TOP EXPERTS VIEWS
DR KK AGGARWAL , Former, President, IMA
DR NEELAM MOHAN, Director, Dept of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology Liver Transplant, Medanta hospital
DR DHIREN GUPTA, Intensivist and pediatrics specialist , Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in Delhi
Dr NITA RADHAKRISHNAN, HOD, Pediatric Hematology Oncology, Child PGI Noida
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday virtually interacted with governors and lieutenant governors of all states and union territories regarding the covid-19 situation and the ongoing vaccination drive in the country.
According to PMO, PM Modi said that the values and sense of duty of people are the biggest strengths in the battle against covid -19, along with the vaccine. He also praised the citizen who participated in this battle last year, considering it their duty, he said that the same feeling of janbhagidari (public participation) needs to be encouraged now as well.
Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu, union home minister Amit Shah and union health minister harsh Vardhan also attended the interaction.
The prime minister also mentioned that the role of the governors, through appropriate utilisation of their social capacity, thus becoming all the more critical to achieving victory over COVID -19. Governors are an important link to ensure better coordination between state governments and society, he said, adding that the combined power of all community organisations, political parties, NGOs and social institutions needs to be harnessed.
He also suggested that the governors can actively engage to ensure that social institutions collaboration seamlessly with the state governments towards micro containment.
He said that their social network can help ensure an increase in the capacity of ambulance, ventilators and oxygen in hospital. Along with spreading the message about vaccination and treatment, the governors can also spread awareness about AYUSH related remedies, according to the PMO release.
PM Modi noted that the Indian youth, the workforce, is an important part of the economy, therefore, it is important to ensure that the youth follow all covid -19 related protocols and precautions. He said that the governor’s role is also critical in ensuring the greater engagement of our students in university campuses towards this janbhagidari.
We also need to focus on better utilisation of facilities at university and college campuses, he added.
Discussing the raise in the number of covid-19 cases, he said that in this stage of fight against the virus, the country stands to gain from last years’ experience and improved healthcare capacity. he discussed the increased RT-PCR testing capacity and noted that the country has become Aatmanirbhar with respect to kits and other material related to testing.
He also emphasised the significance of increasing tracking, tracing and testing, and said that RT-PCR testing needs to be increased from 60 to70 per cent, while urging that more and more people should get tested.
He also underlined that the government is committed to ensuring adequate availability to vaccines, highlighting that India has become the fastest nation to reach the landmark of 10 crore vaccinations. Noting the positive impact of tika utsav in the last four days, he said that in this period, the vaccination drive was expanded and new vaccination centres also came up.
According to the official statement, vice president Naidu also appreciated PM Modi for leading the fight against COVID -19 and his proactive steps to develop the infrastructure required to tackle the pandemic, highlighted the contributions of the scientific community, healthcare works, sanitation workers, and other frontline workers in giving a vaccine to India and the whole world.
Naidu called upon the governors to bring up a coordinated front by leading all party meeting in their respective states and engaging with civil society organisation to spread awareness about COVID – appropriate behaviour.
Meanwhile, shah stressed the importance of saving each and every life, while the governors shared details of how their respective state are tackling the spread of the virus and coordinating activities towards ensuring a smooth implementation of the vaccination drive. As per the PMO statement, they gave suggestions for further improvements in the efforts and shared plans of how janbhagidari can be increased through the active social engagement of various groups.
India has been witnessing a massive surge in COVID-19cases and reported a record number of over 1.84 lakh infected on Tuesday.
Source: ANI
On Wednesday, the European Union said that it would get 50 million Pfizer vaccine doses earlier than expected after Denmark banned use of AstraZeneca over blood clot links.
The news broke out after U.S. drugmaker Johnson & Johnson delayed its Covid-19 shot among rising caseloads. Referring to the delay, EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said “there are still many factors that can disrupt the planned delivery schedules of vaccines.”
The EMA said J&J was in contact with national authorities and recommended storing doses already received until the safety committee issued an expedited recommendation, reports Reuters.
Europe will receive BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine doses in the second quarter of this year and the delivery will start as soon as this month.
The Central government on Wednesday said that after a meeting with all-existing manufacturers of Remdesivir and other stakeholders, decisions have been taken to increase production and supply and reduce prices of Remdesivir.
Union Minister Mansukh Mandaviya made a statement on Wednesday to inform that the current total installed capacity of the seven manufacturers of Remdesivir is 38.80 lakh vials per month.
According to a report, the government has said that fast-track approval has been given for seven additional sites having the production capacity of 10 lakh vials per month to six manufacturers and another 30 lakh vials per month production is lined up. This would ramp up the production capacity for manufacturing to around 78 lakh vials/month.
It also added that manufacturers of Remdesivir have volunteered to reduce the price to less than ₹3,500 by the end of this week in order to contain the spread of the virus and contribute to the Centre’s efforts.
They have also been directed to give priority to fulfil hospital/institutional level supplies.
Meanwhile, Union health Minster Harsh Vardhan today said, “Shortage of Remdesivir happened because its production was reduced as COVID-19 cases were decreasing. Our drug controller and ministry held a meeting with stakeholders and asked manufacturers to strengthen the production.”
As an additional measure, Remdesivir, API and formulation were placed under Export ban on 11.04.2021 by DGFT to increase the supply of Remdesivir in the Domestic Market. On Government intervention, Remdesivir supplies of approximately 4 lakh vials meant for export is being diverted by manufacturers to fulfil domestic requirement. EOU/SEZ units are also being enabled to supply to the domestic market.
