Tag: Covid

India’s handling of Covid example before world: VP Jagdeep Dhankhar

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New Delhi: India’s handling of COVID-19 was an example to the world of how the country utilised its digital resources to roll out vaccines for a large population and successfully controlled the disease at home while helping other nations, Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar said on Friday.
Dhankhar, who inaugurated the “International Symposium on Health Technology Assessment: ISHTA 2023” here, lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision to call for a people’s curfew as well as people for following it. “… what was advised to contain Covid could be translated into action”.
He further said the prime minister cheered and motivated the Covid warriors and the country was quick to come up with a legislation that accorded them protection.
“India’s handling of Covid exemplifies the best practices beyond doubt now. In that perspective, when I have gone abroad on two visits, how satisfying it was for me to note that when India was facing Covid, it innovatively came out with vaccines.
“India could vaccinate 220 crore people and put it on digital mapping. It was also giving assistance to other countries through ‘vaccine maitri’ that is something reflective of our age-old ethos,” Dhankhar said.
Referring to the sessions at the event, he said “affordability of healthcare services” is a very critical aspect.
Keeping this in view, the prime minister came up with the idea of Ayushman Bharat and the world’s largest and most transparent, accountable and impactful mechanism is benefitting 140 crore people of the country effectively, the vice-president said.
He said because of the Ayushman Bharat Jan Arogya Yojana, there has been an increase in the number of diagnostic centres, medical, nursing colleges and clinics in the country and that has brought about a plateau kind of development, touching the lives of those who are physically vulnerable.

“If they have to suffer on account of affordability, the growth of children is impeded and families’ economy goes haywire,” Dhankhar added.
Speaking about another session on “availability of healthcare technologies”, the vice president said technology is a game changer and a turning point.
Referring to the third aspect — “accessibility to healthcare technologies” — he said, “We have wellness centres not just in tier-2 cities, in semi-urban areas, but even in villages and that is a milestone achievement.”
On the session on “health technology assessment”, he said, “That is the way forward stance. For any institution, the safest way to degenerate is to keep it away from accountability, keep it away from scrutiny and keep it away from assessment.”
The symposium, based on the theme of “Affordability, Availability and Accessibility of Healthcare Technologies through evidence generated by HTA for Universal Health Coverage”, was organised by WHO India and Centre for Global Development, Europe.
Dhankhar further narrated how the “Swachh Bharat Abhiyan” launched by the prime minister changed the country’s landscape.
“Consequentially, what we never thought or imagined — every household has a toilet. We are on our way to getting fresh potable water at home and the side-effects are such that there has been industrial growth, startups and entrepreneurship have grown,” he said.
He said 1.5 lakh health and wellness centres have come up in the country, generating huge opportunities for entrepreneurs.
Mentioning that more than 33.8 crore Ayushman Bharat health accounts have been created and there are 50 crore beneficiaries of the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, Dhankhar said, “These numbers to the world at large may be staggering but in our country, the development is proportionally manageable. It has been in a very structured manner, not in isolated instances or otherwise.”
Affordability of medicines for the common man is of critical consequence, he said, adding that this has been done through the more than 9,000 jan aushadhi kendras set up across the country to enhance access to generic medicines.
Cancer is a deadly disease and what has been done in that area is amazing by providing medicines that are affordable, the vice president pointed out.
“India is an example in the world where we have used technology for making available efficient services to people.
“There was a time, when I was a student or even a member of Parliament, there used to be long queues for payment of bills. But in the health sector, revolutionary things have been done and over 80 million (eight crore) teleconsultations have been conducted through e-sanjeevani, the national telemedicine service of India,” he said.
The vice president also complimented the Union health minister on doubling the number of MBBS seats and post-graduate medical seats in the country.
Stating that “India is on the rise at the moment as never before and the rise of this country is unstoppable,” Dhankhar said this is based on two “great” concepts highlighted by the prime minister in the last year and a half.
“One, he gave a message to the world that we are not in an era of expansion. Expansion by nature is invasive action. Expansion by nature is comprising someone else’s sovereignty. Historically, this country has never engaged in expansion.
“Second, he indicated to the world at large, setting a global discourse which is catching up — war is no solution to any problem,” he said.
Dhankhar urged all the stakeholders that “if we have to make this world healthy and happy, we have to subscribe to an ecosystem and in all modesty, I can say that this country has evolved this ecosystem over thousands of years and that is Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (the world is one family)”.
“Let us work to handhold each other to the best of our capacity to contribute to each other’s good health, happiness and satisfaction,” he said.
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#Indias #handling #Covid #world #Jagdeep #Dhankhar
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 10, 2023
Active COVID cases in India climb to 3,177

