India coronavirus dispatch: Kerala's triple-lock strategy receives acclaim

India's shifting standards slowed work on low-cost ventilators, list of vaccines under clinical trial, building an inclusive post-Covid society-roundup of news on how India is dealing with pandemic

Interview 

How Kerala contained its coronavirus epidemic: Kerala has received national and international recognition for its efforts to contain the coronavirus, in which the police matched a strictly enforced lockdown with extensive community support. Read this interview with Vijay Sakhare – inspector general of police and the commissioner of police in Kochi, Kerala who was designated as a special officer for Covid-19 to the Kasaragod district, and was the chief architect of Kerala’s triple lock strategy. He has served as an Indian Police Service officer since 1996. 

Opinion 

Hit by coronavirus and economic slump, India must build a society that is empathetic and inclusive: After the lockdown, India’s unemployment rate shot up to a record high of 23.8 per cent in April. In the same month, Indian exports dropped by 60 per cent, one of the biggest drops seen in any emerging market economy in the world. There is a genuine risk that this year our growth will plummet to an all-time low since India’s Independence, beating the record plunge of 1979-80. Read more here.

Longread

A Novel Virus, A New Racial Slur: In the wake of Covid-19, racial discrimination towards people from the North East has acquired a new edge. The lack of cultural understanding in mainland Indian communities has always manifested itself in slurs and attacks that have increased and not reduced. Read more here.

Managing Covid-19 

Online survey shows not all is well on PPE availability front: An online survey conducted by a team of independent public health researchers revealed an inadequate supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) for healthcare workers in India. The researchers, conducted the survey between May 6 and 18, 2020. The respondents, 392 in all, included workers at various levels of healthcare: doctors, residents and interns, nurses, community health workers and ancillary staff.

The report made recommendations to further investigate the availability of PPE, ensure its availability, and train healthcare workers in the use, reuse and disposal of PPE. Read more here.

Families of Covid patients, doctors hope Delhi plasma bank will end frantic donor search: Plasma therapy, has shown some promise in treating critical patients. The treatment requires patients to be transfused with plasma from a recovered Covid-19 patient — rich in antibodies, the plasma is believed to help boost recipients’ immune response to the coronavirus infection. The plasma bank inaugurated at the state-owned Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences (ILBS) in Delhi hopes to bridge the gap between donors and recipients. Doctors as well as patients say they are hopeful the plasma bank will help address the shortage. Read more here.

Covid testing numbers on rise, but states are feeling the pinch of high RT-PCR costs: From the very beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in the country, the lack of testing has been a persistent theme and the predominant concern has been on whether India has enough capacity to test the “millions” of cases that are inevitable. Five months on, with cases inching towards 650,000, and the daily testing nearing 250,000, the sheer cost of conducting the real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test is unsettling a number of states. Read more here.

Convalescent plasma therapy successful in 18 Covid patients in TN: Tamil Nadu’s Health and Family Welfare Minister C Vijayabaskar on Saturday said that the clinical trials using convalescent plasma therapy, which was done on 18 patients in the state, have returned successful. Eighteen of the 20 patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 have been able to recover when administered the plasma therapy, the Minister stated. Read more here.

India’s shifting standards slowed work on low-cost ventilators: The scientists and engineers building ventilators have different levels of clarity among themselves about which conditions their devices have to meet and what have to do to get their devices to the market. As a result, while some groups have entered the manufacturing phase, others are stuck with testing and paperwork. And even among devices ready to be marketed, specifications and capabilities vary. Read more here.

Understanding Covid-19

A list of Covid vaccines under clinical trials across the world: With the coronavirus pandemic continuing to claim thousands of lives across the globe every day, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has decided to fast-track clinical trials of the indigenous Covid-19 vaccine, which it is producing with the Bharat Biotech International Limited (BBIL). Not only ICMR, but the scientific community and medical researchers across the world are working on war-footing to come up with a vaccine for the deadly virus as early as possible. Read more here.

All you wanted to know about this treatment for Covid-19: A plasma bank functions like a blood bank, and has been created specifically for those who are suffering from Covid-19, and have been advised the therapy by doctors. A facility has been set up at the ILBS, which will be the nodal centre for collection of plasma. In Delhi, seven hospitals have permission to conduct these trials on Covid-19 patients. Read more here.