Wuhan Coronavirus Resource Thread

[Kakkaji]

1.65 million vaccinated by 8pm, total 159 million so far: https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleseDetai ... ID=1715791
Only half the orders go to center now, so states have to catch up with daily vaccination to make up the typical 2.5-3 million a day total.

From the above press release:

More than 2.15 lakh beneficiaries of age group 18-44 Vaccinated in the last 24 hours

It gives a statewise table of cumulative 18-44 vaccinated. Total is over 4 lakhs in 3 days since they became eligible. This is the number that hopefully will ramp up the fastest over the next 15 days, with the doses bought by the states and the private hospitals.

[Primus]

Piece doing the rounds on YT and elsewhere, Fauci interviewed by a clueless IE reporter. Typical White Savior rushing in to save the unwashed natives from their own folly. Classic 'India should do this, do that' stuff, without realizing or being told that all of that and more is already being done. Replete with images of cremations and bodies in bags.

Makes my blood boil. Why do we need endorsement from the likes of Fauci? Watching with my own family here, the first thing I had to tell them was about all the measures already taken by the GOI. Amazing lack of real knowledge and amazing abundance of fake news!

[Atmavik]

1.65 million vaccinated by 8pm, total 159 million so far: https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleseDetai ... ID=1715791
Only half the orders go to center now, so states have to catch up with daily vaccination to make up the typical 2.5-3 million a day total.

that explains the drop shown in CoWin dashboard. states may or may not be as efficient in delivering vaccines.is there any way to track the total numbers? this is the worst possible time to shift gears.

[Atmavik]

Piece doing the rounds on YT and elsewhere, Fauci interviewed by a clueless IE reporter. Typical White Savior rushing in to save the unwashed natives from their own folly. Classic 'India should do this, do that' stuff, without realizing or being told that all of that and more is already being done. Replete with images of cremations and bodies in bags.

Makes my blood boil. Why do we need endorsement from the likes of Fauci? Watching with my own family here, the first thing I had to tell them was about all the measures already taken by the GOI. Amazing lack of real knowledge and amazing abundance of fake news!

commented in the politics thread.

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=7837&p=2497711#p2497711

[Mort Walker]

It's a no win situation for the GoI. Let the states do, and they fail, if the center does it, then criticism of going too slow. I would give it a few days, if the states don't do it, then GoI should take over again to maintain 30+ lakh a day.

[Vivek K]

1.65 million vaccinated by 8pm, total 159 million so far: https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleseDetai ... ID=1715791
Only half the orders go to center now, so states have to catch up with daily vaccination to make up the typical 2.5-3 million a day total.

that explains the drop shown in CoWin dashboard. states may or may not be as efficient in delivering vaccines.is there any way to track the total numbers? this is the worst possible time to shift gears.

Do they use different mechanisms to distribute? Shouldn't the distribution chain remain the same?

[Jay]

Based on data from PIB, I'm trying to map days needed to vaccinate 50% of population with a single dose. It goes without saying that there are lots of that factors that will impact this timeline. Please articulate factors that need to be considered to improve projection accuracy.

Total Cumulative vaccinations(First + Second dose): 16 crore/160 million
Vaccine administration last 24 hrs: 16.5 lakh/1.65 million
Population of India: 1.3 billion.
Days to vaccinate 50% of population with one dose @todays rate: Best case 490million(650-160 already vaccinated)/1.65 million per day is 296 days. Feb 22 2022.

https://geographicinsights.iq.harvard.edu/IndiaVaccine

https://dashboard.cowin.gov.in/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_India

https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleseDetai ... ID=1715791

[Pratyush]

The availability of other vaccines such as Sputnik V and others. Along with scaling up of SII and BB production capacity will shorten the time scale considerably.

[amol]

I've heard (no direct confirmation available) that ration shops in Bangalore are now asking people to first go get vaccinated and then come and pick up their rations. I don't know how authentic this news is, but if true, that's good motivation for people to go get the jab.

