14 more reports with UK Covid strain, total cases 20

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14 more reports with UK Covid strain, total cases 20

India has recorded 14 more cases with the new UK coronavirus mutant strain, taking the total number of such cases to 20, the Union Health Ministry said on Wednesday.

Of the 20 cases, might have been registered at National Centre for Disease Control in Delhi, 7 at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro-Sciences in Bangalore, two at Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad.

One each has been logged at the National Institute of Biomedical Genomics near Kolkata, National Institute of Virology in Pune, and CSIR Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology in Delhi.

A two-year-old girl in Meerut has also tested positive for the new strain, said Meerut’s Chief Medical Officer Akhilesh Mohan.

The parents of the two-year-old though Covid positive, however, have been found to be infected with the mutant. They had all returned from the UK, the health officials in Meerut said. The child is in an isolation ward with her parents at Meerut’s Subharti Medical College.

A total of 107 samples have undergone genome sequencing till now.

On Tuesday, a total of six UK returnees were found to be positive with the new variant genome, the central government had announced, adding that all these persons have been kept in single room isolation in designated health care facilities.

These were the first cases to be reported by the country that has the second-highest number of cases after the US.

The British government had recently announced that the newly identified strain of the virus found in their population is up to 70 percent more transmissible.

It is important to note that the presence of the new UK variant has already been reported by Denmark, Netherlands, Australia, Italy, Sweden, France, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Canada, Japan, Lebanon, and Singapore.

Pursuant to an announcement by the British government, the Indian government had taken cognizance of the reports of mutant variants and put in place a pro-active and preventive strategy to detect and contain the mutant variant. It included the temporary suspension of all flights coming from the UK with effect from the midnight of December 23 till 31.

From November 25 to December 23 midnight, about 33,000 passengers disembarked at various Indian airports from the UK. All these passengers are being tracked and subjected by states and UTs to RT-PCR tests.

Brazil reports highest daily Covid-19 deaths since Oct

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Brazil reports highest daily Covid-19 deaths since Oct

Brazil registered 1,111 coronavirus deaths in the last 24 hours, the highest single-day fatalities since October 3, when 1,307 people had died, the Health Ministry said.

Tuesday’s figure increased the nationwide death toll to 192,681, Xinhua news agency quoted the Ministry as saying.

Meanwhile, 58,718 new cases were also detected in the last 24 hours, the highest daily tally since December 17, increasing the nationwide caseload to 7,563,551.

The South American country currently accounts for the third-largest caseload in the world, after the US and India, and the second-highest death toll just behind the US.

The southeast Sao Paulo State, the most populated in the country, is the hardest-hit region with 1,440,229 cases and 46,195 deaths, followed by the neighboring Rio de Janeiro with 426,259 cases and 25,078 deaths.

Amid surging cases in Manaus, capital of northern Amazonas state and one of the epicenters of the pandemic, at least two local hospitals have set up tents outside their facilities to test new patients arriving with symptoms of Covid-19.

British armed forces to support Covid-19 testing in schools

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British armed forces to support Covid-19 testing in schools

The British armed forces will remotely support mass Covid-19 testing of secondary school students in England and be on standby to provide in-person support at short notice if needed, the Ministry of Defence said.

In a statement on Tuesday, the Ministry said 1,500 military personnel will hold webinars and give phone support to school staff in setting up mass Covid-19 testing when the new school term begins next week, reports Xinhua news agency.

The military has previously helped organize mass testing in Liverpool, and more recently in Kent to clear the backlog of lorries after France closed its border with Britain amid fears of the spread of the new coronavirus strain, discovered in the UK earlier this month.

But teaching unions said schools have not been given enough time to make plans, and some head-teachers said the UK government should delay the start of the new school term.

British scientists are urgently investigating hints the new variant of coronavirus spreads more easily in children.

Preliminary research by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine suggested that schools and universities might need to close on top of existing Tier Four restrictions to bring the new variant under control.

The students are due back to schools next week starting from January 4, 2021, but the majority of secondary school pupils in England will begin the school term by studying remotely, to give teachers time to implement the coronavirus testing program for students and staff.

Wales and Scotland have delayed or revised the start of the new term.

Northern Ireland schools are due back next week, according to the BBC.

Another 53,135 people in the UK have tested positive for Covid-19, marking a new record daily spike, according to the official figures released on Tuesday.

The total number of coronavirus cases in the country now stands at 2,389,963.

Another 414 have died within 28 days of a positive test, bringing the total number of fatalities to 71,675, the data showed.

