India Coronavirus Dispatch: Daily fatalities mount to a record 3,780

Delhi hospital study finds just 16% vaccinated individuals got Covid, how proning helps those with low oxygen levels, and more-news relevant to India's fight against Covid-19

A record 3,780 fatalities reported

India reported 382,315 fresh coronavirus infections on Wednesday, taking the cumulative caseload to 20.6 million, according to central health ministry data. The country saw a record 3,780 deaths due to the pandemic, taking the death toll to 226,188. The active caseload is at 3.4 million, while the total recoveries have surged to 16.9 million. As many as 160 million shots have been administered since the nationwide inoculation programme kicked off on January 16. Of these, 1.4 million were given on Tuesday. Read more here


Delhi hospital study finds just 16% vaccinated individuals got Covid

A small-scale study carried out on healthcare workers in a Delhi hospital has found that about 16 per cent tested positive for Covid after being vaccinated, a report in ThePrint said. This is within the promised efficacy of Covaxin and Covishield which claim to offer protection of 78 per cent and 79 per cent, respectively. The study, published in the peer-reviewed journal Diabetes and Metabolic Syndrome, involved 110 employees of the Fortis Centre of Excellence for Diabetes, Metabolic Diseases and Endocrinology, of whom 107 had received the second dose. Read more here


Explained: How does proning help?

If Oxygen saturation in a Covid patient drops below 94, proning and maintaining good ventilation can save their life, an explainer in The Indian Express said citing a medical expert. In proning, the patient is typically made to lie on their belly using pillows. Doctors suggest that a patient remains in this position for at least 30 minutes to a maximum of 2 hours. Proning improves ventilation to the lungs, and keeps the alveoli units—tiny structures that are the smallest passageway in the respiratory system—open, thereby easing breathing, the report said. Read more here


Covid deaths could double in coming weeks: forecasters

India's Covid crisis could worsen in the coming weeks, with some research models projecting that the death toll could more than double from current levels, a report in Bloomberg said. A team of researchers at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore used a mathematical model to predict about 404,000 fatalities will occur by June 11 if prevailing trends continue. A model from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington forecast 1,018,879 fatalities by the end of July. Read more here


In older adults, use oximeter rather than temperature to screen for Covid: researchers

Checking a person's temperature has become a common way to screen for Covid. However, new commentary by medical scholars proposes that using a pulse oximeter is a better approach in older adults, a report in The Indian Express said. The reliability of a pulse oximeter as an indicator of Covid has been debated in recent months. In January, the WHO listed the use of the pulse oximeter to identify Covid patients who may need to be hospitalized due to low oxygen levels. But in February, the US FDA warned that pulse oximeters could yield inaccurate results under some circumstances. Read more here