New Delhi, Feb 25,2021: Amid another surge in COVID-19 cases, the Centre has rushed the high-level teams to nine states and one Union Territory, to help them in tackling the pandemic effectively.
The Centre has also reminded the States/UTs that any laxity in implementing stringent measures to curb the virus could worsen the situation.
The Centre has deputed high-level multi-disciplinary teams to Maharashtra, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Punjab, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir for supporting them in public health measures for targeted COVID response and management, and effectively tackling the pandemic.
The three-member multidisciplinary teams are headed by Joint Secretary level officers in the Health Ministry, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said in a statement on Wednesday.
These teams will work closely with the States/UT administration and ascertain reasons for recent surge in the number of COVID19 cases. They will also coordinate with health authorities of the States/UT for requisite COVID19 control measures to break the chain of transmission. The States/UT has been advised for regular critical review of the emerging situation with concerned District officials to ensure that gains made so far in COVID management are not lost.
The Centre has also written to Maharashtra, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Punjab and Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir which have been witnessing a rise in daily COVID cases, along with decreasing proportion of RT-PCR tests and rise in positivity in some districts.
In the letter written by the Union Health Secretary, he has exhorted Maharashtra, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Punjab and the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir to focus on undertaking aggressive measures to break the chain of transmission and to ensure that RT-PCR testing is amplified to flush out hitherto undetected cases from the population.
These States/UT have been advised to increase testing in a focussed manner in the affected districts with the appropriate split of RT-PCR and Rapid Antigen Tests and to also ensure that all symptomatic negatives of antigen tests are compulsorily tested via RT-PCR tests. The positive persons must be promptly isolated/hospitalised, all their close contacts be traced and also tested without delay.
The Centre has reminded the States/UTs that any laxity in implementing stringent measures to curb the spread, especially in view of new strain of virus observed in certain countries, could compound the situation. The Union Health Secretary has separately requested the Chief Secretaries of these 10 States and UTs to provide time to these High Level Central teams to debrief the respective Chief Secretaries at the conclusion of their State visits, the statement added.
These measures are in line with Centre’s graded and proactive approach to contain COVID across the country. The Health Ministry has been regularly engaging with States and UTs that have been exhibiting either a sudden surge in COVID cases, high caseload or reporting a higher mortality in some districts. The teams interact with the field authorities to get a first hand understanding of the challenges and issues being faced by them, it concluded.
Auckland [New Zealand], February 14 ,2021: New Zealand is imposing first lockdown restrictions since October on the city of Auckland — its most populous city — for three days after three COVID-19 community cases were reported, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Sunday.
The three cases, confirmed earlier in the day by the health ministry, are from the same household in South Auckland. All the patients are currently in quarantine.
“As of 11:59 p.m. tonight, Sunday February 14, Auckland will move to [Alert] Level 3 for a period of three days until midnight on Wednesday. The rest of New Zealand will move to Level 2 for the same period of time,” Ardern told reporters, adding that the decision will be reviewed on a 24-hour basis.
Since the outbreak of the pandemic, the country has confirmed a total of 2,330 cases, including 2,258 recoveries and 25 fatalities. There are currently 47 active cases in New Zealand.
New Delhi , February 9,2021:: Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers, D V Sadananda Gowda said that the Indian pharma market is expected to grow to USD 130 billion by 2030.
While addressing the 6th Edition of ‘India Pharma and India Medical Device 2021’, Gowda said healthcare continues to be an integral part of the Government’s priorities with an emphasis on medicines at affordable rates, increasing the accessibility to diagnosis and treatment, boost local manufacturing of medical equipment and encouraging innovation to further reduce the cost of healthcare.
“The government through its various policies and schemes is encouraging the manufacturing of affordable medical devices and pharmaceuticals under its ‘Make in India’ initiative. The India Pharma 2021 and India Medical Device 2021 will lay the groundwork for the next wave of development,” he said.
He added saying that India is a leading exporter of affordable generics and a major hub for medical devices and diagnostics.
“India has been serving more than 200+ countries and territories with its Pharma products and will continue to discharge its responsibilities. We intend to continue formulating plans that are based on sound science, technology, business sense, and ethics. We continue to strive to increase the ease of doing business in India for which several measures have already been announced and continue to support domestic manufacturing through measures such as the Rs 400 crore impetus given for the creation of 4 world-class medical device parks, or the Rs 3000 Crore allocated for the creation of 3 major bulk drug parks,” the Union Minister said.
Gowda said that the total market size of the Indian Pharma Industry is expected to reach US 130 billion dollars by 2030.
The medical devices industry in India has the potential to reach 50 billion dollars by 2025, he said.
The Department of Pharmaceuticals, Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilizers, jointly with FICCI and Invest India is organizing the 6th edition of the annual program on the Pharmaceuticals and Medical Device sector – ‘India Pharma & India Medical Device 2021’ scheduled on February 25-26 and March 1-2, 2021.