[madhu]

There is a lot we need to understand about the virus..

The virus was first identified in December 2019 in Wuhan, China. 23 January 2020 the world saw its first coronavirus lockdown come into force in Wuhan, the Chinese. Which means 1 - 1.5 month to go to peak from identification.

This virus was first confirmed to have spread to Italy on 31 January 2020, when two Chinese tourists in Rome tested positive for the virus.first deaths on 22 February but On 8 March 2020 lockdown came into effect. But peaked on march 23, which means 1.5 months to go to peak. Using the same logic 1.5 to 2 months back this virus(B.1.617 , indian double mutant) should have started to spread... But the data are different.

B.1.617 was first detected in India on December 7, 2020. Though now present in nearly 70% of the genome sequences that have the mutations characterising B.1.617 what was it doing so long?

Now coming to Italy, blood work of 959 asymptomatic individuals enrolled in a prospective lung cancer screening indicates SARS-CoV-2 RBD-specific antibodies were detected in 111 of 959 (11.6%) individuals, starting from September 2019 (14% or 111), or approximately 30% of italy had been infected with this virus even before china officialy declared in dec 2019. What was virus doing from september to February?


Source:
Unexpected detection of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in the prepandemic period in Italy
Giovanni Apolone et al.

[putnanja]

The government totally messed up in placing orders with SII for vaccines. As data released shows, it hardly ordered 110 million doses till March. Agreed that the situation till then was good, but that 110 million wouldn't have covered even 10% of our population for 1st dose, leave alone 2 doses. Given the frontline workers (healthcare, army, police, sanitary wokers etc) and those above 60 years would exceed 10% of the population easily, that was a huge mistake. No wonder SII didn't look into increasing its production beyond 60-70 million doses per month. That decision has come back to bite in the a** big time. Now we are scrambling to increase production and vaccinate everyone.

[Sachin]

The government totally messed up in placing orders with SII for vaccines. As data released shows, it hardly ordered 110 million doses till March. Agreed that the situation till then was good, but that 110 million wouldn't have covered even 10% of our population for 1st dose, leave alone 2 doses. Given the frontline workers (healthcare, army, police, sanitary wokers etc) and those above 60 years would exceed 10% of the population easily, that was a huge mistake.

And then Central Govt asked states to place further orders. This may have absolved some responsibility to states (and also give them more ownership). But this would also now cause problems as SII will not even have the bandwidth to fulfill GoI orders. And by then Hizzoners may chip and ask Central Govt to take complete ownership for the vaccine supplies (with perhaps at one single cost slab).

[putnanja]

The government totally messed up in placing orders with SII for vaccines. As data released shows, it hardly ordered 110 million doses till March. Agreed that the situation till then was good, but that 110 million wouldn't have covered even 10% of our population for 1st dose, leave alone 2 doses. Given the frontline workers (healthcare, army, police, sanitary wokers etc) and those above 60 years would exceed 10% of the population easily, that was a huge mistake.

And then Central Govt asked states to place further orders. This may have absolved some responsibility to states (and also give them more ownership). But this would also now cause problems as SII will not even have the bandwidth to fulfill GoI orders. And by then Hizzoners may chip and ask Central Govt to take complete ownership for the vaccine supplies (with perhaps at one single cost slab).

SC has already asked central govt to reconsider its vaccine strategy. The central govt's new vaccine strategy is also in tatters. In the budget, the govt had reserved Rs 35,000 crores, which is hardly enough for 23 crore vaccines at Rs 150 per dose , which hardly covers 2 doses for around 11 crore people, less than 10% of population. If the govt didn't intend to vaccinate everyone, they should have asked private industries/PSUs who are interested in vaccinating their employees and families to place orders with vaccine manufacturers with govt getting priority. Incoming orders strength would have helped companies scale up their production earlier. Many companies had expressed their intent to vaccinate their employees and their families. Govt should have leveraged that if govt didn't plan to offer vaccination to everyone. Even allowing vaccine companies to sell vaccines to companies at higher rate. It neither gave any large orders to SII to encourage it to expand capabilities, nor did it allow others to place large orders, leading to everyone scrambling later on.

