Bharat Rakshak

Bengaluru: Karnataka has shifted its Covid-19 testing strategy by pushing for more rapid antigen tests, to cope with heightened pressure to ramp up testing as the state experiences a sharp rise in coronavirus infection.

ET has gathered that the state has now set a target of 35,000 antigen tests per day starting next week and has procured 200,000 kits to be distributed to 30 districts. The target for Bengaluru city is 11,500 antigen tests per day.

“In the task force meeting we have decided to procure an additional 400,000 antigen test kits in order to ramp up testing in containment zones,” the medical education minister’s office said.

In the last six days, the state has tested a total of 24,000 samples on antigen. Samples tested on RT-PCR on Thursday were 21,000. RT-PCR testing volume has remained constant for the last 10 days.

While the time-consuming RT-PCR is considered the gold standard in Covid testing, the rapid antigen tests are less sensitive and not so accurate. According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the sensitivity of antigen is 50.5% to 84%.

The ICMR in its advisory has said people who get positive results on the antigen test need not be retested using RT-PCR, but those who get negative results must be retested. The state health department, however, has tweaked the guidelines and said only symptomatic negative reports on antigen must be tested using RT-PCR. This, some say, could lead to many asymptomatic cases testing negative and they could possibly spread the infection to others.

State officials said scaling up antigen tests would serve many purposes. It will reduce the backlog of samples, minimise the time taken to test samples and ease the burden on government and private labs, many of which are testing more than their capacity.

“We are universally testing SARI (severe acute respiratory infection) and ILI (influenza-like illness) cases. So, if an antigen test is negative in a person with respiratory or influenza-like symptoms, then the sample will be tested again on RT-PCR. We will continue to test 60% of samples on RT-PCR and 40% on antigen,” said CN Manjunath, the in-charge of lab testing in the state.

Karnataka is using RT-PCR and antigen alongside CBNAAT and TrueNAT tests, but these two tests are done in relatively small numbers. The backlog of samples was 25,178 as on July 20. Data show that some testing labs were exceeding their capacity, while some had not geared up yet. For instance, the Nimhans lab has tested 125% of its capacity, and private labs like Narayana Netralaya, Xcyton Diagnostics, St John’s Medical College, KIMS and Cancyte Technologies are taking an extra load ranging from 248% to 186% of their capacity.

A covid warrior had to struggle for three days running from one fever clinic to another to get a covid test done. The fever clinics he visited were empty, and yet he was sent back due to the non-availability of doctors. The techie, who has been volunteering with the DIPR, is down with fever, muscle pain and severe headache since last Friday.

Akash’s father tested positive for Covid-19 on Monday when the entire family took rapid antigen tests at the Thindlu Public Health Centre (PHC) near Vidyaranyapura. Akash’s wife and daughter were asked to go home after they were informed that they will get the results within a few hours. The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) staff called the family only on Wednesday morning and said that Akash’s four-year-old daughter has tested positive and hence, the mother and the child will be taken to the Covid Care Centre (CCC).{Shouldn't testing positive on antigen means that they already have anti-bodies and currently are not carrying an active infection?}

Dr CN Manjunath, director of Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Research and nodal officer for testing in Karnataka, said, “The antigen test is immediate or better than RT-PCR. What is happening is, the staff is collecting the data and then process and updating them and then, they are informing the patients, which is probably taking time. Maybe the communication process is slow and is taking time to reach people.

“Also, this is not about shortage in laboratories. These lab technicians get infected a lot of times and go into quarantine. So, there are a lot of internal logistical issues. However, they should speed up the communication process,” he added.

Dr Satyanarayana Mysore, HOD of Pulmonology at Manipal Hospital, said, “The process of swab collection is taking time. Secondly, these are bio-hazard samples and technicians need to be careful before they get infected. Also, we need a doctor (a micro-biologist) to sign the report. I guess the delay in timing is happening because of this. In some places, once the samples are collected, there are no porters available to take the samples to the laboratories. Overall, communication with patients and citizens need to be faster.”

Bengaluru: India's biggest COVID care centre will open in BIEC tomorrow

hanumadu wrote:^^^My point was that the whole concept of HIT is useless if we define it by what measures we take to avoid infeciton. I have no problem with parachutes or with social distancing or what ever measures we take to find a balance between economy and minimizing death and suffering.

