India Coronavirus Dispatch: Yoga helped manage stress better in lockdown

Latest statistics on the pandemic, all you need to know about Sputnik V vaccine, the case for keeping vaccines free-news relevant to India's fight against Covid-19

IN NUMBERS: Over 14,000 fresh cases reported

India reported 14,199 fresh coronavirus infections on Monday, taking the cumulative caseload to 11,005,850, according to a report in the Scroll. The country saw 83 deaths due to the pandemic, taking the death toll to 156,385, according to central health ministry data. The total recoveries have surged to 10,699,410, while the national recovery rate is at 97.22 per cent. The active caseload is at 150,055, which makes up 1.36 per cent of the total caseload. About 11.1 million healthcare and frontline workers have been inoculated since the nationwide inoculation programme kicked off on January 16. Read more here

50% of Indians inherited Neanderthal DNA sequence that reduces risk of severe Covid: Study

About half of India's population has inherited a 75,000-character-long DNA sequence from Neanderthals, an extinct species of archaic humans, which is believed to lower the risk of contracting severe forms of Covid-19, a report in ThePrint said, citing a new study. The study was published in the peer-reviewed journal PNAS and was carried out by researchers from Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) in Japan and Germany's Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology. Its aim was to examine a gene variant that was linked to a 22 per cent reduction in the risk of severe Covid-19 in another study conducted in December. Read more here

Yoga helped manage stress better during lockdown: IIT Delhi study

According to a study conducted by researchers at IIT Delhi, people who practice yoga regularly experienced lower levels of stress and anxiety during the national lockdown last year, a report in ThePrint said. The study collected responses on stress management and well-being during the lockdown from 396 yoga practitioners, 113 ‘spiritual’ practitioners, and 134 non-practitioners. The data was collected through an online questionnaire between 26 April and 8 June 2020. The findings were published in the peer-reviewed journal Plos One. The study, however, did not indicate if the findings also applied to those who performed other physical exercises. Read more here

OPINION: Covid vaccines should be free

Ideally, people should not have to pay for vaccines, said an opinion piece in The Quint written by public policy expert Chandrakant Lahariya. Covid-19 vaccines, like other vaccines, are a public good. Getting vaccinated will benefit society at large by containing the spread of the virus and lowering the burden on public health facilities. Going by the high levels of vaccine hesitancy so far, it becomes even more important to keep the vaccines free, Lahariya said. Otherwise, many families, even if the vaccines are affordable to them, may become less motivated to get the shots. Read more here

Sputnik V: All you need to know

After Covishield and Covaxin, Russia's Sputnik V may become the third vaccine to get emergency approval in India. This report in the Hindustan Times brings you all you need to know about the vaccine developed by Moscow's Gamaleya National Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology. It has an efficacy of nearly 92 per cent.

The vaccine has proven effective in older people as individuals aged over 60 were included in the vaccine trials in Russia. In India, Dr Reddy's Laboratories has carried out small human trials. Phase 3 clinical trial is going on. Read more here