Enforcement Authorities of States and Central Govt. have been directed by DCGI to take immediate action on incidence of black-marketing, hoarding and overcharging of Remdesivir.
Prabhuram Choudhary, health minister of Madhya Pradesh has said that the government is not hiding any data and correct figures are being updated every day.
Suspected bodies, apart from Covid-19 infected bodies, are also being cremated as per protocol, he added.
According to the health department, as many as 46,526 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours.
There are 42,539 active Covid cases in the state out of which MP has reported 8,998 fresh cases in the last 24 hours.
A doctor and two others were arrested on Tuesday on charges of selling Remdesivir injection in Mumbai’s fast-growing black market for the key antiviral drug for Covid-19 patients running short on supply, Mumbai police said on Wednesday.
The HT reports that three allegedly overcharged people prescribed the injection in violation of the law.
The doctor told the police that he had bought the injections from the Hayaat hospital medical shop.
By Dr Dhiren Gupta
Till now we didn’t had RCT to support or negate .
Look at this double blind RCT PUBLISHED in JAMA “Effect of Ivermectin on Time to Resolution of Symptoms Among Adults With Mild COVID-19”
(JAMA. 2021;325(14):1426-1435. doi:10.1001/jama.2021.3071)
In this randomized clinical trial that included 476 patients, the duration of symptoms was not significantly different for patients who received a 5-day course of ivermectin compared with placebo . median time to resolution of symptoms was 10 vs 12 day.
Conclusion and Relevance – Among adults with mild COVID-19, a 5-day course of ivermectin, compared with placebo, did not significantly improve the time to resolution of symptoms. The findings do not support the use of ivermectin for treatment of mild COVID-19, although larger trials may be needed to understand the effects of ivermectin on other clinically relevant outcomes.
Take home message- this drug is used Rt and left . Physicians using two logic – something has to be given and this is safe drug . Second “look AIIMS protocol also mentioned it “. My point is that while counselling emphasis should be on monitoring, monitoring and monitoring ( of grade of fever ie more than 103 F without medication and 101 plus with antipyretic medication along with drop in oxygenation by 5 percent from base or less than equal to 94 percent) . Drug prescription like ivermectin , doxy , Azee gives them impression that these medication have cured them ( whereas 90 percent of people are going to escape pneumonia by innate immunity). Another problem arises – these so called cured patients by pseudo placebos become super doctors ( like super spreaders )and start prescribing to other contacts . These drugs are available over the counter but what is not available is advice of monitoring and red flag signs. We are harming the society. Wait for another disaster going to happen by change in microbiota due to use of antihelminthic and antibiotics .
A Covid-19 patient died after he was allegedly made to wait for one and a half hour at Patna’s Nalanda Medical College & Hospital. The other hospitals did not admit him due to which he came to NMCH.
The son of the deceased said, “My father was Covid-positive. Other hospitals refused to admit him, NMCH agreed. They made us wait outside for 1.5 hours.”
Citing the unfortunate incident, Bihar Health Minister Mangal Pandey said, “For some days, the number of cases has increased in hospitals, efforts are being made to improve the facilities.”
A coronavirus patient died at Ranchi’s Sadar Hospitals while waiting for treatment while Banna Gupta, state health minister was taking checking facilities in the hospitals on Tuesday.
According to a report by Hindustan Times, the patient was rushed to Ranchi from Hazaribagh, a 100 km away, for a better treatment as his condition started deteriorating. While Banna Gupta was taking stock of the hospital, the patient had to wait for several hours in the name of formalities and no one came to attend him.
The minister has ordered inquiry into the matter and sought a detailed report from Ranchi’s civil surgeon within 48 hours to establish the circumstances in which the patient, Pawan Gupta, died and whether there was any laxity, HT reported.
By Dr Narendra Saini
USA cases 32,070,784
vaccination 192,282,781
India cases 13,871,321
Vaccination 11,117,9578
Brazil cases 13,601,566
Vaccination 31,973,299
Second wave of COVID-19, When will it end ?
India added more than 1 lakh infections on an average over the last one week compares with the seven-day rolling average of around 65,000 and 63,000 cases added by the U.S. and Brazil,respectively.
Scientist Using a mathematical model, have predicted that the vicious second wave would peak by mid-April and may see a decline by May end.It is a sharp slope, but on the way down, it would likely be equally sharp, coming down very fast and by the end of May may see a dramatic reduction said senior scientist Manindra Agrawal.
The prediction is based on three main parameters,The first is called Beta, or contact rate, which measures how many people an infected person infects per day. It is related to the R-naught value, which is the number of people an infected person spreads the virus to over the course of their infection.The second parameter is ‘Reach’, measure of exposure level of the population to Covid-19, and the third is ‘Epsilon’, ratio of detected and undetected coronavirus cases. As per Indian Council of Medical Research’s (ICMR) there are around 26-32 undetected Covid-19 cases for every lab confirmed case.
However, like with the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, it would depend on adherence to safety protocols -proper practices of masking, disinfecting,testing, tracing, quarantine and mass vaccination with availability to those who want it
.
Remember virus travels with the people and celebrates with the crowds.
We are going to win this covid pandemic all Together by doing our part effectively
The writer is Dr Narendra Saini,Chairman Scientific committee DMC,Chairman AMR committee IMA Hq,Past Sec Gen IMA
Director SAINI DIAGNOSTICS ICMR approved lab for RTPCR testing
8076725717,9810252127.