India Coronavirus Dispatch: Nationwide 'R value' close to 1

Mumbai doctor infected twice after vaccination, Centre asks states for data on deaths related to oxygen shortage, and other stories from across the country on the fight against the pandemic

Over 43,500 fresh cases reported

India reported 43,654 fresh coronavirus infections on Wednesday, taking the cumulative caseload to 31.4 million, according to central health ministry data. The country saw 640 more deaths due to the pandemic, taking the death toll to 422,022. The active caseload is at 399,436, while the total recoveries have surged to 30.6 million. As many as 446 million vaccine shots have been administered since the nationwide inoculation programme kicked off on January 16. Of these, 4 million were given on Tuesday. Read more

India’s 'R value' close to 1

India’s R value has further grown this week and is now very close to 1, a report in ThePrint said. The R value has been on a rise for the last few weeks. It was 0.97 last week. The R value is a key measure of how quickly the virus is spreading. In simple terms, it is the average number of people who become infected by an infected individual. If the R value is above 1, the virus will spread quickly. If it is below 1, the virus will slow. “India’s overall active cases are fluctuating too much at the moment to get a reliable estimate, but data is pointing to a value close to 1. It may tip over either way in the coming few days,” Sitabhra Sinha, a researcher at the Institute of Mathematical Sciences, who has been tracking the R value since the beginning of the pandemic said. Read more

Nerve damage in eyes could help identify patients with ‘long Covid’: study

A new study has found that signs of nerve damage in the cells of the surface of eyes can help identify patients likely to contract ‘long Covid’, a report in ThePrint said. Individuals with ‘long Covid’ experience a range of potentially debilitating symptoms, including loss of smell, chronic fatigue and short-term memory loss. The symptoms continue for over four weeks after the acute phase of the infection has passed and cannot be explained by an alternative diagnosis, the report said. The study was published in the British Journal of Ophthalmology. Read more

Mumbai doctor tests positive thrice, infected twice post-vaccination

A 26-year-old doctor has tested positive for Covid three times in the past 13 months—twice after receiving both doses of a vaccine against the virus, a report in the Hindustan Times said. Swab samples of Dr Shrusthi Halari, who worked at the Mulund Covid Centre in the city, have been collected for genome sequencing as part of a study on infections that occur after complete vaccination, the report said. Read more

Centre asks states for data on deaths related to oxygen shortage

The central government has asked the states to share data on fatalities due to the shortage of oxygen during the devastating second wave of Covid, PTI reported. This comes days after the Centre faced severe criticism for denying that there were any deaths due to scarcity of the life-saving gas, the report said. Read more