India at point where we can expect vaccine in few days: Govt

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India at point where we can expect vaccine in few days: Govt

As India eagerly awaits the regulatory approval for the coronavirus vaccine, a senior government official on Tuesday said that the country is at a point where the silver bullet can be expected in a “few days”.

Addressing a press conference, Dr. V.K. Paul, Member (Health), Niti Aayog said: “We are that point where we can expect vaccine in a few days. We have to move forward with optimism. We expect that the coming days will be better.”

India currently has eight Covid-19 vaccine candidates, including three indigenous vaccines, under different stages of clinical trials which could be ready for authorization in near future.

Serum Institute-Oxford’s Covishield, Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin and Pfizer vaccines are in the fray for emergency use authorization.

The Central government plans to vaccinate nearly 30 crore people in the first phase of the drive. It will be offered to one crore healthcare workers, along with 2 crore frontline and essential workers and 27 crores elderly, mostly above the age of 50 years with co-morbidities.

On Monday, the Pune-based Serum Institute of India had also alluded to the possibility of the Covid-19 vaccine – Covishield – receiving the regulatory approval in a “few days”.

Dry run for Covid-19 vax conducted successfully in 4 states

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Dry run for Covid-19 vax conducted successfully in 4 states

The two-day dry run for the Covid-19 vaccination in Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, and Gujarat has been successfully conducted, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Tuesday.

The end-to-end dry run was conducted in Krishna district in Andhra Pradesh, Rajkot and Gandhinagar districts in Gujarat, Ludhiana and Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar in Punjab, and Sonitpur and Nalbari districts in Assam on December 28 and 29.

The District Collector with the engagement of the district and block task force was made responsible for conducting the dry run and was expected to provide insights on any gaps or bottlenecks during the actual conduct of vaccination.

Specific teams were formed for various tasks by the district administration and activities such as uploading of dummy beneficiary’s data, session site creation, vaccine allocation, communication of vaccination details to vaccinators and beneficiaries and beneficiary mobilization were carried out.

Field feedback on the first day of the run was reviewed today through video conferencing with state and district programme officers by Joint Secretary (Public Health). All states expressed satisfaction in terms of the operational approach and use of IT platform to ensure transparency and effective monitoring of vaccination processes expected to cover a large number of people across the country.

Additional suggestions on the IT platform were also noted for further enhancement of Co-WIN platform. Detailed insights and feedback so obtained will help enrich the operational guidelines and IT platform and will strengthen the Covid-19 vaccination rollout plan, the ministry said in a statement.

“Backed with the experience of rolling out the Universal Immunization Programme (UIP) and conducting nationwide multiple wide-range injectable vaccination campaigns such as measles-rubella (MR) and Adult Japanese Encephalitis (JE) campaign, required steps are being undertaken to vaccinate priority population groups such as health care workers, frontline workers and people above 50 for Covid-19,” the statement read.

The dry run exercise was aimed at end-to-end testing of the Covid-19 vaccination process and included planning and preparations as per the Operational Guidelines, creation of facilities and users on Co-WIN application, session site creation and mapping of sites, Health Care Workers (HCW) data upload, receipt of vaccines and vaccine allocation by the district, session planning, deployment of vaccination team, logistics mobilization at session site, mock drill of conducting vaccination and reporting and review meetings at the block, districts and state level.

The objective of the dry run was also to undertake and confirm field implementation of IT platform Co-WIN and guide the way forward prior to actual implementation.

After a year that saw an unprecedented global health crisis, many are anticipating the coronavirus vaccine as India prepares for the inoculation campaign, which is likely to commence in January 2021.

India currently has eight Covid-19 vaccine candidates, including three indigenous vaccines, under different stages of clinical trials which could be ready for authorization in near future. Serum Institute-Oxford’s Covishield, Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin and Pfizer vaccines are in the fray for emergency use authorization.

The central government plans to vaccinate nearly 30 crore people in the first phase of the drive. It will be offered to one crore healthcare workers, along with 2 crore frontline and essential workers and 27 crores elderly, mostly above the age of 50 years with co-morbidities.

37 UK returnees test corona positive in Goa

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37 UK returnees test corona positive in Goa

Thirty-seven passengers out of 979, who traveled from the UK from December 9 till the midnight of December 22, have tested positive for Covid-19. The state government awaits reports from Pune’s National Institute of Virology for confirmation of the mutant strain among the Covid positive passengers.

A senior official attached to the Directorate of Health Services said all the 37 passengers, along with about a dozen persons who had come in contact with the UK in Goa, have been placed in an institutional quarantine facility, the Employees State Insurance Hospital, located in South Goa.