What is the point of claiming we have achieved HIT if we are still going to have a -10% or -5% GDP growth rate?

chola wrote: The worst case scenario is when the curve unflattens:

Over 1 lakh COVID-19 tests conducted in UP on Sunday, says Amit Mohan Prasad

2 minutes

Updated: Jul 27, 2020 19:35 IST

Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) [India], July 27 (ANI): Over one lakh samples were tested for COVID-19 in Uttar Pradesh on Sunday, informed state's Principal Health Secretary Amit Mohan Prasad.
Speaking here at a press conference on Monday, Prasad said, "Yesterday, 1,06,962 COVID-19 samples were tested in the state. As of now, no state in the country has done per day testing in such amount."
He added that the total count of samples tested for coronavirus to date in the state stood at 19,41,259.
According to data from the Uttar Pradesh government, 3,578 new cases of COVID-19 have been reported in the state in the last 24 hours.
"1,192 people have been discharged in the past 24 hours. The total number of discharged persons in the state has climbed to 42,833. As many as 31 people have succumbed to the disease in the last 24 hours, while the death toll stood at 1,456. The active cases in the state are 26,204," the state government said in a statement.
On Saturday, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had directed officials to ramp up COVID-19 testing in the state and take the number of tests per day to 1 lakh by July 27. (ANI)

Speaking after virtually launching Covid-19 testing facilities, th Prime Minister said that these hi-tech state-of-the-art testing facilities will boost the testing capacity by almost 10,000 daily tests in each of the three cities.

He added that these labs will not be limited to testing for Covid-19 only, but in future, will also be able to test for Hepatitis B and C, HIV, dengue and several other diseases.

The Prime Minister said that apart from developing the physical infrastructure, the country has also managed to swiftly ramp up human resources including paramedics, Asha workers, Anganwadis etc, who have played a significant part in controlling the spread of the pandemic.

He also spoke about the need to work on continuously attaching new and retired health professionals with the health system in order to prevent fatigue from setting in our corona warriors.

Date: 28/07/2020 -- Testing: Status Update

Accumulative total of 1,73,34,885 samples have been tested up to 27July2020.

Number of samples 5,28,082 tested on 27July 2020.

https://www.icmr.gov.in/pdf/covid/updat ... AM_IST.pdf

Coronavirus vaccine news update: India readies 5 sites for trials; Oxford, Pfizer advance to late-stage

BusinessToday.In | July 28, 2020 | Updated 13:59 IST

Coronavirus vaccine news: Serum Institute of India CEO Adar Poonawalla had earlier stated that the company would reserve 50 per cent of the vaccine doses for use in India

The world is watching with bated breath as the top coronavirus vaccine contenders race towards the finish line. Moderna, Oxford University-AstraZeneca and Pfizer-BioNTech that are spearheading the search for a COVID-19 vaccine have advanced to the final stages of the trial. India, which is one of the vital pieces of this puzzle, has also identified five sites for the trials of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.

...

Oxford University-AstraZeneca: Phase 3 trials of the COVID vaccine candidate have already begun in Brazil. Now the government has chosen five sites in India for the third and final phase of trials of the candidate. The details of the sites have not been disclosed. The Oxford vaccine is being manufactured by Serum Institute of India. The manufacturer had earlier sought permission for the first two phases of trials in the country from DCGI. The third phase of trials would be conducted in India including 10,000 volunteers.

Secretary of Department of Biotechnology (DBT) said that the trials are significant as it would show findings from within the country. SII CEO Adar Poonawalla had earlier stated that the company would reserve 50 per cent of the vaccine doses for use in India.

Moderna: The company has launched a 30,000-subject trial for regulatory approval and widespread use by the end of the year. The first large study of a coronavirus vaccine began on Monday morning in Savannah. The volunteers have been picked from diverse backgrounds. The COVID vaccine is backed by a $955 million government funding and would be tested at 89 US sites. If the trial is successful, the company would release 500 million doses by 2021. The early results of the trials would be available in November-December. The Moderna coronavirus vaccine is being developed with National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Pfizer-BioNTech: US drugmaker Pfizer and German company BioNTech have said that they have begun their late-stage human trials for their coronavirus vaccine. Like Oxford-AstraZeneca, the COVID-19 vaccine trials would include 30,000 subjects globally. The trials would be conducted across 120 sites globally including 39 US states. If approved the vaccine would be forwarded for regulatory review as early as October. The makers plan to supply up to 100 million doses by end of 2020 and 1.3 billion doses by end of 2021.

