India Coronavirus Dispatch: Centre says Maha in the beginning of 2nd wave

Health insurance coverage jumped in months after pandemic hit, why increased use of hand sanitisers may be bad news in the long term, and more-news relevant to India's fight against Covid-19

A look at the J&J vaccine to be produced by Hyderabad's Biological E

Hyderabad-based drugmaker Biological is set to produce Covid-19 vaccines developed in the US including the Johnson & Johnson candidate. A report in ThePrint provides a closer look at the vaccine. The inoculant is a single-dose vaccine, unlike most others such as the Pfizer and Moderna shots that need two doses. While the Pfizer and Moderna products are mRNA vaccines, the J&J shot is an adenovirus vector vaccine that works on a principle similar to mRNA but uses a different virus. A big advantage for the J&J shot is that it does not need ultracold temperatures, unlike the mRNA vaccines, the report said. Read more here 

Maharashtra is in the beginning of second wave of Covid-19: Centre

The Centre has pulled up the Uddhav Thackeray-led government in Maharashtra for not adequately enforcing norms to curb the spread of the virus, a report in the Scroll said. Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan has written to the Maharashtra Chief Secretary Sitaram Kunte urging the state to focus on containment strategies. The letters are based on the assessment of a central team that visited the state between March 7 and 11. Bhushan said “Maharashtra is in the beginning of a second wave of Covid-19 pandemic" and asked the authorities to step up contact tracing and vaccination. Read more here

Health insurance coverage jumped in months after pandemic hit

Health insurance coverage surged by69.8 per cent in the months after the Covid-19 pandemic hit, the finance ministry informed the Lok Sabha earlier in the week, a report in ThePrint said. In his written reply to a question, Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur said insurance regulator IRDAI has “informed that the total number of lives covered under health insurance business (excluding Personal Accident & Travel Business) from 1.4.2020 to 30.9.2020 has been 30.22 Crore (provisional data) as compared to 17.83 Crore for the period from 1.4.2019 to 30.9.2019 showing a growth of 69.8%”. Read more here 

Why increased use of hand sanitisers may be bad news in the long term

While the increased use of hand sanitisers since the pandemic hit has helped in containing the transmission of the coronavirus, it could also present problems for human health and the environment in the long term, a report in The Wire said. Hand sanitisers are mainly made of alcohol and and may be toxic when misused. One study noted that regular use of ethanol-based hand sanitisers resulted in low but measurable blood concentrations of ethanol. While the levels were not toxic, the continuous application can result in “chronic toxicity”, increasing the risk of health problems such as eczema or skin cancer, the report said. Read more here 

Mosquito protein inhibits viruses, raises hope against Covid: Research

According to a new study carried out by scientists at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), a mosquito protein called AEG12 inhibits the family of viruses that cause yellow fever, dengue, Zika, and also weakly inhibits coronaviruses, a report in The Indian Express said. The protein works by destabilising the viral envelope and it does not affect viruses that do not have an envelope. The findings, published in the peer-reviewed journal PNAS, could lead to therapeutics against viruses that affect millions of people worldwide, the report said. Read more here