India Coronavirus Dispatch: Little evidence to show UK strain is deadlier

India's nagging vaccine challenges, state of the tattoo industry, and tips to nurture a newborn amid the virus-news relevant to the country's fight against Covid-19

Is the new Covid-19 strain in the UK more dangerous? Are vaccines effective?

Many countries, including India, have halted flights to the UK, after its Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that a new strain of the coronavirus that is spreading through the country is 70 per cent more infectious than the original. 

How concerned should one be? There is no evidence to support if this variant is more dangerous. Nevertheless, a faster rate of transmission means more people could get infected than before. This in turn could lead to an added burden on an already strained healthcare system, the writer of the article says. 

And, vaccines work against this variant, at least as of now. The new variant has mutations to the spike protein that the three leading vaccines are targeting. But, vaccines produce antibodies against many regions in the spike protein, so it’s unlikely that this change would make the vaccine less effective. Read more here

Explained: How Covid lockdown crippled Indian economy

Here's a summary of how the coronavirus pandemic ravaged the Indian economy as an unprecedented year comes to a close.

The trajectory of an already-slowing Indian economy saw a steep decline in 2020—from contracting an unprecedented 23.9 per cent in the April-June quarter to plunging into a technical recession. All major indicators of growth in the economy were massively impacted, except agriculture, the writer of the article says.  

The April-June quarter figure was not only India’s lowest growth rate since the country started reporting quarterly data in 1996, but also worse than the 21.7 per cent contraction reported by the UK economy in the June quarter, the writer says. How did the government handle a crisis of such mammoth proportions? Read more here

The India-specific challenges that remain for vaccines

The Covid-19 pandemic has likely upended millions of lives in India. As an unprecedented year comes to a close, here’s a quick look at the challenges that remain even though vaccines are hitting the market in several countries such as the US and the UK.

The challenge associated with the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is that it needs to be stored at -70 degrees Celsius. This can be hard to achieve in many countries, including India. Meanwhile, researchers are also testing advanced formulations that may allow storage at higher temperatures, writes Souro Chowdhury, a President’s PhD Scholar in the department of chemistry at the Imperial College London, in this article. 

Then there is the scalability too. However, a key advantage of the AstraZeneca vaccine candidate is that it can be stored and transported at 4-8 degrees Celsius. And thanks to AstraZeneca’s tie-up with the world’s largest vaccine-maker–Serum Institute of India–this candidate is highly scalable, the writer says.

For India, the biggest challenge that remains is to approve a safe vaccine as soon as the requisite data becomes available, and in a transparent manner that instils public confidence, the writer says. Read more here

How the pandemic affected the tattoo industry

The tattoo-industry another one that has suffered amid the pandemic as it requires close and physical contact.The writer of the article spoke to Mumbai-based tattoo artist Vikas Malani who admits that his clientèle has definitely shrunken. He says tattooing is ultimately a luxury and people don't want to spend on it right now. Read more here (https://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/art/tattoo-artist-vikas-malani-on-how-covid19-affected-industry/article33385342.ece)

Tips to nurture newborns during the pandemic

From preparing your home for the little one, ensure you have all the necessary supplies, to recognising red flags, Dr Tushar Maniar, dead of department at the Centre for Child Health Nanavati Super Speciality Hospital, gives you nifty tips that will help you sail through the task of nurturing a newborn during the pandemic. Read more here