[Deans]

^^Not a medical advise, but I think Covishield 2nd dose duration can be stretched up to 12 weeks...For Covaxin, its 4-6 weeks. My parents were told there are no Covishield stocks in BLR last week (for their 2nd dose) but they just kept on calling up vaccination centers on a daily basis, in a 1-3 Kms radius & found one diagnostic center which had AZ stocks and got theirs on last Friday.

Exactly the same experience with my parents in Bangalore. I'm over 45 and there's no vaccine stock anywhere for me.

[putnanja]

^^Not a medical advise, but I think Covishield 2nd dose duration can be stretched up to 12 weeks...For Covaxin, its 4-6 weeks. My parents were told there are no Covishield stocks in BLR last week (for their 2nd dose) but they just kept on calling up vaccination centers on a daily basis, in a 1-3 Kms radius & found one diagnostic center which had AZ stocks and got theirs on last Friday.

Exactly the same experience with my parents in Bangalore. I'm over 45 and there's no vaccine stock anywhere for me.

Same for my parents. Looks like only some govt hospitals have stocks. Also, some BBMP corporators are getting vaccines from govt hospitals and having them administered in their local ward offices. Check with your local corporator once

[rrao]

https://www.indiatoday.in/coronavirus-o ... _psl=False

[Yayavar]

And then Central Govt asked states to place further orders. This may have absolved some responsibility to states (and also give them more ownership). But this would also now cause problems as SII will not even have the bandwidth to fulfill GoI orders. And by then Hizzoners may chip and ask Central Govt to take complete ownership for the vaccine supplies (with perhaps at one single cost slab).

SC has already asked central govt to reconsider its vaccine strategy. The central govt's new vaccine strategy is also in tatters. In the budget, the govt had reserved Rs 35,000 crores, which is hardly enough for 23 crore vaccines at Rs 150 per dose , which hardly covers 2 doses for around 11 crore people, less than 10% of population. If the govt didn't intend to vaccinate everyone, they should have asked private industries/PSUs who are interested in vaccinating their employees and families to place orders with vaccine manufacturers with govt getting priority. Incoming orders strength would have helped companies scale up their production earlier. Many companies had expressed their intent to vaccinate their employees and their families. Govt should have leveraged that if govt didn't plan to offer vaccination to everyone. Even allowing vaccine companies to sell vaccines to companies at higher rate. It neither gave any large orders to SII to encourage it to expand capabilities, nor did it allow others to place large orders, leading to everyone scrambling later on.

Is above calc correct?
for example this https://theprint.in/economy/rs-35000-cr ... cy/597542/

[putnanja]

SC has already asked central govt to reconsider its vaccine strategy. The central govt's new vaccine strategy is also in tatters. In the budget, the govt had reserved Rs 35,000 crores, which is hardly enough for 23 crore vaccines at Rs 150 per dose , which hardly covers 2 doses for around 11 crore people, less than 10% of population. If the govt didn't intend to vaccinate everyone, they should have asked private industries/PSUs who are interested in vaccinating their employees and families to place orders with vaccine manufacturers with govt getting priority. Incoming orders strength would have helped companies scale up their production earlier. Many companies had expressed their intent to vaccinate their employees and their families. Govt should have leveraged that if govt didn't plan to offer vaccination to everyone. Even allowing vaccine companies to sell vaccines to companies at higher rate. It neither gave any large orders to SII to encourage it to expand capabilities, nor did it allow others to place large orders, leading to everyone scrambling later on.

Is above calc correct?
for example this https://theprint.in/economy/rs-35000-cr ... cy/597542/

Looks like my bad, I calculated wrong.

[Cyrano]

It's a no win situation for the GoI. Let the states do, and they fail, if the center does it, then criticism of going too slow. I would give it a few days, if the states don't do it, then GoI should take over again to maintain 30+ lakh a day.

