R Sukumar

Covid-19: What you need to know today

The trajectory of Covid-19 in Delhi is different from that of any other Indian state or Union territory. No other Indian region has seen a clear second wave (many have just seen the end of the first).

Covid-19: What you need to know today

The results are near-identical to those of the third round, covering around 17,000 people, conducted in the first week of September, which showed that antibodies were present in 25.1% of the people surveyed.

Covid-19: What you need to know today

A long career in India’s sprawling and bureaucratic health system, or a medical degree of some vintage, don’t matter as much as an open mind, the ability to read and understand current literature on Covid, and then synthesise what that means in the Indian context.

Covid-19: What you need to know today

Pfizer’s CEO termed it a “great day for science and humanity,” and history may well prove him right, although there are still a few hurdles the vaccine has to clear. If it does that, it may well be available by the end of the year.

Covid-19: What you need to know today

As the number of Covid-19 cases rises in Delhi, and its satellites Gurugram, and Noida — from illness to pollution, these cities in the National Capital Region share pretty much everything, one reason why the area needs coordinated management, but that’s another story — there’s a sense that we’ve been here before.

Covid-19: What you need to know today

India is relatively better off; while cases have risen in some regions (including Delhi), at a national level, both daily case numbers and the seven-day average of cases are at levels last seen in early July. There will be a second wave, though, and the country would do well to prepare for it now.

Covid-19: What you need to know today

Wednesday evening, as the haze enveloped Delhi, it was clear that Thursday would be bad. Sure enough, the Capital woke up to proper smog on Thursday (the smog did make things warmer from the premature chill that’s settled in over the northern plains).

Covid-19: What you need to know today

Photographs of crowded election rallies in Bihar (the last stage of polling is on Saturday) have caused concern in some quarters about a spike in coronavirus disease cases in the state.

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Covid-19: What you need to know today

By the end of October, we were supposed to have at least some data from the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine’s Phase 3 trials.

Covid-19: What you need to know today

The US heads into elections on Tuesday having become the first country to cross 100,000 cases of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in a day just recently, and with the seven-day average of daily new cases at an all-time high of around 82,000.

Covid-19: What you need to know today

Robert Edgar Hope-Simpson is the author of a book called The Transmission of Epidemic Influenza, published in 1992 after nearly six decades spent studying the disease.

Covid-19: What you need to know today

Data from the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center shows that things are already getting worse (the seven-day average of infections is trending upward) in nine of the 10 most-affected countries.

Covid-19: What you need to know today

The second wave of Covid-19 infections in Europe has been gathering momentum for weeks now.

Covid-19: What you need to know today

India’s 79,141 per million number is built on the back of rapid antigen tests. UP and Bihar rely on them; even Delhi uses far more of them than it should be doing.

Covid-19: What you need to know today

It would be alright if Covid fatigue involved merely how people feel; unfortunately, this also extends to how people behave, and it is behaviour that puts them and others at risk.

Covid-19: What you need to know today

Uttarakhand, at least the part I went to, wasn’t crowded. The state insists that all inbound tourists register themselves, and there was a check at the point of entry to ensure this.

Covid-19: What you need to know today

The two papers are already beginning to make waves in epidemiological circles, and have also been reported by some specialised websites.

Covid-19: What you need to know today

In effect, the declaration , named after Great Barrington, Massachusetts, where it was drafted on October 4 at the American Institute of Economic Research — a libertarian think-tank that doesn’t really believe in the climate crisis — advocates herd immunity as the way out of the pandemic.

Covid-19: What you need to know today

The last time India had fewer than 40,000 infected cases was in the first fortnight of May, when it was seeing between 3,000 and 4,000 cases a day.

Covid-19: What you need to know today

India has just under 9% of active cases around the world. France has 8.1%, an indication of just how badly that country has been hit by the second wave.

Covid-19: What you need to know today

Only the US (around 122 million) and China (160 million) have done more tests than India. Even in terms of tests per million, at 100 million tests, India has conducted around 77,000 tests per million of the population.

Covid-19: What you need to know today

In Germany, Reuters reported on October 9 that testing laboratories in cities including Berlin were functioning close to capacity, and that hospital administrators feared significant staff shortages, something that could affect the response of a country which was relatively unscathed in the first wave of the pandemic partly because it had sufficient intensive care beds and ventilators.

Covid-19: What you need to know today

India’s positivity rate for the week ended October 13 was 6.2%, according to the health ministry. This is consistent with an infection rate of 12%.

Covid-19: What you need to know today

Pauses, and even holds, are common in the vaccine development process. But this isn’t just any ordinary vaccine. It is a vaccine for the coronavirus disease, which has infected 38 million and killed almost 1.1 million people

Covid-19: What you need to know today

Explained: India should carry out widespread antibody tests at regular intervals to assess the spread of the disease.

Covid-19: What you need to know today

Amid a lot of spin about what has worked for India and what hasn’t, and whether or not the government has done a good job in tackling the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), two things stand out.

Covid-19: What you need to know today

If there is a silver lining, it’s in RBI’s expectation that the fourth quarter of this financial year, January-March 2021, will see positive growth. Then, especially in these times, Q4 is a lifetime away.

Covid-19: What you need to know today

According to worldometers.info, the world saw 343,386 new cases on Wednesday; according to the New York Times database, the number was marginally higher, 351,107.

Covid-19: What you need to know today

Genome editing can prevent and treat many diseases — once we figure out how to use it safely in humans, and address the ethical concerns surrounding technologies such as CRISPR-Cas9. Last year, CRISPR moved out of the labs, and into human trials.