Bharat Biotech: The coronavirus vaccine trial for the company's candidate COVAXIN has started in Odisha's Institute of Medical Sciences (IMS) and SUM Hospital. The selected volunteers will be given two doses within a gap of 14 days. The volunteers need to be healthy and disease-free and can screen themselves through a simple questionnaire available at the website. The trials for COVAXIN are also underway in AIIMS Delhi, Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences in Rohtak, Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) in Hyderabad, SRM Medical College Hospital and Research Centre in Kancheepuram and two private hospitals in Uttar Pradesh - Prakhar Hospital in Kanpur and Rana Hospital and Trauma Centre in Gorakhpur.

sajo wrote:^^Are those massive numbers Anti-gen tests or RT-PCR tests?

nam wrote:The Chinis would have started their vaccine trails earlier than anyone else. Wonder why they are not first in the queue!

Sachin wrote:

nam wrote:The Chinis would have started their vaccine trails earlier than anyone else. Wonder why they are not first in the queue!

May be they fear that it would also reconfirm the fact that the virus was triggered by them? And it was just another way for China to make money (by selling medicines, like the other cheap goods they mass produce).

nam wrote:They have Pak, Iran, some of the ASEAN countries to test out the vaccine. They could easily influence WHO and get it tested in South America for example.

I have been reading that Chinis are adverse to western medicine. They are in to TCM (traditional chini medicine). Even then CCP should be able to find enough victims...

Beijing: Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Monday held the first joint virtual conference with his counterparts from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nepal during which he mooted a four-point plan to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, boost economic recovery and resumption of the BRI infrastructure projects.

Afghanistan’s acting Foreign Minister Mohammad Haneef Atmar and Nepalese Foreign Minister Pradeep Kumar Gyawali attended the virtual meeting, according to a Chinese Foreign Ministry press release


...

Wang said all the four countries should carry out regional cooperation on joint prevention and control of the pandemic drawing the experience of China and Pakistan, according to the press release.

He said when the Chinese vaccine is developed, China will improve the accessibility of vaccines to the three countries and help them strengthen their public health systems.

sudarshan wrote:57% of people in slums and 16% outside slums have been exposed to the China virus in Mumbai.

From a serosurvey. Seems like overall, 40% of people have been exposed in Mumbai. Calculated IFR from the above seems to be between 0.05% and 0.1%.

DrRatnadip wrote:We are hardly getting pts from slum areas now.. Last month most cases were from slums..

anmol wrote:Try this --> https://www.covid19india.org/

anmol wrote:https://api.covid19india.org/
https://api.covid19india.org/documentation/csv/
https://github.com/covid19india

DrRatnadip wrote:

sudarshan wrote:57% of people in slums and 16% outside slums have been exposed to the China virus in Mumbai.

From a serosurvey. Seems like overall, 40% of people have been exposed in Mumbai. Calculated IFR from the above seems to be between 0.05% and 0.1%.

We are hardly getting pts from slum areas now.. Last month most cases were from slums..

chola wrote:

DrRatnadip wrote:
We are hardly getting pts from slum areas now.. Last month most cases were from slums..

Doctor, if this is the case can we allow it to happen safely to the rest of the population? To go from most cases to hardly any in a month means that herd immunity works right?

This is getting attention around the world:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... rest-areas

When a worried Andheri resident purchased an oxymeter, he only intended to monitor the oxygen level of his loved ones and himself in the pandemic. But he was shocked when he happened to clip it to a pencil, and it read both its oxygen level and heart rate! Kushal Dhuri, who works for a political party, is furious with the China-made device, and says people should stop buying oxymeters that are made in China.

'So, my pencil breathes!'

Speaking to mid-day, Dhuri said, "In the name of medical equipment online and in the market, many unreliable Chinese goods are being sold. These cannot be trusted as they are playing with the lives of people. I would like to appeal to people to stop buying Chinese manufactured oxymeters as the one I bought shows the heart beat and oxygen level of a pencil. Such an oxymeter can cost someone his/her life."

DrRatnadip wrote:https://m.timesofindia.com/viral-news/t ... 236226.cms