Its exactly this type of experimentation I was against and argued that the risk of states messing up was unacceptable. I may not understand the nuances between centre and state funding, but I and millions of others don't care about it when the pandemic is out of control and la Mort is Walking and stalking our near and dear.

Remember, we unpadhs of such funding nuances also carry a vote. So in your plan B, how does the center-state-center funding happen?

[Zynda]

Also, some BBMP corporators are getting vaccines from govt hospitals and having them administered in their local ward offices. Check with your local corporator once

In South BLR, apparently Govt. run vaccination centers are having limited stocks but they have introduced token system. Gotta go in the morning to get a token and wait times can be up to 2-3 hours before vaccination. So if anyone is willing to go & wait, just check up your local corporation hospital and they might be administering vaccines.

[sum]

^^ Is it me or are people falling like flies in Bluru?

Everyday, i am now getting news of someone or other in my circle passing away or critical ( after the mandatory 10-12 hour run around for bed and oxygen).

Lots of relatives in 1st wave were affected but never heard of a single death. But this time, there is daily news of 1st/2nd level circle of known folks ( forget about far off friends/relatives etc)

[Ashokk]

New Covid cases may peak today, say experts

NEW DELHI: Scientists working on a mathematical model to chart the trajectory of Covid-19 cases have noted that the peak of new infections could be reached within the next 24 hours at around 4 lakh cases (seven-day average) and peak of active caseload could touch around 40 lakh between May 14-18.
“Our model shows that the peak of new cases, taken as 7-day average, will be reached by Tuesday and the peak of active infections would be around 40 lakh at lower end of our earlier prediction range,” Manindra Agrawal of IIT-Kanpur told TOI on Monday while sticking to last week's observation
The model, called SUTRA, had on April 25 predicted peak value of new infections between 3.4 to 4.4 lakh during May 4-8 and peak value of active infections between 38-48 lakh during May 14-18. “We have been consistent since then,” said Agrawal, flagging possibility of lower end of the observed range.

He also said third wave of the pandemic was unlikely, adding an important caveat that vaccination needs to pick up speed and that people do not abandon safe behaviour again.

India registered a slight dip in Covid-19 cases as it registered 3,57,229 new coronavirus infections in the last 24 hours, informed the union health ministry on Tuesday morning. With this, the cumulative count of the cases has gone up to 2,02,82,833. The daily spike had reached its peak of over four

“If as planned, 40% of the population would be vaccinated by October. Besides, a huge percentage of people would already be infected by then. So even if the third wave comes, it won’t be like what we have been experiencing now,” said Agrawal.
Besides Agrawal, two other scientists - Madhuri Kanitkar, deputy chief, Integrated Defence Staff, and M Vidyasagar of IIT-Hyderabad – have been working on the SUTRA model. They have been working closely with the government.

“While we could not predict the exact nature of the second wave earlier, we continue our efforts to better estimate its future trajectory,” they said in a joint statement while explaining why their initial prediction that the second wave will peak by the third week of April and log around 1 lakh daily cases went wrong.
Citing reasons, they said, “We have been working on a mathematical model to predict the spread of the virus. It is important to note that a mathematical model can only predict the future with some certainty so long as virus dynamics and its transmissibility don’t change substantially over time.
“Mathematical models can also provide a mechanism to predict alternate scenarios corresponding to various policy decisions such as non-pharmaceutical interventions. In the case of Covid-19, it is clear that the nature of the virus has been changing very rapidly. In such a context, any prediction for Covid-19 must be continually readjusted, sometimes almost daily.”

