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India’s brutal COVID wave brings tragic scenes to small town hospital

Medical oxygen has become a major concern with top hospitals in Delhi and other major cities issuing SOS calls that they were running out of supplies of the life saving gas because of the crush of patients.

The government is now trying to arrange supplies from abroad and from local industry. While the situation in Delhi has improved, smaller towns like Bijnor are struggling.

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India might see ‘serious livelihood crisis’, says economist Jean Dreze

“The economic consequences of local lockdowns may not be as destructive as those of a national lockdown. But in some respects, things are worse this time for the working class,” he opined.

“Compared with last year, many people have depleted savings and larger debts. Those who borrowed their way through last year’s crisis may not be able to do it again this time,” he observed.

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Maharashtra: 2 die of mucormycosis in Thane, 6 hospitalised

According to health experts, the symptoms of mucormycosis include headache, fever, pain under the eyes, nasal or sinus congestion and partial loss of vision.

On Tuesday, Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope said there could be over 2,000 mucormycosis patients in the state as of now and with more and more COVID-19 cases coming up, ”their number would increase for sure”.

The state government has decided to use hospitals attached to medical colleges as treatment centres for mucormycosis, he had said.

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EU regulator to test insurers for prolonged COVID economic hit

The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) said it will test 44 insurers and reinsurers for their resilience to the economic consequences of the pandemic and a “lower for longer” interest rate landscape.

Insurers are exposed to the economic environment through the returns they can earn from investing insurance premiums, as well as from the level of demand for their products.

“We are still in the middle of the crisis,” EIOPA Executive Director Fausto Parente told a media conference.

“The insurance sector is for sure not immune.”

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Medi Assist Healthcare Services files IPO papers with Sebi

Those selling shares in the offer for sale include Dr Vikram Jit Singh Chhatwal, Medimatter Health Management, Bessemer India Capital Holdings II Ltd, Bessemer Health Capital LLC and Investcorp Private Equity Fund I.

As per the draft papers, the company managed Rs 7,829.5 crore of health insurance premiums for the financial year 2020.

For the nine month ended December 2020, the company reported a total income of Rs 257.44 crore against Rs 245.16 crore a year ago. Its profit after tax was at Rs 33.09 crore for the nine months ended December 2020 as compared to Rs 31.04 crore in the same period last year.

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Alarmed by deaths of teachers, AMU VC writes to ICMR for study of COVID variant

In a letter to the director general of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the VC said 16 serving and 18 retired teachers besides other employees of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) have succumbed to the infection in the past 18 days. There is a possibility that ”a particular variant may be circulating in areas around the AMU campus and surrounding localities, which has led to these deaths”, he said, stressing the need for the study to control the spread of the virus.

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Eli Lilly signs deals to boost supply of COVID-19 treatment in India

The three Indian drugmakers – Cipla Ltd , Lupin Ltd and Sun Pharma – will collaborate with U.S.-based Lilly to help make and sell baricitinib in India.The agreements will bolster India’s arsenal of drugs to battle its catastrophic second wave of the pandemic, which has led to an acute shortage of coronavirus medicines including remdesivir and tocilizumab.

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