Tag: THIRD WAVE

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Third-wave fear on ‘CLOTH MASK’

A surgical mask prevented 59 per cent of respiratory aerosols from a cough, whereas a three-layer cotton mask blocked 51 per cent, and a N95 mask blocked up to 95 per cent of these particles…reports Asian Lite News

The Covid-19 pandemic has resurfaced, and if the last two years have taught us anything, it’s that the coronavirus should not be taken for granted. And, while face masks have become a necessity amid the two-year-old pandemic, many people are still confused about which masks to use. Some of these questions have resurfaced in the wake of the discovery of Omicron, a highly transmissible variation.

Let’s take a quick look at right masks that can help keep Omicron at bay and what are the effective mask wearing etiquette that needs to be followed.

To begin, it’s important to understand the distinctions between fabric masks, surgical masks, and respirators. A fabric mask is a loose-fitting mask that forms a physical barrier between the wearer’s mouth and nose and potentially harmful substances in the immediate area. A surgical mask is a three-layered mask worn by medical professionals during surgeries. N95 respirators, on the other hand, are personal protection equipment that shields the wearer’s respiratory system from airborne particles and aerosols.

The N95/FFP2 provides a high level of protection against flu, infection, and other airborne viruses. N95/FFP2 masks are typically five-layers with electrostatically charged melt-blown filters that provide adequate protection from airborne particles aerosols as small as 0.3 microns and have been rigorously tested for numerous transmission circumstances. This implies it can filter out the majority of bacterial, viral, and particulate aerosols. Such masks are made to fit perfectly, which means that leakage from the sides of the mask is reduced. According to recent data from the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH) in the United States, N95 masks provide fifty-five times more protection against infection transmission between two persons than two people wearing cloth masks.

A good quality BIS approved FFP2 mask, such as Savlon, has a splash resistant outer layer, a sweat or moisture resistant inner layer, and one or more electrostatically charged melt-blown filter layers, which is akin to a N95 mask. Melt Blown filters with electrostatic charges improve the masks’ ability to catch infectious aerosols and are the differentiator when it comes to obtaining high levels of filtering while yet allowing for easy breathing.

Proper usage

According to studies conducted by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), a surgical mask prevented 59 per cent of respiratory aerosols from a cough, whereas a three-layer cotton mask blocked 51 per cent, and a N95 mask blocked up to 95 per cent of these particles.

After learning about the advantages, it’s important to know how to use respirators properly. When outdoors or in overcrowding indoors, masks should be worn with caution, ensuring that they cover the nose and mouth and close any holes. Double masking should be avoided if you’re wearing an FFP2 or N-95 mask. Instead, consider donning a multi-layered N-95 mask like the Savlon FFP2 S Mask, which has a five-layer filtering system.

Before we go, a quick reminder – While wearing masks, any masks –

1. Ensure hand-hygiene before wearing and after removing mask

2. Ensure best fit and tight seal for full protection – with no gaps along the sides.

3. Ensure coverage from the ridge of your nose down to under your chin

4. Avoid repeatedly touching or adjusting your mask

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-Top News COVID-19 India News

Is India seeing third Covid wave as cases rise nearly manifold in days?

Africa Covid cases near 10 Million

India had 75,456 active cases on December 28, 77,002 the next day, 82,402 on December 30 and jumping up to 91,361 on the last day of 2021…reports Avinash Prabhakar

India’s daily Covid caseload has risen over four-fold in the last six days, with 33,750 infections reported on Monday, around 6,000 more over the day before’s tally.

The tally on December 28, 2021 was 6,358 after which surge began across the country with daily caseload increasing on every subsequent day – 9,195 cases on December 29, 13,154 on December 30 and 16,764 on December 31.

The first day of the new year saw 22,775, 27,553 fresh infections on January 2 and 33,750 cases on January 3 as per the Union Health Ministry.

Along with the spike in daily Covid cases, the active cases have also seen two-fold growth from the last week, crossing the 1 lakh mark to currently stand at 1,45,583 after being just over 75,000 around 10 days ago.

India had 75,456 active cases on December 28, 77,002 the next day, 82,402 on December 30 and jumping up to 91,361 on the last day of 2021.

The figure reached 1,04,781 on January 1 and 1,22,801 on January 2.

India has seen a sudden spike in the Covid cases after the outbreak of the new Covid variant Omicron, though the Delta variant is still the dominant variant in India which has contributed significantly to the surge. However, a Health Ministry source with the ministry said that Omicron will take over as the dominant variant soon.

Omicron has also registered around a three-fold increase from the last week. Only 653 people were infected with this highly transmissible Covid variant on December 28, but the tally has reached 1,700 as of Monday morning. As per the ministry, it has so far has spread into 23 states and UTs.