“Testing and contact tracing of all the 979 passengers is almost complete. The patients, as well as the persons with who they came in contact, have been admitted to institutional quarantine as a precautionary measure,” the official said.

The government of India had announced a temporary ban on flights coming from the UK commencing from 11.59 p.m. on December 22, in wake of a new fast-spreading mutated strain of coronavirus which had gripped the island nation and had gone into lockdown mode since.

The official said that nearly all the 979 passengers, who had arrived in Goa in the days before the flight ban came into place, were NRIs returning to their native homes in the coastal state for Christmas festivities.

Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said the Goa government was awaiting test reports from the Pune-based Central government facility, for the possible presence of the new coronavirus strain in the samples drawn from the UK returnees who had tested positive for Covid-19 in RT-PCR tests.

“In the meantime, we have decided to keep them in institutional isolation. Barring the condition of one person, the condition of the others is well,” Sawant said.

According to Nilesh Shah president of the Travel and Tourism Association of Goa, the ban on flights from the UK was a setback to the industry but added that the manner in which the Goa government went about locating the passengers and contact tracing efforts made was worth appreciation.

“Overall, the situation has been handled well. The passengers returning from the UK have been identified and tested sending a good signal,” Shah told IANS.

Goa currently has 955 active Covid-19 cases, while 734 persons have died in the state after testing positive. In all, 50,772 Covid-19 cases have been reported in the state.

2 cases of mutant virus detected in Telugu states

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2 cases of mutant virus detected in Telugu states

Health authorities in the Telugu states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh went on alert on Tuesday after two cases of a mutant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus were reported.

While one case was found in Telangana capital Hyderabad, the other was detected in neighboring Andhra Pradesh, health officials said on Tuesday.

They were among the 32 returnees, who were found positive in both the states so far. Their reports were sent to the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) for genome sequencing.

Two of them were found to be infected by the new strain of the virus recently detected in the UK and is reported to be more infections.

Health officials said both the persons have been kept in single-room-isolation in designated healthcare facilities. Their close contacts have also been put under quarantine. Comprehensive contact tracing has been initiated for co-travelers, family contacts, and others.

In all, 21 returnees from the UK to Telangana had tested coronavirus positive while such flyers in Andhra Pradesh number 11.

So far, three contacts of the UK returnees to Telangana have tested positive for Covid-19. In Andhra Pradesh, 12 contacts of the UK returnees were found infected.

Officials said the health condition of all the UK returnees is stable. The majority of the returnees were asymptomatic.

The health department of Telangana has so far tracked down 1,060. Details of another 58 returnees who left to their home states after landing in Hyderabad were forwarded to the respective states. Six others have returned to their countries.

“So far 996 returnees were tested and out of them 21 turned out to be positive. Results of another nine people are expected,” said Dr. G.Srinivasa Rao, director of public health, Telangana.

A total of 1,363 people from the UK returned to Andhra Pradesh and of them, 1,346 were traced. Efforts were on to trace the remaining 17.

Authorities also traced 5,784 contacts of the UK returnees and sent them for testing.

Common diabetic drug can trigger rare Covid complications

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Common diabetic drug can trigger rare Covid complications

Diabetes patients on glucose-lowering drugs are at risk of rare Covid-19 complications, especially those who use a popular class of diabetes drugs called sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors (SGLT2i), which function by releasing excess glucose in the urine.

In diabetes patients, rare but severe complications, like the potentially lethal condition diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), can arise when illness or certain conditions prevent cells from receiving enough glucose to fuel their functioning.

The researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital observed an uptick in a particular type of DKA called euDKA during the pandemic

EuDKA is a subset of the diabetes complication known as DKA, which occurs when the body’s cells fail to absorb enough glucose and compensate by metabolizing fats instead, creating a build-up of acids called ketones.

EuDKA differs from DKA in that it is characterized by lower blood sugar levels, making it more difficult to diagnose.

Underlying nearly all euDKA cases is a state of starvation that can be triggered by illnesses that cause vomiting, diarrhea, and loss of appetite and can be compounded by the diuretic effect of SGLT2i drugs, noted the study published in The American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists Clinical Case Reports.

“We have the background knowledge of recognizing that SGLT2 inhibitors can cause DKA and euDKA,” said corresponding author Naomi Fisher of the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Hypertension.

“Our report reinforces that if patients are ill or have a loss of appetite or are fasting, they should pause their medication and not resume until they are well and eating properly.”

