Covid-19 Wrap-up: Nipah adds to Covid-hit Kerala's woes

As Kerala continues to keep healthcare authorities on their toes amid a surge in Covid-19 cases, Nipah virus has returned to haunt the state once again, adding to its woes.

The news broke on Sunday when a 12-year-old boy succumbed to the virus at the Kozhikode Medical College, triggering harrowing memories of the first outbreak between May and June in 2018.

Five more persons at Kozhikode showed mild symptoms of Nipah, while those in the contact list of the deceased boy increased to 251 on Monday. Specimen from eight persons, including the deceased boy's mother and health workers, showing symptoms are being tested at the National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune.

Covid-19 surge in Kerala and Maharashtra has pushed the R-value, which reflects how rapidly coronavirus pandemic is spreading, close to 1.2 over the second half of August. The Reproduction number or R refers to how many people an infected person infects, on average. In other words, it tells how 'efficiently' a virus is spreading.

On Sunday, however, Kerala reported less than 30,000 cases, indicating a decline in Covid-19 surge, which started after Onam festival. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had ruled out a statewide lockdown as an option, stating that it would adversely affect the economy and the livelihood of the people. He asked everyone to strictly follow the quarantine protocol or else fine will be levied.

India logged 38,948 new coronavirus infections and 219 fresh fatalities, the lowest in 167 days, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Monday. With the fresh cases, the total tally of Covid-19 cases has climbed to 3,30,27,621, while the death toll has climbed to 4,40,752. The cumulative Covid-19 vaccine doses administered in the country so far under the nationwide vaccination drive has reached 68.75 crore.

In a worrisome trend in Odisha, the daily coronavirus infection rate among children and adolescents reached the all-time high of 20 per cent on Monday. As many as 122 of 609 fresh Covid-19 patients in the state are below 18 years of age.

Meanwhile, Bangalore-based scientists have alerted that in the possible third wave of the Covid-19, Karnataka may witness seven times as many children testing positive for Covid-19 than during the second wave. They estimated that a third wave could be averted if the rate of vaccination is doubled along with strict compliance to the behavioural norms such as mobility restriction, masking and physical distancing mandates, and crowd control measures.

As the festive season is nearing, Bengaluru is already witnessing an increase in the number of micro-containment zones. As of Sunday, the BBMP had declared 100 micro-containment zones in various parts of the city, suggesting that the infection is gaining inroads as people drop their guards.

In what may come across as shocking news, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has no details of ventilator-related deaths and other information on the usage of the devices. NGO NatConnect Foundation had filed an application under the Right To Information (RTI) Act seeking to know from the Ministry the details of patients put on ventilators during the two waves of Covid and the response was: “No information is available in records of DM Cell, MoHFW with respect to queries raised by you vide your RTI application.”

In another major development, Cricket India head coach Ravi Shastri tested positive for coronavirus amidst an ongoing Test against England. The BCCI medical team had isolated Shastri, bowling coach Bharat Arun, fielding coach R Sridhar, and physiotherapist Nitin Patel as a precautionary measure after the head coach’s lateral flow test returned positive on Saturday evening.

India were in a commanding position after scoring 466 in the second essay, courtesy a memorable hundred by Rohit Sharma and equally important knocks by Cheteshwar Pujara, Shardul Thakur and Rishabh Pant.

On the vaccine front, Indian drug developer Hetero said on Monday it has received emergency use approval from health authorities to make a generic version of Roche Holding AG's Covid-19 drug. The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) has also granted permission to the Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Life Sciences to conduct phase-I clinical trial of its indigenous Covid-19 vaccine with certain conditions, sources told PTI.

In another important development, the Indian drug regulator approved a human trial of Biological E’s Covid-19 vaccine for efficacy on children above 5 years besides permitting the phase-III clinical trial of the same vaccine on adults to check its ability to protect them from serious diseases and death.

A US study has found that Covid-19 antibodies produced by the Pfizer vaccine decreased more than 80 per cent in senior nursing home residents and their caregivers six months after receiving their second dose. The research led by Case Western Reserve University and Brown University in the US studied blood samples of 120 nursing home residents and 92 health care workers.