Dr Harsh Vardhan, Union Health Minister, chaired a high-level meeting with 11 health ministers of worst-hit states on Saturday to review the current Covid situation.
“We can focus on bigger containment zones which can be called community quarantine to change the strategy,” the minister said as he addressed the meeting through video conferencing.
Clarifying how the Centre supplies vaccines to the states, the minister said that large states get 4 days’ supply together while for smaller states, it is seven days’ supply. “So either on every 4th day or every 7th day, vaccines are being supplied.”
Urging states to send more samples for genome sequencing, the health minister said, “We have been doing genome sequencing before this UK variant same to the world’s notice. We have been doing everything required to bring the situation under control. This year, we have vaccine to bolster our fight.”
Two doctors, father and son, from Kalyan died due to coronavirus while the mother is serious in a Vasai based hospital. The father and son duo had been involved in Covid care for a year.
The family members were admitted in different municipal corporation areas, reports TOI. While Dr Nagendra (58) was admitted in Thane’s Vedanta Hospital, his son got a private bed in Goregaon. TOI further reports that the mother is admitted in a hospital in Vasai-Virar region.
It is still uncertain if the father son duo received vaccine shots.
To improve the immunity levels during covid times it’s important to have adequate doses of vitamin D adequate doses of vitamin C&B complex supplements also pre and probiotics naturally occurring pre and probiotics are in yogurt as well as curd yakult is another supplement available in the market you can have that and kimchi which is a Korean salad is a fermented Korean salad is again something good which can give us probiotics which are helping the market which you can pick up and have one to improve your immunity vitamin C is very important.
It’s important to understand that vitamin C is got from oranges, grapes kivi and other citrus fruits. Vitamin C supplements in the form of celecelin, juicy, Limsey can also be had once a day, 500 milligrams of vitamin C per day is important for us vitamin D, if you are low in vitamin D then also are immunity goes down, So to improve the vitamin it’s important to understand have certain amount of sunlight getting into our system maybe 25 minutes per day if it cannot happen then go for supplements which are available in the market in the form of a uprize D or depura which you can have once.
60,000 units once a week it improves your vitamin D. B complex in the form of capsules available in the market are there zinc is a very important feature to fight the covid. Zinc is available in various fruits as well as vegetables but it’s also more so found in seafood and zinc it is found in the form of a zincovit or zinckonia supplements so you can have more of them.
Fitness is very important if you’re walking wearing a mask for those 30 or more minutes this also improves immunity level.
Credits: Dr Suneet Khanna
Mumbai-based Haffkin Institute has received permission from the Centre on Thursday to manufacture Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin on the basis of transfer of technology.
The owner of the institute, the Maharashtra government thanked PM Modi for the approval and tweeted, “The Dept. Of Science and Technology, Government of India, has granted approval to Haffkin Institute to produce Bharat Biotech’s CovaxinCovaxin vaccine on a transfer of technology basis.”
“CM Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray has thanked Prime Minister for approving this request,” the tweet from the CM Office added.
Maharashtra is currently among the highest Covid case spike states.
The Union Government has today issued the Regulatory Pathway in India for COVID-19 vaccines approved for restricted use by US FDA, EMA, UK MHRA, PMDA Japan or which are listed in WHO Emergency Use Listing (EUL).
In a radical reform measure, the Union Government on 13th April 2021 had approved a significant streamlining and fast tracking of regulatory system for COVID-19 vaccines approved for restricted use by US FDA, EMA, UK MHRA, PMDA Japan or which are listed in WHO Emergency Use Listing (EUL). This decision will facilitate quicker access to such foreign vaccines by India and would encourage imports including import of bulk drug material, optimal utilization of domestic fill and finish capacity etc., which will in turn provide a fillip to vaccine manufacturing capacity and total vaccine availability within the country.
The Central Drugs Standards Control Organization (CDSCO) headed by DCGI has today explained that the following would be the Pathway:
- CDSCO shall prepare detailed guidelines specifying regulatory pathway for approval of foreign approved Covid vaccines based on NEGVAC recommendations.
- These guidelines have since been prepared and posted by CDSCO on its website. CDSCO will take steps to widely disseminate these guidelines to the concerned stakeholders.
- Applicants for grant of approval for Restricted Use in Emergency situation may be submitted to CDSCO.
- Application can be made by the foreign manufacturer through its Indian subsidiary or through its authorized agent in India (in case it does not have an Indian subsidiary).
- CDSCO will process such applications for Restricted Use in Emergency Situation and DCGI will consider and take a decision within 03 working days from date of submission of complete application by the applicant.
- DCGI will issue permission for Restricted Use in Emergency situation with, inter-alia, the following conditions:
- Vaccine shall be used as per the guidelines prescribed under National Covid-19 Vaccination Programme.
- First 100 beneficiaries of such vaccines shall be assessed for 7 days for safety outcomes before it is rolled out for further Vaccination program.
- Applicant shall initiate conduct of post approval bridging clinical trials within 30 days of such approval.
- Applications for Restricted Use in Emergency situation for such vaccines maybe accompanied by bridging trial protocol, application for import registration certificate and application for import license.
- CDSCO will process applications for Registration Certificate (registration of oversees manufacturing site and product: in this case Covid vaccine) and Import License, within 3 working days from the date of approval of Restricted Use in Emergency Situation.
- As per the existing protocol of CDSCO for batch release of vaccines, each batch of the vaccine will be released by Central Drugs Laboratory(CDL), Kasauli before it can be used as per the guidelines prescribed under the National Covid-19 vaccination programme.
- The applicant will use Covid vaccine, after receipt of CDL approval, initially only on 100 beneficiaries and submit the safety data to CDSCO.
