Daily News Capsule

 

Now, 45 years old candidates will be eligible to receive Covid vaccination from the first week of April. It will be a high step in the treatment of covid-19 infection. Though, it would be great if the young candidate could also take the advantage of vaccination. However, the elevation in covid-19 cases is concerned. 

There are 60% of cases of infection coming from Maharashtra. On Tuesday, March 23, 8% more cases were observed than on Monday. 100% infected cases were observed in 25 districts, while 200% in 17 districts and 500% in 3 districts in only 17 days. As an action to control the hazardous spread of infection, there have been allowed night curfews in some districts including, Palwel, Nasa, Nasik. While there has been announced lockdown in Nagpur till 31st march. 

In Mumbai, there is a rapid antigen test. Without someone’s permission, Mumbai being highly effective is doing it as a precautionary measure. As of Tuesday, the BMC (Brihanmumbai municipal corporation) has announced that Holi would not be played in public places in Mumbai. If we talk countywide, almost 75% of cases of spread are coming from Maharashtra, Punjab, Kerala and, Gujarat is also in the number of affected states. In Telangana, all schools and colleges are shut due to the volatile condition of infection. The nation is going through the second wave of infection. In the past 23 days, over 1 crore vaccinations have been done, which includes the front-line and health workers. 

The central government has made some changes to the Covidshield vaccination program. There will be a gap of 4-8 weeks between the two doses of vaccine. This has been concluded with the advice of expert groups. However, the new guidelines related to Covidshield were taken after the discussion with the national technical advisory group and national group on vaccination. According to which the second dose should be given after the interval of 4-8 weeks. It would be more beneficial if it was given in 6-8 weeks. Though, they showed concern that there should not be a gap of more than 8 weeks at any cost.

It is to note, that the new guidelines over-vaccination is only for the Covidshield, while Covaxin will be given in the same way.  There are reports of the new strain in Maharashtra and Punjab, in which the infection spreads vigorously, but then recovers soon. 

It has been one year since coronavirus infection came into our lives and we go through it a lot during the lockdown, are we getting close to lockdown once again? 

What AIIMS director said about the Covid situation?

AIIMS director said on the situation that” the condition was managed in the past few weeks, and there is a sudden increase in the spread. Somehow, we all have taken it lightly and did not follow the appropriate covid behavior. Testing rates were also reduced. However, the new strains also put the infection at its peak. There is a strong need to minimize the spread and control the newly induced peak of virus”. 

The positive individual should have complete isolation and precautionary measure to control doubling time. Or otherwise, it will increase exponentially, he further said. The asymptomatic individual may also have the infection, which might show in the next 2-3 days, hence social distancing and covid appropriate behavior is a must.  We need to track the cases, isolate the positive individuals, testing properly as we did in the past few months during the initial stages of the pandemic. If we don’t, the cases will be increased, so that the death rates too, he showed concern. 

He said about the new guidelines of vaccination, that by adopting this new strategy a large number of the population will be vaccinated. This strategy was applied by the United States and they received the high efficacy of vaccinations. 

He said that if every individual takes it as a responsibility to take precautions and follow the guidelines strictly. If the testing and isolation of positive cases would be done consistently, then lockdown is not an option. He said that the lockdown is connected to the economic and financial situations, hence the precautions and vaccination should be the primary concern.