[Cyrano]

Spoke to a friend in Bangalore yesterday evening. Same picture I got from him. His wife, ultra careful and conscientious in following covid precautions got infected. She was isolated and treated at home, seems out of danger, recovering slowly. More serious cases among our common friends are running from pillar to post, some collapsing while waiting. Surprising deaths of young people among them, one was 35, another 17 yrs old ! Most commonly avl medicines used to treat Covid like steroids, blood thinners etc are being sold 10x even 20x normal price, as are thermometers and pulse oxymeters. Massive loot of common man going on by any and everyone who can, in the name of Covid. Of course exceptions may exist, but the general attitude is loot.

The lab technician/staff who came to take his wife's nasal swab for testing to see if she is virus free, was sent from a reputed hospital on the top of the alphabet after several days of waiting, but the guy was following safety protocols "like a duffer". Half shod PPE kit, wasn't wearing mask and face shield properly and my friend had to insist he does before entering the patient's room. Then the fellow wanted to dispose medical waste in house dustbin etc. Either poorly trained or poorly disciplined, or both.

The blatant loot and the poor covid behaviour of technician are both pretty bad signs.

[pgbhat]

Not to denigrate folks making models but it is just a reminder that mathematical models are just that models. It may take time to get it right and is probably a good academic exercise at this point.
From Feb Chindu

A recent surge in infections notwithstanding, India is unlikely to see a “second wave” in infections, according to Deputy Director at IIT, Kanpur, Manindra Agrawal, also one of India’s leading mathematicians and among those involved with the National ‘Super Model’ initiative, led by the Department of Science and Technology.

[Deans]

^^ Is it me or are people falling like flies in Bluru?

Everyday, i am now getting news of someone or other in my circle passing away or critical ( after the mandatory 10-12 hour run around for bed and oxygen).

Lots of relatives in 1st wave were affected but never heard of a single death. But this time, there is daily news of 1st/2nd level circle of known folks ( forget about far off friends/relatives etc)

My old school whataspp group in Bangalore it fairly typical. We are 65 members (50-51 y.o). 6 have covid. 2 in hospital. 1 has lost his wife, 2 parents dead.

[sum]

<self deleted>

[Deans]

While I understand the difficulty in scaling up vaccine production as an earlier post mentioned - I have worked in International supply chain.
I believe the govt has messed up - inexcusably so, for our vaccine manufacturing.

By the Govts own admission, their strategy was to vaccinate the most vulnerable groups ( HW. FLW & 60+) by now. That population is 130 million,
or 260 million doses. The govt ordered only 110 million doses and only 10 million of them are the fully Indian Covaxin. The Govt has belatedly placed orders for another 50 million doses (only 10 million of Covax) and this has mostly been supplied from stock accumulated by SII without a Govt order.
In the past week, daily average of people vaccinated has fallen to its LOWEST since 1st Mar (19 lac a day), while people looking to be vaccinated is growing each day. Asking State Govts to buy directly, is just transferring the problem, when capacity is less than demand.
By Mid May, the demand for 2nd shot alone, will equal Covaxin and Covsheild's combined production capacity.
Total capacity is 90 million a month and this includes export orders for Covshield.

Why could the govt not :
- Ensure and early and drastic ramp up covaxin production (where they have a stake) &
- Have a simple and transparent tracker, matching capacity with orders placed and demand
- Convert defunct PSU's which used to make vaccine, into production units for Covax, or under license with SII for Covshield. beats me.

[RajeevK]

SC has already asked central govt to reconsider its vaccine strategy. The central govt's new vaccine strategy is also in tatters. In the budget, the govt had reserved Rs 35,000 crores, which is hardly enough for 23 crore vaccines at Rs 150 per dose , which hardly covers 2 doses for around 11 crore people, less than 10% of population.

By the way Rs 35,000 crore/Rs 150 = 233.33 crores
I would not rely much on the journalists to come up with correct calculations. The number does not seem to be correct.

35,000 crore is the Central Government budged. Some state governments are also chipping in as they have made vaccinations free.

As per wiki Demographics of India, percentage of population below 19 based on 2011 census is
0–4 9.32%
5–9 10.48%
10–14 10.96%
15–19 9.95%
This is about 40%. The current plan is to vaccinate 18 year old and over. So I guess the numbers are not too far.

