Archives for May 2021

UNNAO: Days after bodies of suspected COVID-19 patients washed up on the shores of the river Ganga in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, more have been found buried in the sand in Unnao.

A team of the local police is in the process of carrying out an inquiry and searches are being conducted for more bodies.

According to District Magistrate Ravinder Kumar, the bodies were found buried in an area far from the river.

“Our team has found buried bodies in an area far from the river. Search being conducted for more bodies in other areas. I have asked a team to carry out an inquiry. Action will be taken accordingly,” the DM said.

Over the last two days, horrific scenes of dead bodies floating in the Ganga river in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghazipur and Bihar’s Buxar caused panic among locals who feared that the bodies were of deceased COVID patients.

According to Bihar Minister Sanjay Kumar Jha, 71 bodies were taken out from the river in Buxar district and their last rites performed and a net has been placed in the Ganga in Ranighat, bordering UP and Bihar, to stop any similar incident from happening again.

Local residents have complained of stench coming from the bloated, decomposed corpses and accused the authorities of ineptitude.

These incidents have sparked fears about the scale of the Covid crisis in the country. Authorities believe the relatives of those who succumbed to the virus, may not have been able to find space for the last rites. 

The state recorded 18,125 fresh COVID-19 cases that raised the infection count to 15,63,238, while 329 new fatalities pushed the death toll from the pandemic to 16,372, officials said on Wednesday.

On the bright side, the number of active cases in the state has come down by over 1.04 lakh in the past 11 days, Additional Chief Secretary, Health, Amit Mohan Prasad said.

The COVID-19 recovery rate now stands at 85.7 per cent in Uttar Pradesh, he said.

On April 30, there were about 3.10 lakh active cases, while the number currently stands at 2,06,615, the official said.

With this, the total number of patients in the state who have recovered from the infection has risen to 13,40,251, Prasad added.

So far, over 4.36 crore samples have been tested in the state, including more than 2.45 lakh samples that were tested on Tuesday, he said.

Among the fresh cases, 1,52,725 are in home isolation, Prasad said.

He said that following the ‘track, test and treat’ policy, surveillance teams of the state government have reached 3.47 crore households, covering a total of 16.73 crore people.

Prasad said while 1.11 crore people have been administered the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine, 29.35 lakh have received the second shot.

The programme of vaccinating people in the 18-44 age group is also going on in the state and so far 2.16 lakh in this category have been administered vaccines, he said.

NEW DELHI: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi launched an attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday, alleging that he is missing along with vaccines, oxygen and medicines during the COVID-19 pandemic and what remains is the central vista project and the PM’s photos.

“The prime minister is also missing, along with vaccines, oxygen and medicines. All that remain are the central vista project, GST on medicines and the prime minister’s photos here and there,” he said in a tweet in Hindi.

Gandhi has been attacking the prime minister over the government’s handling of the pandemic and has been critical of the Centre for the lack of oxygen, medicines and vaccines in the country amid a surge in the number of cases during the second wave of COVID-19.

Congress’s chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala also hit out at the government over dead bodies floating in the Ganga.

“What time has come in this New India that even dead bodies floating in rivers are not visible to the government. Shame,” he said in a tweet in Hindi, while citing a news report about the bodies being buried in sand in Uttar Pradesh’s Unnao.

With a single-day rise of 3,62,727 cases, India’s COVID-19 tally climbed to 2,37,03,665 on Thursday, while the death toll due to the viral disease rose to 2,58,317 with 4,120 more people succumbing to it, according to the health ministry.

NEW DELHI: A government panel has recommended increasing the gap between two doses of Covishield COVID-19 vaccine to 12-16 weeks, official sources said on Thursday.

It has also suggested that pregnant women may be offered the choice to take any COVID-19 vaccine and that lactating women can be inoculated any time after delivery.

The NTAGI has also stated that those having laboratory test proven SARS-CoV-2 illness should defer COVID-19 vaccination for six months after recovery, the sources said.

According to the current protocol, vaccine must be taken four to eight weeks after recovery from COVID-19 infection.

“Based on the available real life evidence particularly from the UK, the COVID-19 working group agreed for increasing the dosing interval to 12-16 weeks between two doses of Covishield vaccine.

No change in interval of Covaxin vaccine doses was recommended,” the sources said.

Currently, the recommended interval between two doses of Covishield is four to eight weeks.

The recommendations come amid several states reporting shortage of vaccines.

Several states and UTs including Delhi, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Telangana have decided to opt for global tenders for procurement of anti-coronavirus shots with the domestic supply falling short to meet the rising demand.

The recommendations of the NTAGI, which came after a recent meeting of the panel, will be sent to the National Expert Group on Vaccine Adminstration for COVID-19 (NEGVAC).

The panel also rejected the proposal for routinely screening all vaccine recipients with rapid antigen testing prior to COVID vaccination.