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New Delhi: India logged 379 new coronavirus infections, while the active cases rose to 3,177, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Thursday.
The death toll stands at 5,30,776 with one fatality reported by Maharashtra, the data updated at 8 am stated
The Covid case tally was recorded at 4.46 crore (4,46,89,072).
The national COVID-19 recovery rate has been recorded at 98.80 per cent, according to the ministry website.
The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to
4,41,55,119, while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.19 per cent.
According to the ministry’s website, 220.64 crore doses of Covid vaccine have been administered in the country so far under the nationwide vaccination drive.
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#Active #COVID #cases #India #climb

( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 9, 2023
The latest sign the White House Covid operations are winding down? Its proposed budget

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The budget may also leave out the administration’s prior request for new funding to jumpstart research aimed at developing the next generation of Covid vaccines and therapeutics. Health officials are currently discussing whether there’s existing money that can be reallocated toward the project.
The White House’s Office of Management and Budget declined to comment, and the people familiar with the matter cautioned that the details of the budget proposal were not finalized and could still change.
Even if the White House renewed its funding request, it would have faced a highly uncertain path forward. House Republicans have pledged to scale back the government’s Covid response, and even among Democratic lawmakers there’s little enthusiasm for continuing to fund the effort.
But the waning focus on Covid still represents a notable shift for an administration that once believed its success in ending the pandemic would define Biden’s presidency. The White House in its first months prioritized spending hundreds of billions of dollars to distribute vaccines, develop new treatments and bolster the nation’s public health apparatus.
Biden also made Covid a centerpiece of his first two budget proposals. He argued it was critical to fund government programs capable of responding swiftly to Covid and any future pandemic threats.
And top White House officials spent much of last year pleading with Congress to allocate as much as $22.5 billion toward its ongoing pandemic operations, warning that the dwindling funding risked crippling its ability to combat dangerous new variants.
But those requests were stonewalled by Republicans skeptical of the need for additional Covid funding. The extended stalemate forced the White House to pare back its ambitions and accelerate preparations to shift responsibility for purchasing and distributing vaccines and treatments to the private sector later this year. The administration is now unlikely to need additional money to buy more shots and therapies, with officials calculating they should have enough on hand to meet demand until it hands the job off to private insurers.
A White House budget proposal is traditionally viewed as little more than a presidential wish list. But last year’s Covid funding fight has left officials convinced there is little appetite on either side of the aisle in Congress for continuing to make the pandemic response a top federal priority, the people familiar with the matter said — even against the persistent backdrop of more than 2,000 Covid deaths a week.

The White House is instead expected to use its budget to highlight a series of proposals designed to build out other health programs, in an effort to sharpen Biden’s contrast with House Republicans he’s accused of wanting to gut major parts of the nation’s safety net.
The administration earlier this week detailed a plan to extend Medicare’s solvency by raising taxes on people making more than $400,000 and expanding the program’s new authority to negotiate the price of certain drugs.
Biden is also likely to renew his call for making enhanced Obamacare subsidies permanent, two people familiar with the matter said, as well as for implementing a policy that would extend health coverage to low-income Americans in states that have refused to expand Medicaid.
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#latest #sign #White #House #Covid #operations #winding #proposed #budget
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

