India Coronavirus Dispatch: Bihar detected only 1 in 134 Covid cases - data

Stories from around the country on the fight against the pandemic

Over 44,000 fresh cases reported

India reported 44,230 fresh coronavirus infections on Friday, taking the cumulative caseload to 31.5 million, according to central health ministry data. The country saw 555 more deaths due to the pandemic, taking the death toll to 423,217. The active caseload is at 405,155, while the total recoveries have surged to 30.7 million. As many as 456 million vaccine shots have been administered since the nationwide inoculation programme kicked off on January 16. Of these, 5.1 million were given on Thursday. Read more

Bihar detected only 1 in 134 Covid cases: govt data

An analysis of the recent findings of the serosurvey carried out by ICMR found that the top two states which are underreporting cases are Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, a report in ThePrint said. In Bihar, for every detected case, 134 infections were missed and in Uttar Pradesh, for every detected case, 100 infections were missed. This means that by 31 May, Bihar actually had a total of 94.7 million infections against its detected caseload of 700,000 while UP had 168.9 million infections against its detected case load of 1.7 million, the report said. Read more

Expert panel recommends nod to a trial of mixing Covaxin, Covishield doses

An expert panel of the central drug authority recommended granting permission to the Christian Medical College (CMC) in Tamil Nadu's Vellore for carrying out a clinical trial of mixing of Covaxin and Covishield, PTI reported citing sources. The panel also recommended giving the nod to Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech for conducting a study on the interchangeability of its Covaxin and the under-trial adenoviral intranasal vaccine candidate BBV154, the report said. Read more

Chandigarh achieves over 80% vaccination coverage

Chandigarh has achieved 81.17 per cent vaccination as 592,369 people already have received the first dose, a report in The Indian Express said. The average vaccination in the last seven days is 9,861. So far, 95.19 per cent of healthcare workers have got the first dose. Efforts have been ongoing in the union territory to inoculate a large section of people, with the drive in the last couple of weeks targeted at high-density population areas. “...there will be some who will not opt to take the shot. The effort is to motivate people to get the vaccination by educating them about its benefits and how (the) vaccine is a tool to keep themselves and others safe," said Dr Amandeep Kang, Director, Health Services (DHS). Read more

What should be the ideal gap between doses?

According to the Centre's standard operating procedure (SOP), the schedule for Covishield is to administer the second dose at 12-16 weeks' interval, after administration of the first dose. While the “ideal vaccine gap” should be 4-6 weeks, for Covishield, it has been made a minimum of 12 weeks, a Mumbai-based doctor said. “However, the revised gap is only applicable for Covishield, and not for Bharat Biotech Covaxin, for which the 4-6 week gap still applies,” another doctor said. Read more