In an affidavit filed in the apex court in response to an application raising issue of relaxations granted by Kerala because of the Bakrid festival, the state said it has vaccinated 45 percent of its 18+ population with at least one dose and 18 percent have been vaccinated with two doses.

It said the state has taken a “scientific and pragmatic approach” for conceiving and implementing various measures for curbing the spread of pandemic and the strategy is based on a rational balance of life and livelihood.

India has officially reported more than 414,000 deaths due to COVID-19, the third highest tally in the world after the United States and Brazil, but the study adds to growing calls from experts for a rigorous nationwide fatality audit.
“What is tragically clear is that too many people, in the millions rather than hundreds of thousands, may have died,” the report said, estimating the excess death toll during the pandemic at between 3.4 million and 4.9 million.

The report did not ascribe all the excess deaths to the pandemic.

The survey showed 67.6% of adults were seropositive, while more than 62% of adults were unvaccinated. As of July, just over 8% of eligible adult Indians had received two vaccine doses.

About 400 million of India’s 1.4 billion people did not have antibodies, the survey showed.

“Hospitals have become a large industry now based on human distress. We cannot allow them to prosper at the cost of human lives. Let such hospitals be closed and allow the state to bolster health care facilities. Let not such hospitals operate in buildings with four rooms etc.,” said Justice Chandrachud while noting that a number of hospitals don’t adhere to fire safety norms.

The improvement of the travel advisories for India and Pakistan by the State Department on Monday comes in an acknowledgment of the improving COVID-19 pandemic situation in the region.

Currently, three vaccines — Serum Institute of India’s Covishield, Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin and Russian vaccine Sputnik V — are being administered in India.

Mucormycosis and other fungal infections are most commonly seen as an opportunistic infection. They are found in those with low underlying immunity either due to a diabetes, cancers particularly hematological malignancies, etc. or as a side effect of prolonged/irrational use of certain drugs like steroids, immunosuppressive drugs for management of other disorders including Covid-19, the minister explained.