Brigham researchers studied five unusual euDKA cases brought to the diabetes inpatient services within the span of two months, three of which occurred in one week, at the height of the pandemic in Boston in the spring of 2020. The authors also suspect that Covid-19 may particularly exacerbate euDKA risks.

When the virus infects a patient, it binds to cells on the pancreas that produce insulin and may exert a toxic effect on them.

Studies of the earlier SARS-CoV-1 virus found that many infected patients had increased blood sugar.

“It’s been posited through other models that the virus may be preferentially destroying insulin-producing cells,” Fisher said.

The authors encourage patients and physicians to halt SGLT2i-use in the event of illness, which is already standard practice for the most common diabetes drug, metformin.

6 UK returnees’ samples carry mutant Covid-19 variant

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6 UK returnees’ samples carry mutant Covid-19 variant

The samples of six UK returnees in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Pune have been found to be positive with the new variant genome, the central government said on Tuesday, adding that they have been kept in a single-room-isolation in designated healthcare facilities.

The British government had recently announced that the newly identified strain of the virus found in their population is up to 70 percent more transmissible. This had prompted the Indian authorities to suspend flights to and from the UK till December 31.

Pursuant to this, the government found that about 33,000 passengers had disembarked at various Indian airports from the UK from November 25 to December 23 midnight. All these passengers were tracked and subjected by the states and UTs to the RT-PCR tests. So far only 114 have been found positive. These positive samples were then sent to 10 labs.

“A total of six samples of six UK returnee persons have been found to be positive with the new UK variant genome. Three in NIMHANS, Bengaluru, two in CCMB, Hyderabad, and one in NIV, Pune. All these persons have been kept in single room isolation in designated Healthcare facilities by the respective state governments. Their close contacts have also been put under quarantine,” the health ministry said.

Comprehensive contact tracing has been initiated for co-travelers, family contacts, and others. Genome sequencing on other specimens is going on. The situation is under careful watch and regular advice is being provided to the states for enhanced surveillance, containment, testing, and dispatch of samples to the INSACOG labs, the ministry added.

It is important to note that the presence of the new UK Variant has already been reported by Denmark, Netherlands, Australia, Italy, Sweden, France, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Canada, Japan, Lebanon, and Singapore.

A few days back, the Indian government had taken cognizance of the reports of a mutant variant of SARS-CoV-2 virus reported from the UK and put in place a proactive and preventive strategy to detect and contain the mutant variant. It included the temporary suspension of all flights coming from the UK with effect from the midnight of December 23 till 31.

Testing of all UK returnee air passengers through the RT-PCR test was made mandatory. The samples of all UK returnees found positive in the RT-PCR test to be genome sequenced by a consortium of ten government labs.

The strategy also included a meeting of the National Task Force (NTF) on Covid-19 on December 26 to consider and recommend Testing, Treatment, Surveillance, and Containment Strategy. Standard Operating Protocol for states and UTs to tackle the mutant variant of SARS-CoV-2 was also issued on December 22.

Over the last few weeks, the UK has faced a rapid increase in Covid-19 cases in South East England, leading to enhanced epidemiological and virological investigations. Analysis of viral genome sequence data identified that a large proportion of cases belonged to a new single phylogenetic cluster.

The new variant is defined by multiple spike protein mutations as well as mutations in the other genomic regions. Preliminary analysis in the UK suggests that this variant is significantly more transmissible than previously circulating variants, with an estimated potential to increase the reproductive number (R) by 0.4 or greater with estimated increased transmissibility of up to 70 percent.

Phase 3 trial of Novavax investigational Covid-19 vaccine starts

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Phase 3 trial of Novavax investigational Covid-19 vaccine starts

The Phase 3 trial of another investigational Covid-19 vaccine developed by biotechnology company Novavax, Inc., has started enrolling adult volunteers, the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced.

In a statement issued on Monday, the NIH said that the randomized, placebo-controlled trial will enroll approximately 30,000 people at some 115 sites in the US and Mexico, reports Xinhua news agency.

It will evaluate the safety and efficacy of NVX-CoV2373, the vaccine candidate.

Volunteers will be asked to give informed consent prior to their participation in the trial, according to the NIH statement.

They will be grouped into two cohorts: individuals 18 through 64 years old and those aged 65 and older, with a goal of enrolling at least 25 percent of all volunteers who are 65 years old or older, it said.

Participants will be followed closely for potential vaccine side effects and will be asked to provide blood samples at specified time points after each injection and during the following two years, according to the NIH.

Scientists will analyze the blood samples to detect and quantify immune responses to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19. Novavax is leading the trial as the regulatory sponsor.

The US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, are funding the trial.

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