India Coronavirus Dispatch: Highest daily cases since pandemic began

A PIL seeks door-to-door vaccination for seniors, some experts say recovery rate for second wave lower, and more-news relevant to India's fight against Covid-19

Highest daily cases since the pandemic began

India reported 1,03,558 fresh coronavirus infections on Monday, taking the cumulative caseload to 1,25,89,067, according to a report in the Scroll. The country saw 478 deaths due to the pandemic, taking the death toll to 1,65,101, according to central health ministry data. The active caseload is at 7,41,830, while the total recoveries have surged to 1,16,82,136. As many as 79.1 million shots have been administered since the nationwide inoculation programme kicked off on January 16. Of these, 16,38,464 were given on Sunday. Read more here

How can reinfection be determined?

Researchers depend on genome analysis of the virus sample for conclusive evidence of reinfection, an explainer in The Indian Express said. But, virus samples for all infected people are not being collected for genome analysis as that would require enormous resources; genome analysis is a complicated procedure that needs a significant amount of time and effort. Samples from only a few randomly selected patients are sent for genome analysis. Therefore, when a person tests positive for a second time and has to be checked for reinfection, there is usually no genome sequence from the previous infection for comparison. Read more here

PIL seeks door-to-door vaccination for senior citizens, physically challenged

A public interest litigation (PIL) has been filed in the Bombay High Court that seeks directions to the central government, Maharashtra government and Mumbai's civic body to provide door-to-door Covid-19 vaccine facility to the elderly and those who might find it hard to physically visit a vaccination centre, a report in The Indian Express said. The plea stated the facility needs to be provided for senior citizens aged over 75 years, and for those who are physically challenged, bed-ridden or specially-abled. Read more here

Covid vaccine causing deaths? Expert committee says there’s insufficient evidence

Eight recent deaths after Covid vaccination show causality in terms of time, but there isn’t sufficient evidence that the vaccine itself caused the death, a report in the Hindustan Times said citing information the newspaper has accessed. There were 79 fatalities till mid-March reported in individuals who took the vaccine. The committee looking at Adverse Events Following Immunisation (AEFI) against Covid-19 approved the causality assessment for eight of these. “Three of the eight causally assessed cases have been found to have consistent causal association to vaccination, four cases have been found to have inconsistent causal association to vaccination (coincidental) and one case was found unclassifiable. None have been found to be due to the COVID-19 vaccine,” the committee said. Read more here

Recovery rate for second wave lower: Experts

Some medical experts believe that the second wave of coronavirus is worrying as the new variants have been found to have a lower recovery rate, according to The Hindu. “The second wave of COVID-19 is spreading very quickly in India, and might have an impact on Andhra Pradesh. The new variants lead to thickening and clotting of blood in no time,” said Kutikuppala Surya Rao, a National Professor at Indian Medical Association College of General Practitioners-Chennai who was awarded the Padma Shri for his study of HIV-AIDS. Read more here