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Coronavirus Facts and Information thread:

Stevicus

Stevicus

Veteran Member
Staff member
Premium Member
India continues to get hit hard by the virus: India hits another grim virus record as oxygen demand jumps (apnews.com)

NEW DELHI (AP) — Infections in India hit another grim daily record on Thursday as demand for medical oxygen jumped sevenfold and the government denied reports that it was slow in distributing life-saving supplies from abroad.

The number of new confirmed cases breached 400,000 for the second time since the devastating surge began last month. The 412,262 new cases pushed India’s official tally to more than 21 million. The Health Ministry also reported 3,980 deaths in the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 230,168. Experts believe both figures are an undercount.

Eleven COVID-19 patients died when pressure in an oxygen line dropped suddenly in a government medical college hospital in Chengalpet in southern India on Wednesday night, possibly because of a faulty valve, The Times of India newspaper reported.

Hospital authorities said they repaired the pipeline last week, but the consumption of oxygen had doubled since then, the newspaper said.
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Demand for hospital oxygen has increased sevenfold since last month, a government official said, as India scrambles to set up large oxygen plants and transport oxygen. India created a sea bridge on Tuesday to ferry oxygen tankers from Bahrain and Kuwait in the Persian Gulf, officials said.

Most hospitals in India aren’t equipped with independent plants that generate oxygen directly for patients, As a result, hospitals typically rely on liquid oxygen, which can be stored in cylinders and transported in tankers. But amid the surge, supplies in hard-hit places such as New Delhi are running critically short.

Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said India has enough liquid oxygen but it’s facing capacity constraints in moving it. Most oxygen is produced in the eastern parts of India while the demand has risen in northern and western parts.

K. Vijay Raghvan, a principal scientific adviser to the government, said this phase of the pandemic was “a very critical time for the country.”

The United States, Britain, Germany and several other nations are rushing therapeutics, rapid virus tests and oxygen, along with materials needed to boost domestic production of COVID-19 vaccines to ease pressure on the fragile health infrastructure.
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India’s vaccine production is expected to get a boost with the United States supporting a waiver of intellectual property protections for COVID-19 vaccines.
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They're sending oxygen tankers from Bahrain and Kuwait to India, and the U.S., Britain, and Germany, along with several other nations, are rushing therapeutics, rapid virus tests, and oxygen. They're also sending materials needed to boost domestic production of vaccines. The U.S. is supporting a waiver of intellectual property protections for COVID-19 vaccines.
 
Stevicus

Stevicus

Veteran Member
Staff member
Premium Member
Vaccine deserts: Some countries have no COVID-19 jabs at all (apnews.com)

N’DJAMENA, Chad (AP) — At the small hospital where Dr. Oumaima Djarma works in Chad’s capital, there are no debates over which coronavirus vaccine is the best.

There are simply no vaccines at all.

Not even for the doctors and nurses like her, who care for COVID-19 patients in Chad, one of the least-developed nations in the world where about one third of the country is engulfed by the Sahara desert.

“I find it unfair and unjust, and it is something that saddens me,” the 33-year-old infectious diseases doctor says. “I don’t even have that choice. The first vaccine that comes along that has authorization, I will take it.”

While wealthier nations have stockpiled vaccines for their citizens, many poorer countries are still scrambling to secure doses. A few, like Chad, have yet to receive any.
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The World Health Organization says nearly a dozen countries — many of them in Africa — are still waiting to get vaccines. Those last in line on the continent along with Chad are Burkina Faso, Burundi, Eritrea and Tanzania.

“Delays and shortages of vaccine supplies are driving African countries to slip further behind the rest of the world in the COVID-19 vaccine rollout and the continent now accounts for only 1% of the vaccines administered worldwide,” WHO warned Thursday.

And in places where there are no vaccines, there’s also the chance that new and concerning variants could emerge, said Gian Gandhi, UNICEF’s COVAX coordinator for Supply Division.

“So we should all be concerned about any lack of coverage anywhere in the world,” Gandhi said, urging higher-income countries to donate doses to the nations that are still waiting.

While the total of confirmed COVID-19 cases among them is relatively low compared with the world’s hot spots, health officials say that figure is likely a vast undercount: The countries in Africa still waiting for vaccines are among those least equipped to track infections because of their fragile health care systems.
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Subduction Zone

Subduction Zone

Veteran Member
A note of progress. If you are fully vaccinated you need not wear a mask:

COVID-19 Vaccination

I just got a shipment of masks yesterday. But I am just a few days out of a month away from my second shot.

Businesses may still require them so do not toss your masks yet.
 
Stevicus

Stevicus

Veteran Member
Staff member
Premium Member
Russia's Sputnik V vaccine rollout begins in India - RTHK

India on Friday started deploying Russia's Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, the first foreign-made shot to be used in the country as it reels from an explosion in cases and deaths.

Sputnik in mid-April became the third vaccine to be approved by New Delhi along with the AstraZeneca shot - made in India - and the homegrown Covaxin of Bharat Biotech.

The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), which helped finance the jab, said vaccination started in the southern city of Hyderabad on Friday, making Sputnik V the "first foreign-made vaccine that is used in India".

"RDIF stands ready to support our partners in India to launch a full-scale vaccination with Sputnik V as soon as possible," the fund's CEO Kirill Dmitriev said in a statement.

The first token batch of Sputnik vaccines - reportedly 150,000 of them - arrived on May 1 and a second delivery is expected in the next few days.

But a number of leading India-based drugmakers, including Virchow Biotech and Hetero Biopharma, have agreements for local production of Sputnik V with the aim to produce over 850 million doses of the jab a year.

In recent days India has been adding roughly as many new Covid cases as the rest of the world put together.

More than 260,000 Indians have died, according to official figures. Experts believe the true death toll could be over a million.

The pandemic has eased slightly in recent days in major cities in New Delhi but appears now to be raging in India's vast rural hinterland where two-thirds of people live.

Health care facilities are poor in rural areas and many locals rely on unqualified amateur doctors who are misdiagnosing Covid patients.

More than 100 bodies have washed up on the banks of the Ganges in northern India in recent days while dozens of shallow graves have been found by the river.

India began vaccinating its huge population of 1.3 billion people in early 2021 but it has faltered.

So far it has administered around 180 million jabs but only around 40 million people are fully vaccinated - around three percent of the population.

On May 1 it expanded the programme to cover all adults. Previously only those over 45 or certain groups like health care workers could get a jab.

But because of dire shortages and confusion over prices, many Indian states have been unable to meet demand.

Technical problems have meant that those under 44 have struggled to make appointments on government apps.

Those without smart phones - who make up a large chunk of the population - have largely been excluded altogether.

India is known as the "pharmacy of the world" and is home to the Serum Institute, the largest vaccine maker in the world by volume.

Until cases exploded, India was exporting millions of doses of the AstraZeneca jab to dozens of countries, including under the Covax initiative for poorer countries.

But Serum as well as Bharat Biotech have struggled to meet demand and they and the government are scrambling to hike production.
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