[Cyrano]

There were special Covid mega hospitals that were put up in stadiums etc last year in India, Eu, UK, US etc. There were reports of some dismantled last year due to lack of patients. We also had railway coaches, hotel rooms etc turned into patient care facilities.

Not hearing much about them this time around. Did that model not work well? Or its not just beds and equipment but required numbers of trained staff is the bottleneck? Or is the care that can be given in such facilities inadequate for the way the latest virus strains produce symptoms and evolve now?

I can't help but feel that the collective fighting spirit everyone showed last year is not at the same level now. May be the lockdown during Wave 1 drove home the message that Covid is deadly dangerous and the relatively moderate situation until April + vaccine hope + the absence of lock down now has made everyone think its less dangerous now?

The response of people and HC systems is looking day by day like what we used to see for Chikungunya or swine flu earlier. I could (and wish to) be wrong on that.

[Tanaji]

- Have a simple and transparent tracker, matching capacity with orders placed and demand
- Convert defunct PSU's which used to make vaccine, into production units for Covax, or under license with SII for Covshield. beats me.

Isn’t this being done? Haffkine institute in mumbai is going to contact manufacture Covaxin

https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/cor ... 094545.cms

We need more of course, but there are not many BSL-3 laboratories around and setting up one from scratch is not easy. Apparently it takes year to set one up from greenfield….

[Cyrano]

This really warmed my heart !

From food, meds to oxygen, Hyderabad cyclists are running errands for the city’s elderly

While ‘Relief Riders’, as the group of cyclists, is christened, offers to deliver medicines for elderly people, the requests for assistance range from arranging oxygen cylinders, blood plasma units, emergency drugs, and even ICU beds.

[arshyam]

Most commonly avl medicines used to treat Covid like steroids, blood thinners etc are being sold 10x even 20x normal price, as are thermometers and pulse oxymeters. Massive loot of common man going on by any and everyone who can, in the name of Covid. Of course exceptions may exist, but the general attitude is loot.

Not sure where your friend got his information from, but I purchased a pulse oximeter and a thermometer last week, both at MRP. This was a from a regular pharmacy in east BLR. I bought from a regular pharmacy because the prices on online platforms like Amazon had gone up, and I wasn't sure of the quality I'll get for the price.

I also have to purchase of essential medications frequently and there is no sign of loot or hoarding. Yes, it may be different from remdesivir and other covid-specific medications, but I am yet to find this "general attitude of loot" as you eloquently put.

P.S. I don't know where you are based at, but your pattern of hyperventilating posts doesn't really contribute to the thread, except to increase anxiety for those of us in India trying to get through this difficult situation somehow. I see the mods had already asked you to tone it down, but there seems to have been no effect. Kindly reconsider, thanks.

[stephen]

Got myself vaccinated yesterday in Delhi, in the under 44 category. Had been refreshing the CoWin app repeatedly since the 1st to find a slot for myself. Wanted to let you know how it all went.
The vaccination center was in a Govt. School, in Saket, Sector G, which was hardly 2 km from my house. Initially I was surprised that it was being done in a school, but then I realised that it is actually a great idea as you do not have to go to a hospital full of sick people to get your shot.
I had selected the 2nd Slot for the day, scheduled for 10-12 AM, reached the venue at 9;30. Was surprised to see a long line outside the center. I was expecting no lines as there were hardly 60-70 slots for the whole day and the vaccination process was stretched for 8 hours, from 9 Am to 6 PM.
It was only after I got in line that someone told me that the vaccination process hasn't started yet. This resulted in bunching up of all the people from both the slots . Also some people from the later slots had also decided to come in early and stand in line. I think they did not discriminate between people from different slots, and everyone who had a slot for the day were vaccinated.
There was a good presence of Home guards and volunteers and they were managing the queue as well as providing directions inside the center.
After standing in line for half an hour they ushered us in. This was done in batches on 15-20 people, the rest had to wait outside. It then took another 45 minutes for my turn to come. Entry of details was slow as it was being done manually and the person was a bit slow in jotting down the details. When my turn came for taking the shot there was further confusion as my name was there but my scheduled booth was not matching. Had to go out and talk to the supervisor to sort it out. After the shot there was a compulsory waiting time of 30 minutes where a 'Materji" was jotting down our time of taking shots and our exit time, he dint allow anyone to leave before 30 minutes . So total time from reaching the center to coming out was around 2.5 hours. While coming out I saw that there was another long line of people waiting to get entry.
As it was the first day I guess there were some hiccups. Hopefully they must have made the changes to make the process more smooth. I got Covaxin, the date for receiving the second dose is still not mentioned in the App.
I still think they can improve the process by first insisting on people to come according to their slots, this would reduce the waiting time as well as reduce crowding. My brother in law and sister are reluctant to go out of the house for fear of getting infected. After seeing the line yesterday, they are now more reluctant to step out and get the vaccine. They are waiting for the situation to improve before venturing out, thankfully my mom had already taken both her shots so atleast i think she is protected.
Also the vaccine was free of cost.