Public health experts opine that the sudden spike in the case reflects that Omicron-led third wave has arrived in India.

Dr Amrinder Singh Malhi, Assistant Professor, Cardiac Radiology AIIMS, said that the Omicron-led third wave has started now.

“Due to this new variant Omicron, the whole world is facing the severity of the third wave,” he said.

However, he added that the variant does not affect the lungs in the way the Delta variant did, but the upper respiratory system. The immuno-compromised may get lung infection still, he warned.

About the vaccination of the 1-18 age group which began on Monday, he said it is the best decision to keep our younger generation safe from Covid infection.

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-Top News COVID-19 India News

India currently facing 3rd Covid wave, to hit peak in February

A separate study led by a joint team from the IITs Hyderabad and Kanpur is based on the Sutra model, which tracks the country’s Covid-19 trajectory…reports Asian Lite News.

A slew of studies by Indian scientists show that amid rising cases of Omicron, the third wave of Covid-19 has set in India from mid-December, and it may hit its peak in February next year.

A yet-to-be peer reviewed study led by a team of researchers from the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT), Kanpur used a statistical methodology based on the fitting of a mixture of Gaussian distributions – based on an algorithm for clustering to estimate the parameters.

The third wave was forecast using the data on the first two waves of pandemic. The team also utilised the data of different countries that are already facing the third wave, modelling their daily cases data and predicting the impact and timeline for the third wave in India.

“The report forecasts India’s third wave of Covid-19 to start around mid-December 2021 and the cases to peak in the beginning of February 2022,” Subhra Sankar Dhar, Associate Professor, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, wrote in the paper.

A separate study led by a joint team from the IITs Hyderabad and Kanpur is based on the Sutra model, which tracks the country’s Covid-19 trajectory.

According to Professor M. Vidyasagar of IIT Hyderabad and Maninda Agrawal of IIT Kanpur, the daily caseload is expected to rise as Omicron begins to displace Delta as the dominant variant.

Meanwhile, India registered 6,317 fresh Covid cases and 318 deaths in the last 24 hours, and the Omicron tally has reached 213, said the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Wednesday. With the addition of 318 new deaths, the death toll has climbed to 4,78,325.

However, out of total Omicron positive, 90 have been discharged. So far 15 states have reported Omicron infection, said the ministry. Delhi (57) has the highest number of Omicron cases 57, closely followed by Maharashtra (54).

Daily Covid-19 caseload in India is expected to increase once the Omicron starts displacing Delta as the dominant variant, media reports quoted members of the National Covid-19 Supermodel Committee as saying.

According to their prediction, the third wave of Covid wave in India is set to begin “early next year”.

However, they noted that the infection rate will be milder than seen in the second wave, due to a large-scale immunity and vaccination present in the country now.

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-Top News COVID-19 India News

India reports 37,154 fresh Covid-19 cases, active tally at 4.50 lakh

This constitutes an overall recovery rate of 97.22 per cent, which is showing a sustained increasing trend, reports Asian Lite News

India reported 37,154 new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, informed the Union Health Ministry on Monday.

India’s active caseload of Covid-19 cases is at 4,50,899. The active cases constitute 1.46 per cent of the total cases.

The country also reported 724 deaths due to Covid-19 and with that, the cumulative fatalities in the country due to viral infection reached 4,08,764.

Out of the people infected since the beginning of the pandemic, 3,00,14,713 patients have already recovered from Covid-19 and 39,649 recovered in the last 24 hours.

This constitutes an overall recovery rate of 97.22 percent, which is showing a sustained increasing trend.

The weekly positivity rate also remained below 5 percent and is currently at 2.32 percent. Further, the daily positivity rate is at 2.59 percent, less than 3 percent for 21 consecutive days.

The testing capacity in the country has been substantially ramped up with 43.23 crore tests conducted so far.

India commenced its Covid-19 vaccination drive on January 16 this year. Till date, 37,73,52,501 vaccine doses have been administered so far including 12,35,287 in the last 24 hours, under the nationwide vaccination drive.

Zydus’ Covid vaccine for kids above 12 to come up for nod

Zydus Cadila’s Covid-19 vaccine developed for children above 12 years is likely to get emergency use approval from drug regulator Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) in the next few days, sources have said. The vaccine has been tested on adults as well as children above 12 years of age and if the regulatory committee is satisfied with the data, it may be given approval for emergency use, officials said.

The regulator’s subject expert committee (SEC) will examine data submitted by Cadila. Officials said that if the approval is given, supply of the vaccine is expected to start by August-September. “The preliminary assessment of the application submitted by the company is going on and we have sent it to the SEC for further consideration. The SEC will be meeting in the coming week, representatives of the company will be also asked to make presentations,” an official said.

