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Covid-19:No fans at Olympics, making Games a TV event
“The infections are in their expansion phase and everyone in this country must firmly understand the seriousness of it,” Dr Shigeru Omi, a top government medical adviser, said.
The Olympics are pushing ahead against most medical advice, partially because the postponement stalled the IOC’s income flow. It gets almost 75 per cent of its income from selling broadcast rights, and estimates suggest it would lose USD 3 billion to USD 4 billion if the Olympics were cancelled.
Global Covid-19 caseload tops 184.5 mn; deaths surge to more than 3.99 mn
The US continues to be the worst-hit country with the world’s highest number of cases and deaths at 33,746,275 and 605,903, respectively, according to the CSSE.
In terms of infections, India follows in the second place with 30,619,932 cases.
COVID-19: India logs 43,733 new cases
The ministry also said that cumulative vaccine doses administered so far has reached 36.13 crore under the Nationwide Vaccination Drive.
A total of 4,04,211 deaths have been reported so far in the country including 1,23,531 from Maharashtra, 35,526 from Karnataka, 33,132 from Tamil Nadu, 25,001 from Delhi, 22,656 from Uttar Pradesh, 17,834 from West Bengal and 16,131 from Punjab.
Olympics-Japan considers ban on all Olympic spectators, weighs extending curbs
Medical experts have said for weeks that having no spectators at the Olympics would be the least risky option amid widespread public concern about the risk the Games will fuel new surges of infections.
WHO adds interleukin-6 receptor blockers on COVID patient care guidelines
Patients severely or critically ill with COVID-19 often suffer from an overreaction of the immune system, which can be very harmful to the patient’s health. Interleukin-6 blocking drugs – tocilizumab and sarilumab – act to suppress this overreaction.
India expects 3-4 mln Pfizer, Moderna vaccine doses through COVAX by August- sources
Experts have said India needs to administer 10 million doses a day to achieve its aim of immunising all adults by December. It administered about 4 million doses a day in the week to July 2. Apart from Moderna and Pfizer, India has also been courting Johnson & Johnson for vaccine supplies. J&J has already signed a manufacturing agreement with India’s Biological E. Ltd though production has yet to start.
Covid: Variants of concern found in 174 districts, says health ministr
The B.1.617 lineage, first observed in Maharashtra, was associated with the unusual rise observed in several districts of the state. It is now found in many states in India, the health ministry said.
COVID infections imperil Indonesia’s vaccinated health workers, and hospitals
Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin has defended the Sinovac vaccine. “The issue that we are facing is not about the different efficacy between vaccines, it is primarily because of the Delta variant.”
The Medical Association has urged the government to give health workers a third dose of the vaccine, and quickly.
Rural India sinks deeper into debt as Covid-19 pandemic wipes out work
The coronavirus and a lockdown aimed at stopping it last year saw millions of people thrown out of jobs in cities and towns and forced back to their villages, and ever higher levels of debt.
Interviews with 75 households in a cluster of eight villages in India’s most populous state showed household incomes have slumped nearly 75% on average. Almost two thirds of the households have taken on debt.
Rural unemployment rate, which used to hover around 6% before the pandemic, rose to 8.75% in June, according to the Mumbai-based Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE).
India’s COVID death rate hit record in June after calls for better data
“The Delta variant is both the most contagious variant and among the most dangerous variants in terms of infection fatality rates,” said Christophe Z Guilmoto, a demographer at the French Institute of Research for Development in New Delhi, who has studied COVID-19 mortality in India. “It did play an increasing role at the end of India’s second wave, and this may explain why the daily count of deaths in India isn’t coming down as fast as we expected/hoped.”