[Deans]

- Have a simple and transparent tracker, matching capacity with orders placed and demand
- Convert defunct PSU's which used to make vaccine, into production units for Covax, or under license with SII for Covshield. beats me.

Isn’t this being done? Haffkine institute in mumbai is going to contact manufacture Covaxin

https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/cor ... 094545.cms

We need more of course, but there are not many BSL-3 laboratories around and setting up one from scratch is not easy. Apparently it takes year to set one up from greenfield….

This was done in Mid April (only the announcement) after several prods from the State Govt. Why couldn't it have been done in Dec, the moment stage 2 trials of Covaxin were a success. If done on a war footing, a reputed facility like Haffkine institute, which already had most things in place, could have been ready in 3 months.

[Cyrano]

It was my friend's own experience. I was taking about covid medicines, not all medicines. Please share those pharmacist addresses (with ph no if possible) where Covid related medicines, thermometers, oxymeters are being sold at MRP in B'lore. I'll share them with people who are struggling. I'm serious.

From your post, it seems you consider jacking up price of Remdesivir or other covid related meds is OK?

I've had friends in Hyd, Mumbai, Nagpur, Vizag, Chennai etc who shared other things that happened to them, their struggle to get beds, get tested, my own family members on how hospitals fleeced them and other things one would call at least unethical if not inhuman, but they way too gut wrenching to post here. You're right, whats the point ? Someone like you will say I'm India bashing etc. I'll stop sharing such incidents.

Hyperventilating - wrong adjective to use at this time.

[arshyam]

Isn’t this being done? Haffkine institute in mumbai is going to contact manufacture Covaxin

https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/cor ... 094545.cms

We need more of course, but there are not many BSL-3 laboratories around and setting up one from scratch is not easy. Apparently it takes year to set one up from greenfield….

This was done in Mid April (only the announcement) after several prods from the State Govt. Why couldn't it have been done in Dec, the moment stage 2 trials of Covaxin were a success. If done on a war footing, a reputed facility like Haffkine institute, which already had most things in place, could have been ready in 3 months.

I don't know anything about Haffkine (heard about only on this thread recently), but the govt has been trying to get infra come online from earlier. Per this Print article:

Modi govt in talks with Bharat Biotech to manufacture Covaxin in Tamil Nadu’s Chengalpattu

“We have been looking for companies who can manufacture Covid-19 vaccines in that plant. Bharat Biotech is one of the tender applicants and we are in talks with them because they are the only ones so far that have a ready Covid-19 vaccine. Nothing is final yet,” a senior government official told ThePrint.

Sources in the health ministry say that the paperwork to get the Rs 904 crore plant up and going started in January when tender applications were invited, but given the immediate need to bolster Covid-19 vaccines supplies in India, Bharat is currently a “frontrunner”.