Earlier Dr NK Arora, Chairperson of the Covid-19 Working Group of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (NTAGI), reportedly said that the Zydus Cadila’s vaccine for the age group of 12-18 years is expected to be available by September end. In an interview to NDTV, Dr Arora had said that Zydus Cadila’s data for 12-18 year-olds will be available by next month or early September and that we will certainly be able to give it.

ZyCov-D is a three-dose, intradermal vaccine which is applied using the PharmaJet needle-free system, the report added. It can be stored at 2-8 degree Celsius but has shown good stability at temperatures of 25 degree Celsius for at least 3 months. Apart from Cadila, Bharat Biotech is also testing Covaxin on children.

Third wave knocking?  

After facing a severe second wave of coronavirus pandemic between February and May, there has been a sharp decline in India’s daily cases in the last several weeks. However, the recent trajectory of Covid-19 cases has shown some worrying signs.

As per the data shared by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), there has been been a slowdown in the downward trend of daily COVID infections and a slight increase in the positivity rate. This is worrisome as there has been an influx of people at tourist destinations with less or no Covid-appropriate behaviour seen from them.

The Central government has expressed grave concerns over crowds thronging markets and hill stations over the past few days. It has now warned of reimposing lockdown-like restrictions in places where people are found to be blatantly breaking the rules put in place to contain coronavirus outbreaks.

Kerala’s positivity rate alarming

The state has been reporting around one-third of the overall daily Covid-19 infections being reported in the country for the past several days. As many as 13,772 fresh Covid cases were reported yesterday, pushing the total cases to 30.25 lakh in the southern state.

The active cases in Kerala have touched 1,10,136. With the new infections, the positivity rate has also surged to over 10 per cent.

Meanwhile, Prime Narendra Modi expressed concern about the persistently high number of Covid cases from Maharashtra and Kerala, according to the sources.

‘Covid third wave to hit India in August’

A research report has predicted that India may witness the third wave of Covid-19 in mid-August 2021, raising the alarm bells for policymakers and citizens.

The report, Covid-19: The race to finishing line, prepared by SBI Research, claims that the Covidthird wave peak will arrive in the month of September 2021.

According to the SBI report, the global data shows that on average, peak Covid-19 cases reached during the third wave are nearly twice or 1.7 times those from the second wave of the pandemic.

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COVID-19 Health Lite Blogs

Save your kids from ‘Third Wave’

The expert suggests not letting our guard down, by maintaining Covid-appropriate behaviour such as social distancing, use of masks, and hand sanitisation measures…writes Siddhi Jain.

People are worried about the third wave of the pandemic, as studies indicated it may affect our kids widely. Experts are forewarning against the third wave of Covid-19 hitting India as early as September, with many fearing that it could hit children disproportionately. According to Rekha Mittal, Neurologist at Rainbow Hospitals, since many adults would have had the disease or the Covid vaccine, in comparison children would be a susceptible population.

“Third wave and more waves can always occur in a pandemic till it burns out or there is herd immunity. So far in our experience, the majority of children who have had Covid infection have either been asymptomatic or had mild symptoms. Therefore we hope the next wave will not be a serious threat to children,” Mittal told.

“The treatment of children who get serious manifestations of Covid requires specialists who are trained in intensive care of children, and the appropriate equipment and support staff. We should definitely plan and be prepared for a crisis situation if it does occur. We should not be complacent.”

How can a surge in cases be avoided? The expert suggests not letting our guard down, by maintaining Covid-appropriate behaviour such as social distancing, use of masks, and hand sanitisation measures. “We need to avoid crowded places such as malls, markets, gatherings etc. Also, the children will get protected indirectly, if the adults around them receive the Covid vaccine.”

Rainbow Hospitals successfully administered the wonder drug Zolgensma, which is also the world’s costliest at Rs 16 crore per shot, to a three-year-old Hyderabad boy this month. The medical marvel Zolgensma is a single dose intravenous injection used in gene therapy is for replacing the defective SMN1 gene through an adenoviral vector.

Asked how critical can it be to administer an expensive injection like this with skill, Mittal says: “Administering such an expensive and uncommonly used drug can be a challenge. One will need to have complete knowledge about procuring, handling, and administering the medication. Also, one would have to have all facilities to handle the side effects if they occur, such as liver damage, drop in platelet count, etc.”

Speaking about vaccination for children, the doctor said vaccinations for vaccine-preventable diseases should continue on time for children as per schedule.

“Rainbow hospital provides a safe area where children can be brought in for vaccinations. Trials for Covid vaccination in children above 2 years of age have started in India. As and when the Covid vaccine is approved and available for children, Rainbow hospitals will be ready to administer the same to as many children as possible.”

