Can you get Covid-19 again? Very unlikely, experts say

Bihar's health system is collapsing, why PDS shops should provide rations to all, and a study links long-time cancer with risk of severe Covid-19-a roundup of news on how India is dealing with the pan

Managing Covid-19

As Covid-19 cases surge, Bihar’s health system collapses – and VIP culture makes things worse: As the pandemic strikes Bihar, the state’s beleaguered health infrastructure is not being able to keep pace. If many are struggling to get tested, others who have tested positive are finding it tough to find a bed for treatment and isolation. In what many say is telling of the state of affairs, a senior state government had to allegedly spend a night on the footpath inside the premises of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Patna. The official died days later of Covid-19. Read more here. 

Gujarat, once a model healthcare system, is struggling with India’s worst Covid death rate:

In the Covid-19 pandemic, the state has registered the highest mortality rate in India — 4.38 per cent — which is considerably higher than the national average of 2.49 per cent. The total number of infections in the state now stands at 51,399, and on 20 July, it registered its highest single-day spike of 1,026 cases. Read more here. 

Bengaluru Covid bed shortage isn’t about availability but hospitals flouting rules, says govt: Seven special teams set up by the Karnataka government to streamline Covid bed allocation in Bengaluru have found several discrepancies by private hospitals, including non-compliance in allocating 50 per cent of their beds to the government and allegedly falsifying data. These hospitals have been warned that if they do not fall in line, they could face legal action or lose their licenses. Read more here. 

Pandemic crisis: migrant home-based women workers work 8 hours/day for Rs 10-15: Migrant home-based women workers, who form the lowest rungs of India’s labour chain, are working for as little as Rs 10-15 for over eight hours a day during the pandemic, in the face of employers’ apathy and the lack of access to urban welfare schemes, a study by labour rights organisation Aajeevika Bureau has found. Read more here. 

Do India’s Covid-19 patients have a right to privacy? As India progresses through its ‘unlock’ phases, we can expect to see a proliferation of digital technologies to contain the novel coronavirus’s spread. In these efforts, conserving patient privacy would be critical. However, government bodies in India have deprioritised this issue; some state governments even mandate selfies and facial recognition. Other countries have performed these same functions in a way that preserves the users’ privacy, using de-identified, aggregated data and without exporting data from the users’ phones. This begs the question: does patient privacy have to be compromised for public health? Read more here. 

Opinion

In times of pandemic, PDS shops should provide rations to all: The Central government has extended the provision of extra rations of five kg of wheat/rice and one kg of pulses through November, making good use of its abundant grain stocks. Many state governments have stepped in to fill gaps — Bihar’s recent expansion of rations and transfers to school children is one such example. And, a good monsoon points to the potential for bumper crops. Yet, our analysis of data from several surveys and previous research suggests the persistence of food insecurity, especially among economically and socially disadvantaged groups. Read more here. 

Modi’s extension of food grain scheme was welcome but Centre must expand it to cover the neediest: The return of lockdowns across the country – and the holes in relief packages – means that the extended scheme does not cover millions of India’s neediest. The government recognised this mid-way through the national lockdown. As a result, it announced that under the Atmanirbhar Bharat scheme, rations would also be provided to the millions of people who are not included in the Public Distribution System, whether because of errors or because their ration cards were issued by a different state from the one in which they are living. Read more here. 

Understanding Covid-19

Can you get Covid-19 again? It’s very unlikely, experts say: It may be possible for the coronavirus to strike the same person twice, but it’s highly unlikely that it would do so in such a short window or make people sicker the second time. What’s more likely is that some people will have a drawn-out course of infection, with the virus taking a slow toll, weeks to months after their initial exposure. Read more here. 

Study links long-time cancer with risk of severe Covid-19: New research has examined the relationship between cancer and Covid-19. It has found that cancer patients diagnosed more than 24 months ago are more likely to have a severe Covid-19 infection. So are cancer patients of Asian ethnicity or who were receiving palliative treatment for cancer. Read more here. 

Who dies of Covid-19? Explaining the US’s and India’s divergent estimates: Two studies on deaths among patients Covid-19 and comorbidities in the US and India indicate contrasting trends. The US’s CDC released its findings based on the data of 1.7 million-plus coronavirus cases and 100,000-plus deaths. It concluded that Covid-19 patients with underlying conditions were 12 times more likely than healthy patients to die of the virus. Conversely, an analysis of the data reported in India until July 2 by the IDSP revealed no known comorbidities in 43 per cent of deaths due to Covid-19. The 43 percent of deaths also occurred in the age group of 30-60 years. Read more here.