Should India be overly worried about the new coronavirus variant?
About 33,000 passengers from the U.K. had arrived at various airports in India between November 25 and December 23. Of
Read More
Month: December 2020
New variant does not increase reinfection risk, disease severity, deaths
The new variant was first identified in Kent and Greater London in end-September. The preliminary assessment of outcomes of hospitalisation
Read More
Why a dry run for COVID vaccination is needed
This is the first time a vaccine to be administered outside the universal immunisation programme and specifically for adults is to be rolled out. Since several aspects of the COVID vaccination programme are new, the government has rightly decided to undertake a dry-run for vaccine administration.
Read More
Is the first coronavirus wave coming to an end in India?
The number of daily fresh coronavirus cases has been steadily dropping from a peak of nearly 98,000 cases on September 16 to below 25,000 daily cases in the last few days with no spike seen nationally. The cases have been reducing despite the festival season, winter, large gatherings and not so good adherence to non-pharmaceutical interventions. However, the cumulative test positivity rate nationally is 6.1% as on December 23, which suggests we aren’t near the end of the first wave immediately.
Read More
N501Y mutation in SARS-CoV-2 virus causes increased infectivity, disease severity in mice
Of the many mutations found in the variant, the scientists have pointed out that the N501Y mutation increases the transmissibility
Read More
How the new coronavirus variant quickly accumulated 17 mutations
According to a preliminary report posted on December 19 by the COG-UK Consortium scientists, as of December 15, 1,623 variant
Read More
Emergence of a new coronavirus variant raises concerns
On Saturday, the UK imposed strict restrictions in greater London and much of the southeast of England to stop the spread
Read More
COVID-19: Ethical challenges of vaccinating people with comorbidities
Unlike in other groups, national databases of people with comorbidities are not available. However, though not comprehensive, since 2010, State
Read More
Can COVID-19 vaccines with EUA be used at the population level?
Meanwhile, the Indian government has spelt out four high-risk groups — healthcare workers, frontline workers, those over 50 years of
Read More
By putting the vaccine approval on hold for want of data, DCGI has underscored its priorities
The greatly reassuring decision to seek additional safety and immunogenicity data from the Pune-based Serum Institute of India and Hyderabad’s
Read More
Transparency in COVID-19 vaccine trials vital to gain public trust
Unlike Pfizer, AstraZeneca, which is carrying out the phase-3 trials of the Oxford vaccine in four countries, is yet to
Read More
COVID-19: Challenges in achieving herd immunity through vaccination
But the government’s idea of vaccinating a “critical mass of people” for the purpose of breaking the virus transmission chain
Read More
Why working alongside China to uncover the virus’s origin is important
Knowing the natural reservoirs and intermediate hosts and the events that permitted the virus to jump across the species barrier
Read More