India Covid Dispatch: Belief in herd immunity led to 2nd wave, say experts

Mumbai sees 'first Delta Plus death', demand for hospital beds goes up in Kerala, and more-news relevant to India's fight against the pandemic

Over 38,667 fresh cases reported

 

India reported 38,667 fresh coronavirus infections on Saturday, taking the cumulative caseload to 32.1 million, according to central health ministry data. The country saw 478 more deaths due to the pandemic, taking the death toll to 430,732. The active caseload is at 387,673, while the total recoveries have surged to 31.3 million. As many as 536 million vaccine shots have been administered since the nationwide inoculation programme kicked off on January 16. Of these, 6.3 million were given on Friday. Read more

 

 

Belief in ‘herd immunity’ paved way for second wave: Experts

 

Experts feel a key reason that paved the way for the massive second wave in April-May this year was the belief that a majority of Indians had achieved “herd immunity” against Covid, a report in ThePrint said. Herd immunity is achieved when a majority of the population becomes protected from a virus either by exposure or through vaccination. The comments were made at a session the CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology held on “lessons learnt and unlearnt” during the pandemic, and how India as a country handled the pandemic. A number of senior scientists took part in the discussion, the report said. Read more

 

 

Mumbai sees 'first Delta Plus death'

 

The Delta Plus variant—designated as a variant of concern in India—has been detected in the genome sequence of a woman who died of Covid in Mumbai, a report in ThePrint said. The woman, a 63-year-old who was reportedly fully vaccinated, died on 27 July. She is believed to be Mumbai’s first Delta Plus death. The Delta Plus variant has been garnering attention due to its presence in increasing infections and deaths among Covid patients in India. The first reported death due to the variant was from the town of Ratnagiri in Maharashtra on 13 June in a completely unvaccinated patient, the report said. Read more

 

 

Children born during pandemic may have reduced cognitive performance: Study

 

A new US study has found that children born during the Covid pandemic have significantly reduced verbal, motor, and overall cognitive performance compared to those born before, a report in the Hindustan Times said. To study the pandemic’s on early childhood cognitive development, researchers from Rhode Island Hospital and Brown University examined general childhood cognitive scores in 2020 and 2021 against the preceding decade by leveraging a large ongoing longitudinal study of child neurodevelopment, the report said. Read more

 

 

Kerala: Demand for hospital beds, ICU goes up

 

As Kerala continues to report tens of thousands of Covid cases, the pressure is visible on the overworked health machinery and demand for beds and ventilators too are on the rise, a report in the Hindustan Times said. Hospitalisation has gone up considerably, but there is no shortage of oxygen visible in private and government hospitals, the report said. Read more