India Covid Dispatch: Poor enforcement of isolation norms in Kerala - HC

Cyber groups misuse FB to spread vaccine lies, Bengaluru sees spike in cases among children, and more-news relevant to India's fight against the pandemic

Over 41,000 fresh cases reported

India reported 41,195 fresh coronavirus infections on Thursday, taking the cumulative caseload to 32 million, according to central health ministry data. The country saw 490 more deaths due to the pandemic, taking the death toll to 429,669. The active caseload is at 387,987, while the total recoveries have surged to 31.2 million. As many as 523 million vaccine shots have been administered since the nationwide inoculation programme kicked off on January 16. Of these, 4.4 million were given on Wednesday. Read more

Kerala’s test positivity rate rising as isolation protocol not being enforced: HC

The Kerala High Court said the test positivity rate in Kerala was rising as authorities were not able to enforce isolation norms adequately, Bar and Bench reported. The court noted that the only ways to prevent the spread of Covid were either by preventing crowding or enforcing a full lockdown, PTI reported. In recent weeks, Kerala has accounted for nearly half of the infections reported in the country every day. Read more

‘Cyber groups misuse FB to spread Covid vaccine lies in India’

Facebook said coordinated cyber groups from Russia targeted people in India, Latin America and to a small extent in the US to spread misinformation about Covid vaccines developed by AstraZeneca and Pfizer, The Indian Express reported. The Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior Report for July 2021, released by the platform on August 10, said that with the help of influencers, Fazze, a subsidiary of a UK-registered marketing firm whose operations were mainly conducted from inside Russia, used 65 Facebook and 243 Instagram accounts to spread misinformation. Read more

Bengaluru sees spike in cases among children

About 250 children have tested positive in the last five days in Bengaluru, data from the city's main civic body has revealed, a report in the Hindustan Times said. This comes at a time when neighbouring Kerala is witnessing a sudden surge in cases and the apprehension of a third wave of the pandemic is looming large. Children under the age of 18 years are thought to be at greater risk in the possible third wave of the pandemic, compared to the previous two waves, though experts have asserted that there is no scientific basis behind this assumption. Read more

Herd immunity not a possibility with Delta variant: UK vaccine expert

The head of the UK’s Oxford Vaccine Group has warned that the highly transmissible Delta variant has rendered the prospect of herd immunity difficult, a report in The Hindu said. Professor Andrew Pollard, who led the team behind the Oxford University’s Covid vaccine, told the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Coronavirus that the fear of another even more transmissible variant remains a possibility and therefore there is nothing that can completely stop the deadly virus from spreading. However, he also said there was no cause for “panic”. Read more