Covid-19 Wrap-up: States ease more curbs as cases continue to decline

States across the country eased more lockdown norms, as India continued its recovery trend from the devastating second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Cases continued the downward trend, as India saw a single-day rise of 39,796 new Covid infections, which took the tally of cases to 3,05,85,229, while the death toll climbed to 4,02,728 with 723 more fatalities, the lowest in around 88 days, according to Union Health Ministry data updated on Monday. The daily positivity rate was recorded at 2.61 per cent. It has been less than five per cent for 28 consecutive days, the ministry said.

Following a dip in Bihar's new coronavirus cases, all government and private offices have been permitted to open in the state, and visitors who are vaccinated can enter the offices, CM Nitish Kumar announced on Monday. Universities, colleges, technical educational institutions, government training institutes, and schools for classes 10 and 12 will open with 50 per cent attendance of students, Kumar said. Restaurants and other food places are also permitted to be open with 50 per cent seating capacity.

The third phase of unlock in Karnataka also started on Monday, including the opening of temples, malls and bars. Pubgoers, however, have to wait. The bar and restaurant industry said it is yet to receive official notification about serving liquor up until Sunday night.

Starting Monday, metro trains will run in Bengaluru until 8 pm while BMTC buses will be available until 9 pm. In addition, metro trains will run on weekends, too. In the past few days, Bengalureans took to social media to demand metro operations until 9 pm. Many said it was impossible for them to catch the last train at 6 pm after work.

As Bengaluru returns to normalcy amid the looming possibility of a third wave of the pandemic, authorities are stepping up vigil to enforce Covid-19-appropriate behaviour at public places. The BBMP has announced the formation of 54 teams in partnership with the city police. Each team will have four marshals - who are mostly ex-servicemen - and will make sure that people wear facemasks and maintain social distance across the city.

Even as the Delhi government continued to ease its norms, authorities closed the popular Lajpat Nagar market in south Delhi till further orders and the Rui Mandi in Sadar Bazar till July 6 over violation of Covid norms, officials said on Monday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the Co-WIN Global Conclave on Monday as India will now offer the Co-WIN platform as a digital public good to other countries to run their own Covid-19 inoculation drives. About 50 countries, including Canada, Mexico, Nigeria, Panama and Uganda, have shown interest in adopting Co-WIN to run their vaccination drives, Dr R S Sharma, the CEO of the National Health Authority (NHA), had said.

On the vaccine front, the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine is likely to reach India this week and will be available in a few government hospitals by July 15, The Economic Times reported. The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) granted its approval to Mumbai-based pharmaceutical company Cipla to import Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine last month.

Panacea Biotec on Monday said it had received the manufacturing license from Drugs Controller General India to produce the Sputnik V vaccine in the country. The batches produced at Panacea Biotec’s facilities at Baddi, Himachal Pradesh, were earlier shipped to the Gamaleya Center in Russia for quality control.

An SBI Research report suggested that India could face the third wave of Covid-19 as early as next month, with cases reaching the peak sometime in September. It said global data showed that on an average, third wave peak cases would be around 1.7 times the peak cases at the time of the second wave.

A study on post-Covid-19 symptoms, conducted by AIIMS Delhi, stated that post-Covid symptoms take more than a few weeks to subside. It asked physicians to treat them adequately so that it doesn't not lead to fuelling panic. There were some common symptoms, such as body ache, fatigue, breathing difficulty, disturbed sleep and mood disturbances. Patients with severe symptoms and patients with hypothyroidism were more likely to have post-Covid-19 symptoms that persist for months.

In a grim development, after the mucormycosis or 'black fungus' outbreak, Covid-19 patients are reportedly developing another condition called avascular necrosis, or death of bone tissues. Patients tend to develop avascular necrosis after their Covid-19 treatment. As of now, at least three scientifically-confirmed cases of avascular necrosis have been reported from Mumbai and doctors fear more cases will be seen in forthcoming months. Both mucormycosis and avascular necrosis develop due to the use of steroids, which is said to be the only drug that helps Covid-19 patients.

Meanwhile, according to a study by consulting firm Dalberg, women in India’s low-income households lost jobs more often compared to men, cut back on their food intake as well as rest and provided more unpaid care work. They are also taking longer to re-enter the workforce after the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic last year, the study found. The report covered the March-October period last year.