxes norms for ventilator manufacturing, to airlift parts
Updated : April 02, 2020 08:01 AM IST

Manufacturers are facing an immediate shortage of few critical components, which were earlier imported.
Archana Shukla

To quickly enhance its preparedness for COVID-19, the Indian government is relaxing criteria for mass manufacture of ventilators and is planning to airlift critical components from select suppliers. Industry sources tell CNBC Tv18 that four days ago in a meeting with ventilator manufacturers the government has also promised logistics support. The meeting was chaired by Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal and Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar.

While the focus is on local sourcing of components and redesign parts that can be manufactured at automobile plants, manufacturers are facing an immediate shortage of few critical components, which were earlier imported.

Industry sources in the know say the government is planning to airlift critical ventilator components from Shanghai in China, which is one of the key component suppliers to Indian ventilator manufacturers. A special flight to airlift components will be arranged in 2-4 days and manufacturers have to ask to co-ordinate with component vendors and arrange supplies in Shanghai.

Sources say the government is in touch with other embassies like Germany as well to co-ordinate essential supplies as and when the need arises.

Apart from logistics support, the government has fast-tracked all approval processes and also relaxed the criteria required to be fulfilled to secure a government order. Manufacturers having an installed base of 100 ventilators and 2 years of operations will be eligible to secure orders.

Defence Research and Development Organisation has identified the minimum technical specifications needed for ventilators for COVID-19 patients and it was released on the Ministry of Health website.

As of now, two consortiums have secured government orders for 40,000 ventilators: Bharat Electronic Ltd along with Mysuru based Skanray Technologies has received the order to manufacture 30,000 ventilators. The second order for 10,000 ventilators has been given to the consortium of Maruti Suzuki and Noida based ventilator maker AgVa Healthcare.

Vishwaprasad Alva, founder, and MD of Skanray said, “The meeting with Piyush Goyal was very fruitful. Now the orders are progressing at fast track, not like earlier tenders that took too long to process. We don’t have much time.”

AgVa says 30,000 ventilator order from government of India has been put on government-owned BEL, its consortium partner, to ease billing and administrative hurdles.

To expand manufacturing bases, the government has asked auto manufacturers to step in and experts say established ventilator makers will giving designs and validation.

Skanray is in the process of clinically validating the respirator that Mahindra and Mahindra have designed and says it can be used to sustain patients in an extreme emergency.

The government has also promised to assist these smaller manufacturers to secure finance by making advance payments. Prof Diwakar Vaish, Founder of AgVa Healthcare said, “We have received a written commitment from government that 25 percent of our order value will be paid in advance. This will be a huge help in working capital.” Skanray has received a similar advance payment commitment.

AgVa that has partnered with Maruti Suzuki is also in talks with government-owned Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd for a similar tie-up. “Our first line in the facility that Maruti is arranging may start manufacturing in 1-2 days. When BHEL also comes on board, we plan to produce 900 ventilators in a single day in 3 parallel lines.” Our ventilators designs are already approved and validated.

Two other ventilator makers that CNBC-TV18 spoke to are in conversation with the government to get their designs and expansion plans approved.
India currently has an estimated 40,000-50,000 ventilators. The government has earmarked 14000 ventilators for COVID-19 patient care, but experts say if the disease spread rapidly and peaks the country may need nearly a lakh ventilators to support critical patients. Till COVID-19-19 hit, the country was largely importing ventilators and those manufacturing were assembling the components with more than 40 percent imported parts.

[Karan M]

All hands on deck. Parachute fabric, Submarine sealant!

https://pib.gov.in/PressReleseDetailm.a ... ko.twitter

The DRDO is making all efforts to ensure that these suits are produced in large numbers and serve as robust line of defence for the medics, paramedics and other personnel in the front line combating COVID-19.

The industry is geared up for production of the suit in large quantities. M/s Kusumgarh Industries is producing the raw material, coating material, with the complete suit being manufactured with the help of another vendor. The current production capacity is 7,000 suits per day.

Another vendor is being brought in with the experience in garment technology and efforts are on to ramp up the capacity to 15,000 suits per day.

The bio suit production in the country by DRDO industry partners and other industries are being hampered due to non-availability of seam sealing tapes.

The DRDO has prepared a special sealant as an alternative to seam sealing tape based on the sealant used in submarine applications. Presently, bio suits prepared using this glue for seam sealing by an industry partner has cleared test at Southern India Textile Research Association (SITRA) Coimbatore. This can be a game changer for the textile industry. The DRDO can mass produce this glue through industry to support the seam sealing activity by suit manufacturers.

The DRDO has developed a number of products and technologies for defence against Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) agents. Defence Research and Development Establishment (DRDE) Gwalior, a laboratory of DRDO, has developed Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) Permeable Suit Mk V. Fifty three thousand suits have been supplied to Army and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF).

For first responders attending to radiological emergencies, a reusable suit has been developed by Institute of Nuclear Medicine & Allied Sciences (INMAS) Delhi.

Aerial Delivery Research and Development Establishment (ADRDE) Agra has developed various types of parachutes with fabrics similar to protective technical textiles.

[Karan M]

Coronavirus outbreak: Karnataka to get 1,000 ventilators; 10L masks, 5L protective gears soon

Read more at:
https://bangaloremirror.indiatimes.com/ ... aign=cppst

[suryag]

Great to see DRDO kicking butt, next step is for the private industry to take the base technology forward and improve it and compete

[Karan M]

All that stuff about "buy it from outside its cheaper, fancier" which we on BRF fought against is now being proven at a time of crisis. I hope all that we developed at such short notice is also exported for the world.

[Mort Walker]

All that stuff about "buy it from outside its cheaper, fancier" which we on BRF fought against is now being proven at a time of crisis. I hope all that we developed at such short notice is also exported for the world.

Some of us have been arguing incessantly for years for Make in India for precisely this reason. To have a manufacturing base within India for Indians.
We wanted LCA Tejas, Arjun, LCH and Dhanush for some time.

[suryag]

Wonder how many Tabliks are in Bengal and what she is doing about it, am pretty sure if AP and TN could have them in hundreds WB will have them in thousands.

[Suresh S]

In these trying times guys please have astha in ram Lalla. He is in Ayodhaya and it is my belief no power in the universe can damage Bharat. Both Bharat and Russia are going to come out of this corona crisis with minimal damage . My prediction. Most other major powers are going to have severe damage unfortunately . Kudos to Indian govt which is doing a great job inspite of the peacefuls.

[arshyam]

The official Coronavirus tracker site has added a testing page as well. Shows the number of tests per million by state, as well as the number of +ve results.

http://covidindiaupdates.in/testing.php

It also has a map with all testing centres across the country. While there is a good n/w across the country, I'd like to see the density of TN and KL in other parts as well - populous places like UP or MP would need to be more prepared for the future. Even in KA, I am surprised to see no testing centre in the north like Hubli-Dharwad or Belagavi. WB has all of, wait for it, 3 centres! Note: Kolkata city has 5 labs, but across the state, only Kolkata, Midnapore and Darjeeling are equipped to test. I'd imagine places like Malda or Murshidabad are prone to be hotspots going by the tableeeghi experience. Who knows when another tableeghi jamat cluster of idiocy would show up? The only certainty here is that another such vector would show up sooner than later, given this community's insistence of assembling every Friday despite the lockdown and doing everything inside such assemblies to spread the viruses amongst themselves.

Eventually, every district in the country should be equipped for testing this - building that infra or scaling now would also only help us deal with other infectious diseases going forward, so it won't be a one-time wasted effort. And we are talking what - ~700 districts in India? Money well spent, I'd think.