So the tender was issued back in January, and this is for a facility that is designed to make vaccines, where infra presumably exists. Yet, there wasn't much response, as the article indicates. BBIL till today hasn't spoken about starting production at this facility, but we have been hearing about their second plant near BLR, and more recently, IIL and Haffkine. Secondly, I think the govt was also constrained that back in January, there weren't many approved vaccines - Covishield had been approved Jan 1, and Covaxin got its conditional approval around the same time. Since SII had production capacity, GoI rightly focused on BBIL to expand capacity, but it hasn't panned out, at least at this facility.

In conclusion, yes, they could have ramped up earlier, but it's not for want of trying.

[Sachin]

Most commonly avl medicines used to treat Covid like steroids, blood thinners etc are being sold 10x even 20x normal price, as are thermometers and pulse oxymeters. Massive loot of common man going on by any and everyone who can, in the name of Covid. Of course exceptions may exist, but the general attitude is loot.

My personal experience; as my entire family was COVID+ and me and my father took the more severe hit.
1. In the hospital where I was admitted (a very normal hospital, not part of any chain and outside Bangalore city limits). The maximum money was spent to get a decent room. Medicine costs were very very reasonable, and it was available. The hospital did try to dump on us a Oxymeter and Thermometer. But we said we had it already at our home, and they knocked it off the list. After rooms the various lab tests cost me money.
2. Rest of my family was admitted in Kerala. Here again it was the room/ICU costs which was the highest. Lab tests costs were also higher. Only medicine which was not available easily was Remdesivir followed by Oxygen cyilinders. Also the hospital in Kerala took a week to decide that my mother may require blood thinner even though she was in kept in the COVID ward all this while. Gave me a feeling that this was a tactic to retain a person in the hospital.
3. In both the hospitals (in two different states), cash less treatment was not possible. Both hospitals did every thing possible to skip that. And being in an emergency situation we also did not have a choice. Now I am sure Insurance companies will use every trick to reduce the overall claims (citing improper bills etc.) and hospitals will not provide extra documentation (as they have made their money any ways). To sum up this does look like a money making scheme for hospitals and insurance companies.
4. Average treatment cost/person was Rs 1. lakh and in my case, cost at hospital in KL side was higher. The money makers in this pandemic is hospitals, IMHO. And they are claiming the highest for rooms. And rooms are also one area where Insurance companies have very stringent limits as well.

PS: Note to self. It is better not to take a big Insurance policy in old age who promises "cash less" treatment every where. It is not going to work in Indian hospitals. In such places only credit cards, debit cards - all connected with ready cash works.

[Cyrano]

Thanks for posting your experience Stephen. My family members in Hyd got 1st and 2nd shots, the 2nd one about 3 weeks ago. In the pvt hospital (not very big) near by. Tokens were issued in the morning for registered people. They could tell approx how much time it would take. If the wait is too long go home and come back at approx time, or wait in your car or elsewhere. They had limited seating capacity for waiting there (which is not a bad thing). Things will get smoother as these renters operate for a few days.

[arshyam]

Cyrano - hyperventilating is exactly the right term for repeated posts like these that offer no useful info. The thread title clearly mentions "resource" - exactly what resource are you sharing through these posts? Earlier, it was about "why no vaccines" or something, now it's about "everyone is looting everyone else". Neither is useful or productive, and only adds to noise. It's safe to say everyone reading this thread is aware that the situation outside is not good. Not by a long shot. One such post attesting to such a situ can be called news, but repeated posts becomes noise. It's as simple as that.

Pharmacy: I have found the Manipal hospital pharmacy in Whitefield to be reliable, and it's where I got my oxy/temp monitors from. I did NOT get Remdesivir from there, since I have (thankfully) no need for it, so cannot attest to its availability or cost. For other medical equipment, medicines, any pharmacy is fine.

[arshyam]

Also, since you asked me for data, let me ask you in turn - which pharmacy charged 10x/20x? Could you kindly share details and also report them to the authorities?