The theme for this year India Pharma is ‘Indian Pharma Industry: “Future is Now” and for India Medical Device is “India MedTech Future: Innovate & Make in India through Global Alliance”.
New Delhi, Feb 6,2021: India has become the fastest country to reach five million mark in Covid vaccination with the country achieving the feat merely in 21 days.
The country is followed by the United States which reached the five million mark in 24 days, the UK and Israel both in 45 days, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said in a statement on Saturday.
India has registered an unprecedented record in the number of COVID-19 cumulative tests, crossing the landmark of 20 crore (20,06,72,589) total tests on Saturday with 7,40,794 tests conducted in the last 24 hours.
With 2,369 testing labs in the country, including 1,214 government laboratories and 1,155 private laboratories, the daily testing capacity has got a substantial boost.
Active caseload dropped under 1.5 lakh- the lowest in 8 months and more than 54 lakh health workers were vaccinated.
The active caseload now consists of just 1.37 per cent of the country’s infection count.
The cumulative positivity rate is also declining and presently pegged at 5.39 per cent.
The country has seen less than 100 fatalities (95) and 11,713 infections in the last 24 hours.
WASHINGTON,Feb 05,2021: U.S. congressional investigators found “dangerous levels of toxic heavy metals” in certain baby foods that could cause neurological damage, a House Oversight subcommittee said in a report released on Thursday in calling for new standards and testing requirements.
FILE PHOTO: Baby food products are pictured in a shop at Nestle headquarters in Vevey, Switzerland, February 15, 2018. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File Photo
The panel examined products made by Nurture Inc, Hain Celestial Group Inc, Beech-Nut Nutrition and Gerber, a unit of Nestle, it said, adding that it was “greatly concerned” that Walmart Inc, Campbell Soup Co and Sprout Organic Foods refused to cooperate with the investigation. The U.S. baby food market was worth an estimated $8 billion in 2020, according to Euromonitor.
The report said internal company standards “permit dangerously high levels of toxic heavy metals, and documents revealed that the manufacturers have often sold foods that exceeded those levels.”
The report urged U.S. regulators to set maximum levels of toxic heavy metals permitted in baby foods and require manufacturers to test finished products for heavy metals, not just ingredients, while baby food companies said they were working to reducing levels of metals that occur naturally in food products.
Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, a Democrat who chairs the panel that released the report, said it found “these manufacturers knowingly sell baby food containing high levels of toxic heavy metals … It’s time that we develop much better standards for the sake of future generations.”
A Food and Drug Administration (FDA) spokesman said the agency was reviewing the report.
The agency noted toxic elements are present in the environment and enter the food supply through soil, water or air. “Because they cannot be completely removed, our goal is to reduce exposure to toxic elements in foods to the greatest extent feasible,” the FDA said.
Campbell said in a statement on its website that its products are safe and cited the lack of a current FDA standard for heavy metals in baby food. The market’s sixth biggest brand said it thought it had been “full partners” in the study with congressional researchers.
Walmart said it submitted information to the committee in February 2020 and never received any subsequent inquiries. The retail giant requires private label product suppliers to hew to its own internal specifications, “which for baby and toddler food means the levels must meet or fall below the limits established by the FDA.”
Happy Family Organics said it was “disappointed at the many inaccuracies, select data usage and tone bias in this report. We can say with the utmost confidence that all Happy Family Organics products are safe for babies and toddlers to enjoy.” It added it welcomes “additional guidelines from the FDA.”
Hain Celestial – the baby food market’s No.4. player which makes Earth’s Best – said the “report examined outdated data and does not reflect our current practices” and said it “inaccurately characterized a meeting with the FDA.”
Hain added since then it “took several steps to reduce the levels of heavy metals in our finished products – including no longer using brown rice in our products that are primarily rice based, changing other ingredients and conducting additional testing of finished product before shipping.”
A representative from Gerber – which sells about a fifth of all baby food in the United States – said the elements in question occur naturally in the soil and water in which crops are grown and added it takes multiple steps “to minimize their presence.”
Beech-Nut Nutrition said it was reviewing the report and is working with other companies “on science-based standards that food suppliers can implement across our industry.”
The report was critical also of the administration of former President Donald Trump, saying it “ignored a secret industry presentation to federal regulators revealing increased risks of toxic heavy metals in baby foods.”
The report said “in 100% of the Hain baby foods tested, inorganic arsenic levels were higher in the finished baby food than the company estimated they would be based on individual ingredient testing.”
It said that in August 2019 the FDA received a secret slide presentation from Hain that said “corporate policies to test only ingredients, not final products, underrepresent the levels of toxic heavy metals in baby foods.”
The report said the FDA took no new action in response. “To this day, baby foods containing toxic heavy metals bear no label or warning to parents. Manufacturers are free to test only ingredients, or, for the vast majority of baby foods, to conduct no testing at all,” the report said.
