India Coronavirus Dispatch: Cases retreat to lowest in 44 days

Spread of variant first detected in India stokes racism fears, financial aid for 67 families of scribes who died of Covid, and more-news relevant to the fight against the pandemic

Over 186,000 fresh cases reported

India reported 186,364 fresh coronavirus infections on Friday, taking the cumulative caseload to 27.5 million, according to central health ministry data. This is the lowest daily rise in cases in 44 days. The country saw 3,660 deaths due to the pandemic, taking the death toll to 318,895. The active caseload is at 2.3 million, while the total recoveries have surged to 24.9 million. As many as 205 million shots have been administered since the nationwide inoculation programme kicked off on January 16. Of these, 2.9 million were given on Thursday. Read more

Lung damage found in recovered Covid patients though CT scans didn’t show: Study

New research showed persistent lung damage among individuals who recovered from Covid-19, even though their CT scans appeared normal, a report in ThePrint said. The researchers were able to establish this using a different technology, called a Xenon MRI (Xe MRI) scan. The study, carried out by researchers at Oxford and Sheffield, compared the Xe MRI scans of healthy volunteers with the recovered Covid patients, and found that in the latter, there was an “impairment in the transport of gas from the tissue/parenchyma to the red blood cells”. The findings were published in the journal Radiology, the report said. Read here

Govt okays financial assistance to 67 families of journalists who died of Covid

The central government has given the green light to provide monetary assistance to families of 26 more journalists who lost their lives to Covid in the ongoing financial year, a report in The Indian Express said. The dependents of each of these journalists will get financial relief of Rs 5 lakh under the Journalist Welfare Scheme (JWS) of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry. In the last financial year, assistance was given to families of 41 journalists—bringing the total to 67 journalists. Read here

Spread of variant first detected in India brings with it fears of anti-Indian racism

The B.1.617 variant of Covid-19, first detected in India, has now been detected in 53 countries around the world. Given how devastating the variant has been in India, there are fears of a similar story playing out in other countries. But, the fears are also leading to concerns around anti-Indian racism, a report in the Scroll said. The association of the variant with Indians has led to a number of worrisome incidents in different parts of the world. This comes despite clear guidelines from the World Health Organization that mutating variants should not be identified by their countries of origin, the report said. Read more

Immunity lasts at least about 1 year: Study on bone marrow

A study that examined bone marrow from individuals who recovered from Covid has revealed that the immune system’s ability to recognise and fend off the novel coronavirus lasts at least about a year, a report in ThePrint said. The findings, published in the journal Nature, show how bone marrow plasma cells — an essential source of protective antibodies that bind to the spike protein of the virus — persist up to 11 months after infection, the report said. Read here