India Coronavirus Dispatch: Pandemic pushed 75 million Indians into poverty

Low levels of vitamin D has no impact on Covid outcomes, how vaccine wastage happens, and more-news relevant to India's fight against Covid-19

Over 40,953 fresh cases reported

 

India reported 40,953 fresh coronavirus infections on Saturday, taking the cumulative caseload to 1,15,55,284, according to a report in the Scroll. The country saw 188 deaths due to the pandemic, taking the death toll to 1,59,558, according to central health ministry data. The active caseload is at 2,88,394, while the total recoveries have surged to 1,11,07,332. As many as 4,20,63,392 people have been inoculated since the nationwide inoculation programme kicked off on January 16. Of these, 27,23,575 people received their shots on Friday. Read more here

 

How does vaccine wastage happen?

 

Vaccine wastage can be classified into two categories: wastage that happens with unopened vials and wastage that happens with opened vials, explains a report in The Indian Express. Wastage through unopened vials can happen for various reasons such as crossing the expiry date, exposure to heat, breakage, missing inventory and theft. Wastage through opened vials can happen while discarding remaining doses at the end of the session, not being able to draw the number of doses in a vial, submergence of opened vials in water, contamination and poor vaccination practices, according to the report. Read more here 

 

Covid pushed 75 million Indians into poverty: Pew

 

Research by US think tank Pew Research Center has found that the Covid-19 pandemic has shrunk the global middle class while pushing more people into poverty, a report in ThePrint said. The global middle class shrunk by 54 million people in 2020 compared to the time before the pandemic. In India, the size of the middle class fell by 32 million while 75 million people were pushed into poverty accounting for almost 60 per cent of the global increase in poverty. Read more here 

 

Low levels of vitamin D has no impact on Covid outcomes: Study

 

Vitamin D levels have no impact on clinical outcomes of Covid-19 including severity, mortality, needing intensive care and oxygen support, a report in ThePrint said. The study was carried out by researchers from the endocrinology (study of hormones) department at Max Healthcare, New Delhi. The findings were published in Scientific Reports, an online peer-reviewed open-access journal. Read more here

 

Why increased use of hand sanitisers may be bad news in the long term

 

While the increased use of hand sanitisers since the pandemic hit has helped in containing the transmission of the coronavirus, it could also present problems for human health and the environment in the long term, a report in The Wire said. Hand sanitisers are mainly made of alcohol and maybe toxic when misused. One study noted that regular use of ethanol-based hand sanitisers resulted in low but measurable blood concentrations of ethanol. While the levels were not toxic, the continuous application can result in “chronic toxicity”, increasing the risk of health problems such as eczema or skin cancer, the report said. Read more here