India Coronavirus Dispatch: Survey puts TN govt on top in pandemic handling

US NIH finds Covaxin neutralises both Delta and Alpha variants, study finds three-fold rise in mortality among younger patients, and more-news relevant to India's fight against the pandemic

Nearly 46,000 fresh cases reported

India reported 45,951 fresh coronavirus infections on Wednesday, taking the cumulative caseload to nearly 30.4 million, according to central health ministry data. The country saw 817 deaths due to the pandemic, taking the death toll to 398,454. The active caseload is at 537,064, while the total recoveries have surged to 29.4 million. As many as 332.8 million vaccine shots have been administered since the nationwide inoculation programme kicked off on January 16. Of these, 3.6 million were given on Tuesday. Read more

How well did states handle the second wave? Survey puts Tamil Nadu on top

A new survey has revealed 59 per cent of Tamil Nadu's residents and 54 per cent of residents from Andhra Pradesh believe their state administrations have effectively handled the second wave of Covid, a report in ThePrint said. While Tamil Nadu and Andhra were at the top of the findings, West Bengal was the worst performer with only 17 per cent of its people believing that the government effectively handled the second wave. The survey, by community social media platform LocalCircles, received a total of 38,991 responses from 383 districts in total, across 17 of the biggest states. Of these, 67 per cent of respondents were men while the rest were women. Read more

Covaxin neutralises both Delta, Alpha variants of Covid: US NIH

The US National Institute of Health has said that Bharat Biotech's Covaxin effectively neutralises both the Alpha and Delta variants of coronavirus, according to a media report. The findings come from two studies of blood serum from people who had received the vaccine. The Alpha variant was first identified in the UK and the Delta variant in India. Read more

Alternating shots of Covid vaccines generate robust immune response: study

Alternating shots of the AstraZeneca vaccine—known as Covishield in India—and the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine generate a robust immune response against Covid, a report in the Hindustan Times said that cited a study led by Oxford University. The researchers are looking into the feasibility of using a different vaccine for the initial “prime” dose to the follow-up “booster” shot. The study says "mixed" doses of these vaccines induced high concentrations of antibodies against the spike IgG protein when they were given four weeks apart, according to the report. Read more

Three-fold rise in mortality among younger patients: Max study

A pre-print study of hospitalisations due to Covid across Max Healthcare hospitals has found a 40% spike in mortality during the second wave, a report in Hindustan Times said. The sharpest rise was seen among those below the age of 45. The mortality–proportion of admitted patients increased from 1.3% last year to 4.1% this year. "The higher mortality could be because people were reaching hospitals late – most hospitals were running full at the peak, more secondary infections, or higher mortality due to delta variant that led to the second wave,” said Dr Sandeep Budhiraja, group medical director, Max Healthcare. Read more