Two ICMR researchers author article that notes how slow roll out & shortages resulted in 3% population being vaccinated, says target of vaccinating a billion by year-end seems unlikely.
The number of people who have recovered from Covid-19 in the country is now 2,30,70,365, while the case fatality rate stood at 1.12%, the Union health ministry said Saturday.
ICMR chief Dr Balram Bhargava had revealed plans to take plasma therapy off the possible treatments’ list in October, but Indians kept scrambling to arrange it.
Team collected blood samples of patients who had recovered from Covid along with those who had been vaccinated with Covaxin. But experts say lab tests aren’t enough.
This comes in the backdrop of some clinicians writing to the Principal Scientific Advisor cautioning against the "irrational and non-scientific use" of convalescent plasma.
Dr Raman Gangakhedkar, face of ICMR during Covid briefings last year, said India could become breeding ground for several mutants if it does not adhere to evidence-based treatment.
Experts say revised strategy that calls for rapid tests in hospitals & public places, among others, is a tacit admission of community transmission & limitations of RT-PCR capacity.
Experts including Gagandeep Kang and Gautam Menon say ICMR's granular data on residents who’ve been tested so far needs to be opened to outside experts who could study & predict Covid spread.
The apex health research body said the National Institute of Virology has also demonstrated the neutralisation potential of Covaxin against the UK and Brazil variants.
ICMR data also highlights that this time around, entire families have been contracting Covid if even one person tests positive unlike in the previous wave.
Increasingly, lenders have stepped in where equity funding has slowed amid global market volatility. But instead of helping startups, they end up extracting a pound of flesh that outlasts the crisis itself.
Rural ownership of motor vehicles jumped from 19 percent in 2011-2012 to 59 percent in 2023-2024, while urban rose from 40 percent to 68 percent during the same time period, study by two members of PM-EAC says.
At the Jindal Literature Festival, Maj Gen (Retd) Lakhwinder Singh reveals secrets from 25 years ago, speaking about the decision that outwitted Musharraf and changed the course of the war.
It is a brilliant, reasonably priced, and mostly homemade aircraft with a stellar safety record; only two crashes in 24 years since its first flight. But its crash is a moment of introspection.
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