- CDSCO will review the safety data submitted by the applicant, and once found satisfactory, will authorise the applicant to use the vaccine.
- CDSCO will approve the protocol for the bridging trial in consultation with Subject Expert Committee (SEC) within 7 days of the receipt of the proposal.
- Applicant will conduct the bridging trial within the time lines specified in the approved protocol, and submit data generated in the bridging trial to CDSCO.
- After the receipt of the bridging trial results, the DCGI will review the permission granted for Restricted Use in Emergency situation.
Union Home Secretary Shri Ajay Kumar Bhalla along with Shri Rajesh Bhushan, Union Health Secretary chaired a high-level meeting today to review the status of COVID19 in Madhya Pradesh and the public health measures taken for surveillance, containment and management of COVID19 by the health authorities. Shri Iqbal Singh Bains, Chief Secretary, MP, Dr Balram Bhargava, DG ICMR, Dr (Prof) Sunil Kumar, DGHS were present along with Principal Secretary (Health), Mission Director (NHM), and State Surveillance Officers of the MP.
Madhya Pradesh has reported nearly 13.4% week-on-week increase in new COVID cases. In last two weeks, the State has seen almost 79% increase in weekly new cases. In MP, in contrast to the week 7th-13thApril 2021 in the week of 17th-23rd March 2021, RT-PCR tests have increased to 73% (from 67%) while the Antigen tests has decreased to 25% (from 31%). Issues related to adequate availability of N95 Masks, PPE Kits, HCQ tablets availability, ventilator allocation, delivery and installation along with Oxygen requirement and status of allocation of Concentrator Plants were discussed in detail in the meeting.
The Union Home Secretary highlighted critical bottlenecks in the State’s response to COVID: shortage of beds in general and oxygenated beds in particular and other hospital infrastructure.
After a detailed and comprehensive review of the status of COVID-19 in the state, including the mortality figures, the following5-fold strategy for tackling the recent surge was highlighted and discussed:
1. On the front of Testing, the State was advised to-
• Significantly increase testing in all districts with a minimum of 70% RT-PCR tests and use of Rapid Antigen Tests as screening tests in densely populated areas as well as areas where fresh clusters are emerging.
• Mandatorily subject those who have tested negative in Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) to RT-PCR test.
2. Tracing, Containment, surveillance to suppress spread
• Tracing of close contacts at least 25 to 30 such close contacts for each infected person and their isolation to be done in 72 hours.
• Do subsequent testing and follow up of all close contacts.
• Delineate Containment Zones as per proper mapping of clusters of cases & their contacts.
3. The State was advised to follow the protocol of Clinical care, treatment & support, for Home / facility care:
• Increase the number of isolation beds, oxygen beds, ventilators/ICU beds, ambulance fleet as per requirement.
• Plan for adequate oxygen supply.
• Focus on mortality reduction by early identification & complying to treatment protocols
4. On front of COVID safe behaviour, the State was advised to
• Use local political, cultural, sports, religious influencers to disseminate proper wearing of masks and maintaining physical distance.
• Use of Police Act, DM Act and other legal/administrative provisions for effective and strict enforcement.
5. Regarding the Vaccination, the State was advised to ensure-
• Time-bound plan of 100% vaccination of eligible HCWs, FLWs and eligible age groups.
A meeting of Empowered Group 2 (EG2) was held today to review the availability of essential medical equipment and oxygen during COVID. Three important decisions taken today are as explained below.
i. Mapping of oxygen sources for 12 high burden states – Medical oxygen is a critical component in the treatment of COVID affected patients. There has been increasing demand for medical oxygen, especially from the 12 states with high burden of active COVID cases viz.– Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan. While the demand in Maharashtra expected to beyond available production capacity of the state, states like Madhya Pradesh do not have any production capacity to meet their demand for medical oxygen. Besides, there is a trend of increasing demand in other oxygen producing states such as Gujarat, Karnataka, Rajasthan, etc.
To give clarity and assurance to the states on oxygen supplied over the next few weeks of surge in cases, a mapping exercise was undertaken jointly by DPIIT, MOHFW, Ministry of Steel, various critically affected states, Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation (PESO) along with key stakeholders including the representatives from oxygen manufacturers, All India Industrial Gas Manufacturers Association (AIIGMA) as per the directions of Empowered Group -2 (EG2). Sources of medical oxygen and their production capacity was mapped to match the requirement of states and an indicative framework has been developed to guide the states on the sources of medical oxygen.
Accordingly, 4880 MT, 5619 MT and 6593 MT have been indicated to these 12 states for meeting their projected demand as on 20th April, 25th April and 30th April, respectively. MOHFW is issuing orders in this regard and the same would be notified by MHA.
ii. Identification of another 100 hospitals for PSA plants : Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) plants manufacture oxygen and help hospitals become self-sufficient in their requirement for medical oxygen while also reducing the burden on the national grid for supply of medical oxygen. 162 PSA plants sanctioned under PM-Cares are being closely reviewed for early completion of 100 percent of the plants to enhance self-generation of oxygen in hospitals especially in remote areas. EG2 directed MOHFW to identify another 100 hospitals in far flung locations for consideration of sanction for installation of PSA plants.
iii. Import of 50,000 MT of medical oxygen : In view of increasing demand for medical oxygen, EG2 decided to float a tender for import of 50,000 MT of medical oxygen. MOHFW has been directed to finalise the tender for the same and also explore possible sources for import identified by the missions of MEA.
EG2 is monitoring the situation of demand and supply of medical oxygen continuously to ensure that all necessary steps are taken to support the uninterrupted supply of medical oxygen
Source: Press Bureau of India