India should adopt risk-based approach not blanket bans to contain Covid: WHO India head

WHO 1

Stressing on the need to protect both lives and livelihoods, he said public health action in India and across the world must be continually guided by evidence from four key questions — how transmissible is the variant, severity of the disease it causes, how well vaccines and prior SARS-CoV-2 infection protect and how common people … Read more

Mizoram Covid-19 cases: Aggressive contact tracing behind surge; state govt issues new guidelines; check details

Mizoram Covid 19 cases PTI

Mizoram government has imposed new Covid-19 guidelines on Friday. (PTI Image) Even with national Covid-19 average under control, a small village in Mizoram is facing a disproportionately large number of cases out of which 16 per cent belong to people of the age group between 1-10 years. Prevalence of Covid among children in this town … Read more

Do vaccines work against Covid’s Delta variant? Know all about immunity evasion & war against newer mutations

covid 19 varaint

Delta variants are eight times less unresponsive to vaccine-induced antibodies The Covid-19 Delta variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus with a much higher ability to infect and transmit between individuals is now found in 170 countries, says the World Health Organisation. The Delta variant, or the B.1.617.2 lineage, was first discovered in Maharashtra and was mostly … Read more

Should Covid positive mothers stay away from newborns? Here’s what experts say

breastfeeding Getty

Covid positive mothers can breastfeed newborns . (Getty Image) Often Covid positive mothers flinch from taking care of their kids or breastfeed them, but neonatal experts opine that breastfeeding infants can only give them the required immunity to fight against infection, Covid-19 being one of them. Here’s what is kangaroo mother’s care and why newborns … Read more

Covid-19: Basic difference between oxygen concentrator and oxygen cylinder, their usage — Explained

The basic difference between a concentrator and a cylinder is the way they provide oxygen. India is currently facing the second wave of Covid-19 and experts believe that the country is in the middle of the worst phase. With around four lakh new cases of coronavirus infections being reported daily over the past few days, … Read more

Industry in recovery mode, Budget proposals on course: Nirmala Sitharaman

photo

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said the industry is in recovery mode and several Budget proposals are on course, including disinvestment, despite a fresh wave of coronavirus infections and local lockdowns. The government, the minister said, has been taking steps to deal with the second wave of COVID-19 with regard to supply of medicines … Read more

Malaysia’s economy posts biggest annual decline since 1998 crisis

photo

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia‘s economy fell at a faster than expected clip in the fourth quarter, as stricter coronavirus curbs crimped domestic consumption and slowed the pace of recovery, the central bank said on Thursday. The economy contracted 3.4% year-on-year in the October-December period, falling for a third straight quarter and faster than the 3.1% decline … Read more

India’s services sector loses more steam in Dec, job cuts resume

photo

Growth in India’s dominant services industry continued to lose momentum in December as a resurgence in coronavirus infections weighed on new business and employment, a private survey showed on Wednesday. Asia’s third-largest economy has been gradually recovering from a coronavirus-induced recession but is not expected to return to pre-pandemic levels soon, especially within the service … Read more

Coronavirus: Mumbai sees rising share of critical cases

covid 19 cases in mumbai

Nearly half the tests conducted in the city are using the RAT technique. Besides, there has been no increase in testing capacity. (Representational image: IE) Mumbai will soon hit the 3-lakh mark for coronavirus infections, becoming the third Indian city to do so. More worryingly, critical cases as a proportion of active cases have been … Read more

Coronavirus in India: Contact tracing study shows ‘superspreaders’ behind spike in new Covid-19 cases

Maharashtra coronavirus reuters

The study also found that most cases of Coronavirus infections and resultant deaths were found in the 40-69 year age group. A small percentage of Covid-19 infected people have been responsible for large scale spread of the disease in the country, according to the findings of a recently conducted contact tracing study in Andhra Pradesh … Read more