The NTAGI recommended that all pregnant women visiting for ANC care may be informed about risks and benefits associated with Covishield and Covaxin.

Based on the information provided, a pregnant woman may be offered the choice to take any of the COVID 19 vaccine.

An educational tool comprising information on risk of COVID 19 infection during pregnancy, benefits associated with the vaccination and rare complications associated with vaccines like thrombosis and thrombocytopenia (with Covishield) may be developed.

Also, all lactating women are eligible to receive the COVID 19 vaccines any time after delivery, the panel suggested.

According to the current vaccination protocol, pregnant and lactating women should not be administered the shots as they have not been part of any anti-coronavirus vaccine clinical trial so far.

In case of individuals who have received the first dose and before completion of the dosing schedule if they test positive for COVID-19, they should wait for 4-8 weeks after clinical recovery from the illness.

Also, COVID-19 patients who have been given anti-SARS-CoV-2 monoclonal antibodies or convalescent plasma may defer COVID-19 vaccination for three months from the day of discharge from hospital, the recommendations stated.

Individuals having any other serious illness requiring hospitalisation or ICU care should also wait for 4-8 weeks before getting the next COVID vaccine, it added.

NEW DELHI: The B.1.617 variant of the coronavirus first identified in India last year has been found in 44 countries, says the World Health Organization (WHO) which has classified it as a ‘variant of concern’.

“As of May 11, over 4,500 sequences have been uploaded to GISAID and assigned to B.1.617 from 44 countries in all six WHO regions,” the global health body said in its latest weekly epidemiological update published on Tuesday.

GISAID is a global science initiative and primary source that provides open access to genomic data of the novel coronavirus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. WHO has also characterized the lineage B.1.617 as a variant of concern (VOC).

Variants of concern are those considered more dangerous than the original form of the virus first seen in China in late 2019. That danger stems from a variant’s higher transmissibility, lethality and resistance to vaccines, or either of them.

B.1.617 contains three sub-lineages, which differ by few but potentially relevant mutations in the spike protein – this helps the virus enter the human cells, as well as the prevalence of detection globally. “At the present time, WHO has designated B.1.617 as a VOC based on early evidence of phenotypic impacts compared to other circulating virus variants,” WHO said.

According to it, B.1.617 sub-lineages appear to have higher rates of transmission, including observed rapid increases in prevalence in multiple countries. “Preliminary evidence suggests potential reduced effectiveness of Bamlanivimab, a monoclonal antibody used for COVID-19 treatment, and potentially slightly reduced susceptibility to neutralisation antibodies,” it said.

Viruses in the B.1.617 lineage were first reported in India in October 2020. The resurgence in COVID-19 cases and deaths in India have raised questions on the potential role of B.1.617 and other variants such as B.1.1.7 in circulation.

A mutation means a change in a nucleic acid base or amino acid molecule, and a virus containing this change is termed a mutant. Mutations eventually accumulate to generate variants that differ from the original virus more and more, and so, a variant can have limited or even cumulative mutations.

A recent risk assessment of the situation in India conducted by WHO found that resurgence and acceleration of COVID-19 transmission in India had several potential contributing factors.

These include an increase in the proportion of cases of SARS-CoV-2 variants with potentially increased transmissibility, several religious and political mass gathering events which increased social mixing, reduced adherence to public health and social measures.

The exact contributions of each of these factors on increased transmission in India are not well understood. Approximately 0.1 per cent of positive samples in India have been sequenced and uploaded to GISAID to identify SARS-CoV-2 variants.

The prevalence of several VOCs, including the B.1.1.7 and B.1.612 sub-lineages, increased concurrent to the surge in COVID-19 cases reported in India, according to WHO. “While B.1.1.7 and B.1.612.1 variants have begun to wane in recent weeks, a marked increase in the proportion of viruses sequenced as B.1.612.2 has been observed over the same period. Since the identification of these variants through late April 2021, B.1.617.1 and B.1.617.2 accounted for 21 per cent and 7 per cent of sequenced samples from India, respectively,” it said.

A preliminary analysis conducted by WHO using sequences submitted to GISAID suggests that B.1.617.1 and B.1.617.2 have a substantially higher growth rate than other circulating variants in India, suggesting potential increased transmissibility.

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court Monday granted bail to JNU student Natasha Narwal, arrested last year in May in connection with the communal riots in north-east Delhi to perform the last rites of her father who succumbed to COVID-19.

A bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and A J Bhambhani granted interim bail to Narwal, a Pinjra Tod activist, for three weeks subject to her furnishing of a personal bond of Rs 50,000.

The court granted the relief as her brother is also infected with COVID-19 and the state did not oppose the plea moved by her through advocate Adit S Pujari.

Pinjra Tod (Break the Cage) was founded in 2015 to make hostels and paying guest accommodations less restrictive for women students.