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COVID-19 India News

No evidence that next wave will hit children: AIIMS chief

Guleria futher asserted that “Covid appropriate behaviour is key to preventing future waves”, similar to the statement NITI Aayog Member (Health) V.K. Paul made on Monday…reports Asian Lite News.

There is no data, either from India or globally, to show that children will be seriously infected in any subsequent Covid-19 waves, AIIMS, Delhi, Director Dr Randeep Guleria said on Tuesday.

Addressing a media briefing here, he said that “it is a piece of misinformation that subsequent waves of the Covid-19 pandemic are going to cause severe illness in children”.

Noting that 60 per cent to 70 per cent of the children who got infected and got admitted in hospitals during the second wave in India, had either comorbidities or low immunity, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Director said that healthy children recovered with mild illness without need for hospitalisation.

Guleria futher asserted that “Covid appropriate behaviour is key to preventing future waves”, similar to the statement NITI Aayog Member (Health) V.K. Paul made on Monday.

Explaining why pandemics return again, the AIIMS Director said “waves normally occur in pandemics caused due to respiratory viruses; the 1918 Spanish Flu, H1N1 (swine) flu are examples”.

“The second wave of 1918 Spanish Flu was the biggest, after which there was a smaller third wave,” said Guleria. “And as we know, SARS-Cov-2 is a respiratory virus.”



Multiple waves occur when there is a susceptible population and when a large part of the population acquires immunity against the infection, “the virus becomes endemic and infection becomes seasonal like that of H1N1 that commonly spreads during monsoon or winters”, he said.

“Waves can occur due to change in the virus (such as new variants). Since new mutations become more infectious, there is a higher chance for the virus to spread.”

Guleria said that one of the reasons behind a wave can be human behaviour and cautioned that “whenever cases increase, there is a fear in people and human behaviour changes. People strictly follow Covid appropriate behaviours and non-pharmaceutical interventions help break the chain of transmission. But when unlocking resumes, people tend to think that not much infection will happen and tend to not follow Covid appropriate behaviour”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isCRgjWPmqs

Due to this, the AIIMS chief said, the virus again starts spreading in the community, leading potentially to another wave.

“If we have to stop subsequent waves, we need to aggressively follow Covid appropriate behaviour until we can say that a significant number of our population is vaccinated or has acquired natural immunity.

“When enough people are vaccinated or when we acquire natural immunity against the infection, then these waves will stop. The only way out is to strictly follow Covid appropriate behaviour,” Guleria added.

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-Top News COVID-19 UK News

UK warned of third Covid wave

However, he said the number of people who have been vaccinated in the UK meant this wave would probably take longer to emerge than the previous ones…reporrts Asian Lite News.

The UK is in the early stages of a third wave of Covid-19, a scientist advising the UK government said, media reports said on Monday.

The B1617 variant, which was first detected in India in October 2020, had fuelled “exponential growth” and is responsible for at least three-quarters of cases in the UK, Ravi Gupta, a professor at the University of Cambridge, was quoted as saying by the BBC.

“Of course the number of cases is relatively low at the moment — all waves start with low numbers of cases that grumble in the background and then become explosive, so the key here is that what we are seeing here is the signs of an early wave,” Gupta told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

However, he said the number of people who have been vaccinated in the UK meant this wave would probably take longer to emerge than the previous ones.

“There may be a false sense of security for some time, and that’s our concern,” he noted, suggesting that ending Covid restrictions in the UK on June 21 should be postponed.

It should be delayed “by a few weeks while we gather more intelligence”, said Gupta, a member of the UK government’s New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag).

The concern was echoed by other experts who said that the B1617 variant could “pick up speed and become a big problem” in the UK as the country further eases lockdown measures.

The UK’s fight against coronavirus could turn bad “very, very quickly” unless the government acts cautiously on easing lockdown further, Xinhua news agency quoted Tim Gowers from the University of Cambridge telling the Guardian on Saturday.

Anthony Harnden, the deputy chair of the UK’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), also warned that the B1617 variant is “clearly more transmissible”.

“We need to be reassured that we’re in a very different position now in that we’ve got a highly vaccinated population and we just need to continue moving at speed,” he told the BBC on Saturday.

“We do know that with this particular variant, you do need two doses to offer complete protection, and so we’re very, very keen to make sure that all those, particularly higher risk groups, over 50 years of age and those with underlying illness, receive their second vaccination as soon as feasible,” Harnden said.

The final stage of the government’s roadmap for lifting lockdown, which would remove all limits on how many people you can meet – either indoors or outdoors, is due no earlier than June 21.

On Sunday, the UK reported more than 3,000 new Covid infections for a fifth day in a row. Prior to this, the UK had not surpassed that number since April 12, the BBC report said.

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