March 9, 2023
Covid may cause increased chest pain months after infection: Study

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Washington: COVID-19 patients may be at increased risk of suffering chest pain in the six months to a year after the infection, which could be a sign of future cardiovascular complications, according to a study.
Nearly 19 per cent of US adults who had previously tested positive for COVID-19 report having “Long COVID,” where they experience signs and symptoms for four weeks or more after the initial phase of infection.
Researchers from Intermountain Health in the US studied nearly 150,000 patients for cardiovascular symptoms. They found that patients who tested positive for COVID-19 had higher rates of chest pain in the six months to a year after the infection.
“Many COVID-19 patients experience symptoms well beyond the acute phase of infection,” said Heidi T. May, cardiovascular epidemiologist at Intermountain Health and principal investigator of the study.
“While we didn’t see any significant rates of major events like heart attack or stroke in patients who had an initial mild initial infection, we did find chest pains to be a persistent problem, which could be a sign of future cardiovascular complications,” May said.
The study finding was presented at the American College of Cardiology’s 2023 Scientific Conference in New Orleans, US.
In the large retrospective study, researchers compared three groups of Intermountain Health patients.
The team found that at six months and one-year intervals, patients who tested positive for COVID-19 had significantly higher rates of experiencing chest pain, but saw no other increases in cardiovascular events.

“As of right now, the symptoms aren’t necessary translating into hard outcomes, but that’s something that will need to be reassessed over time,” May said.
“It could be that lasting effects of infection on the cardiovascular system are hard to quantify in terms of diagnoses or other events in the short-term and won’t be realised until longer follow up,” the researcher added.
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#Covid #increased #chest #pain #months #infection #Study
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 8, 2023
Was Fauci’s commission paper used to debunk Covid lab leak theory?

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Washington: A February 2020 science paper that debunked the Covid lab leak theory was commissioned by former White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci, according to the US House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic.
The Select Subcommittee said that new email evidence shows that Dr. Fauci ordered, helped to edit, and gave final approval to a paper titled “The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2,” published in the journal Nature Medicine.
The paper “disproved” that Covid originated from China’s infamous Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV). Instead it showed that coronavirus had “mutations” that were “totally consistent with a jump of a species from an animal to a human”.
The authors of the scientific paper “skewed available evidence to achieve that goal”, the Select Subcommittee said.
Two months later, in April, Fauci quoted the same paper to wave off concerns that the virus might have come from a Chinese facility.
The emails unearthed by the Select subcommittee also reveals the scientific paper’s co-author Dr. Kristian Andersen admitting Fauci “prompted” him to write the paper with the goal to “disprove” the lab leak theory.
“There has been a lot of speculation, fear-mongering, and conspiracies put forward in this space. (This paper was) Prompted by Jeremy Farrah (sic), Tony Fauci, and Francis Collins,” read the cover of the email, along with the paper, sent by Andersen to Nature Medicine on February 12, 2020.
Further, the emails show that on February 17, the day the “Proximal Origin” paper was published, Farrar, who was the head of British nonprofit, the Wellcome Trust, asked the journal to make a crucial change.

“Sorry to micromanage/micro edit! But would you be willing to change one sentence?” he wrote.
Farrar asked to replace the word “unlikely” with “improbable” in a statement about the lab leak origin.
It should read: “It is improbable that SARS-CoV-2 emerged through laboratory manipulation of an existing SARS-related coronavirus,” emails show.
More than two years after the pandemic, the origins of Covid-19 remain unclear. It has been a political and scientific debate with scientists and politicians globally contending that the coronavirus jumped into people from bats, or have been leaked from a laboratory.
Last month, the US Energy Department concluded with “low confidence” that the Covid-19 virus leaked out of a laboratory in China. Previously, in 2021, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) also agreed to the lab leak claim with “moderate confidence”.
Meanwhile, China continues to reject the lab leak theory and suggests it emerged outside China. It has also placed limits on investigations by the World Health Organisation.
China also trashed the latest report by the US Energy Department, saying the origin-tracing of the pandemic “is about science and should not be politicised”.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said the international experts have considered the theory that the pandemic might have leaked from a Chinese laboratory as “extremely unlikely”.
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#Faucis #commission #paper #debunk #Covid #lab #leak #theory
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 7, 2023
Hyderabad: Sunshine Hospitals to refund Rs 8.70L to customer for COVID treatment

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Hyderabad: A local consumer court on February 22 ordered Sunshine Hospitals, a unit of Sarvejana Healthcare to pay a refund of Rs 8,73,943 for exorbitantly charging a Kulsumpura resident for COVID-19 treatment.
Qurratul Ayn Fatima, a forty-year-old housewife approached the district consumer disputes redressal commission, for a refund of Rs 14,38,000 claiming that the hospital overcharged for the COVID-19 treatment of her deceased husband Mohd Kalimuddin.
The district consumer disputes redressal commission, Hyderabad – 3, ruled in the favour of Qurratul Ayn Fatima and asked the Hospital to pay a refund of Rs 8,73,943 with interest along with Rs 10,000 as compensation for causing mental agony and trauma.
“There has never been an occasion for any negligence or deficiency in treatment rendered by the hospital,” the advocates for the hospital told the court.
“Now making absurd accusations against the hospital is uncalled for. The complainant is unreasonable and untenable and without any basis,” they added.
The court order said that according to G.O.Rt.No.248, the hospital has to refund a total of Rs 8,73,943 collected as lab charges, life-supporting charges, medical utility charges and food and beverages charges within 45 days from February 22.
According to the said GO private hospitals are allowed to collect Rs 4,000 per day towards charges for routine ward + isolation.
The charges for ICU without ventilator or isolation were prescribed Rs 7,500 and Rs 9,000 was prescribed towards charges for ICU with ventilator and tests/investigations.

No hospital can collect abnormal charges from the patients exploiting the unfortunate pandemic situation.
The court said, the High Court of Telangana slammed the state government on June 1, 2022 for failing to set a fee cap for private institutions treating COVID-19 patients in the state and observed that people have been mortgaging gold to pay bills.
The court recalled that the Chief Justice of Telangana had suggested that hospitals should be compelled to return the excessive fees or face having their licences revoked.
“The hospital has collected the amount from the complainant exorbitantly. This act clearly shows the deficiency in services on the part of the opposite parties,” observed the court.
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#Hyderabad #Sunshine #Hospitals #refund #8.70L #customer #COVID #treatment
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 6, 2023
About 15.5 mn children in US infected with Covid

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Los Angeles: Almost 15.5 million children in the US are reported to have tested positive for Covid-19 since the onset of the pandemic, according to the latest report by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Children’s Hospital Association.
Over 121,000 of these cases have been added in the past four weeks, and almost 28,000 child Covid-19 cases were reported in the latest week ending February 23, Xinhua news agency reported, citing the report.
Over the past five months, weekly reported child cases in the United States have plateaued at an average of about 32,000 cases.
Reported cases are likely a “substantial undercount” of Covid-19 cases among children, according to the report.
There is a need to collect more age-specific data to assess the severity of illness related to new variants as well as potential longer-term effects, said the report.
It is important to recognize there are immediate effects of the pandemic on children’s health, but importantly we need to identify and address the long-lasting impacts on the physical, mental, and social well-being of this generation of children and youth, said the AAP.
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#children #infected #Covid

( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 1, 2023
The US says it has “new evidence” that the covid came from a Wuhan laboratory

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A toilet performs a covid test on a man on a street in Wuhan at the beginning of the pandemic / EFE
Washington maintains that the virus developed from an accidental escape, which comes to support conspiracy theories
Like all the events that have convulsed the world, the origin of the covid will forever be a mystery that unleashes all kinds of conspiracy theories. The landing of man on the Moon, the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the fall of the Twin Towers… No matter how much we know, there will always be room for speculation and incre
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#evidence #covid #Wuhan #laboratory
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#evidence #covid #Wuhan #laboratory
( With inputs from : pledgetimes.com )

February 28, 2023
RBI lost 46 employees to Covid, related complications

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Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Monday said it lost 46 employees to Covid and related complications.
The central bank mentioned about the deaths in the compendium on business continuity measures taken during the coronavirus pandemic.
According to RBI, it introduced a Special Ex-gratia Package and a Special Scheme of Compassionate Appointment for dependents of employees dying in harness due to Covid or due to post-Covid complications happening within six months of last such infection since March 1, 2020.
“As on December 31, 2022, dependents of 46 deceased employees were paid the ex-gratia amount and dependents of 32 deceased employees accepted compassionate appointment in addition to the ex-gratia package,” it said.
Under the scheme, ex-gratia was extended to the dependents of regular full time/ part-time employees.
In addition, the offer of compassionate appointment was also extended to either the spouse or any one eligible dependent child of full-time regular employees on fulfilment of stipulated age and eligibility criteria.
To tackle the challenges posed by the pandemic, RBI mobilised at an unprecedented scale and speed to put in place a cross-functional response to safeguard lives and livelihood of the people as well as insulate the economy and the financial sector.
These measures were taken to ensure uninterrupted conduct of its crucial functions and maintaining business continuity; supporting its employees, service providers and other stakeholders.

“More than one hundred measures, both conventional and unconventional, were undertaken during the period. The effort was to be proactive and innovative, while remaining on guard to preserve financial stability,” it said.
In the foreword to the compendium, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said Business Continuity Management (BCM) has hitherto meant protecting organisations against events like natural calamities, geo-political disturbances, cyber attacks and other disruptions that have the potential of interrupting smooth functioning of an organisation.
“An unknown virus, i.e., coronavirus, of the size of 0.125 microns, unleashed a once in a century pandemic and completely redefined our understanding of BCM,” he said.
Das said through the troubled times, RBI had to continually assess and revalidate its readiness for uninterrupted operations, leverage varied data feeds for continuous monitoring, consider consequences and impacts of its measures, and design and implement rapid but coordinated responses across verticals.
“We also proactively communicated through public statements and in other forms of guidance, reassuring the public at large about the stability and resilience of the financial system while supporting banks and financial institutions and the economy as a whole.
“Our basic message was: RBI is tirelessly at work to shield the Indian economy from the pandemic,” he said.
The compendium said one of the major challenges faced included, ensuring sufficient printing of currency, timely supply of currency and ensuring availability of currency at the last point while bearing in mind the safety of treasure and human resources involved.
“Execution of (these) activities involved considerable coordination with the multiple stakeholders in the network,” it said.
To deal with the challenges posed by the pandemic, RBI took slew of measures, including those related to monetary policy, liquidity management, and regulation.
“While the pandemic threatened to cause never-before disruptions across the business landscape, recognising its people as pivots, RBI chose to assign primacy to employee empathy so that the workforce well-being is not compromised and the employees remain safe and motivated,” it said.
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#RBI #lost #employees #Covid #related #complications
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

February 27, 2023
Gujarat: PHCs under probe for fake Covid vaccine certificates

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Junagadh: Junagadh District Collector Rachit Raj has ordered an inquiry into issuance of fake Covid vaccine certifices in the names of actors and crickters to meet targets.
A five-member committee headed by the Deputy Development Officer will submit its report within a fortnight and recommend action.
The Collector told the media that he learned that paramedics “vaccinated some celebrities” in order to meet their vaccination targets. An inquiry will be conducted, and those responsible will have to face action.
Four certificates are in circulation on social media, one is issued in the name of Jaya Bachchan, her age is shown as 23; and the vaccination certificate is issued by Mendapara Primary Health Center.
From the same centre, another certificate has been issued in the name of cricketer Mohammad Kaif, his age is shown as just 22 years old.
Juhi Chavla is 44 years old, according to the Motipara Primary Health Centre, where she received a COVID dose during a vaccination drive. Mahima Chaudhary, on the other hand, is older than Jaya Bachchan, being 57-year-old, according to Prempara sub-health centre.
The District Collector has excluded Junagadh District Chief Medical Officer from the committee, as scam is committed by the team reporting to him.

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#Gujarat #PHCs #probe #fake #Covid #vaccine #certificates
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

February 23, 2023