The FDA has declared that inorganic arsenic, lead, cadmium, and mercury are dangerous, particularly to infants and children, the report noted.
The FDA in August finalized guidance to industry, setting an action level of 100 parts per billion inorganic arsenic in infant rice cereal.
“We acknowledge that there is more work to be done, but the FDA reiterates its strong commitment to continue to reduce consumer exposure to toxic elements and other contaminants from food,” the FDA said Thursday.
Washington , February 5,2021: A new study has found that people differ as to how strongly they desire better self-control, and reveals some of the factors affecting this desire.
The findings of the study were published in the journal ‘Motivation Science’. Self-control significantly affects well-being and objective success in life. Although many agree that a high degree of self-control is beneficial, helping people develop more self-control is a tricky challenge.
Self-control training, like training in any domain, is affected by the basic question of whether a person is motivated to improve self-control. This study explores that people differ as to how strongly they desire better self-control and uncovers the elements that drive people to improve this important personal quality.
The desire for self-control (DSC) reflects a wish to have an improved self-control ability. This desire is influenced by societal or cultural demands, as well as internal motivations. In the new study led by Israel’s Bar-Ilan University, Australia’s University of Queensland, and Texas Tech University in the US, researchers sought to discover the elements that drive people to experience greater DSC.
The research involved four separate studies. Across all studies, individuals low in trait self-control expressed greater DSC. That is individuals who chronically believe they are deficient in self-control wish they had more (reflecting deficiency). However, importantly, the four studies showed that DSC also hinges on individuals’ sense that self-control is needed to accomplish current goals (reflecting necessity).
In study one, necessity was expressed by a greater fear of failure in not able to meet goals, and in study two, it was expressed by associating DSC with meeting goals in the near future. Crucially, studies three and four used experimental designs and showed that acknowledgment of the relevance of self-control for current goals (by, for example, knowing of an upcoming difficult task) causes an increase in desire for self-control.
The study also found that a stronger desire for self-control predicted a greater willingness to enroll in self-control training, by that highlighting the practical relevance of understanding the bases of this desire.
In a 2017 study, two of the current study’s authors (Uziel & Baumeister) explored the implications of having a strong desire for self-control on task performance. It revealed an ironic effect, whereby wishing for more self-control resulted in impaired task performance in the face of difficult challenges.
Those who wished for more self-control expected to perform worse on the task, and thus gave up. In the context of this study, one might wonder what makes people want more self-control if it leads to dire consequences. The explanation that arises from the present findings is that the desire often arises too late in the process of addressing challenges and the prospects of succeeding cannot improve.
“Wishing for more self-control can lead to better self-control, but only when this wish serves a long-term process of self-improvement. If the desire arises when one already needs a high degree of self-control, the desire could be detrimental,” said Dr. Liad Uziel, of the Department of Psychology at Bar-Ilan University, who led the study.
“In order for desire for self-control to carry beneficial effects, it must arise at a point where change is feasible. Changing one’s self-control is a very difficult challenge and must be considered a journey, not a one-shot occurrence,” noted Uziel.
The findings add a missing piece in understanding the processes that govern people’s ability to develop better self-control. They also highlight the need to address the wish for having better self-control, and to understand its effect in bringing about actual behaviors aimed at improving self-control as an important factor in programs aimed at improving self-control.
Chandigarh (Punjab), February 2,2021: An ‘amputee clinic’, the first of its kind in India, with the aim of improving amputation patient care by providing a collection of services under one roof with significant coordination was launched in Chandigarh.
The clinic was formally inaugurated by the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) Director Prof Jagat Ram on Monday.
“The basic intent of this initiative is to bring an Amputee as a near-normal functional human being in society. This initiative will attempt to provide appropriate management to amputees to guide them in their path to rehabilitation in society and will support patients with counseling and medical facilities during their treatment and recovery,” Jagat Ram told ANI.
Prof MS Dhillon, Head of the Department of Orthopaedics, who spearheaded the initiative said, “This is the first of its kind clinic in the country. Over the last few years, it has been our endeavor to provide comprehensive care to Post-Trauma amputees, with various aspects of multidisciplinary care. We have combined all the specialties that help in patient care and rehab under one roof and we have now formalized this as PGI AMPUTEE CLINIC.”
New Delhi, Jan. 28 ,2021: India has gifted over 55 lakh doses of Covid-19 vaccines to its neighbouring countries and in its extended neighbourhood.
While Bhutan was gifted 1.5 lakh doses, Maldives received one lakh doses, Nepal was given ten lakh doses and Bangladesh 20 lakh. Similarly, Myanmar got 15 lakh doses, Mauritius one lakh, Sri Lanka five lakhs, Bahrain one lakh and Syechelles was given 50,000 doses of vaccines.
Addressing the weekly virtual media briefing on Thursday, External Affairs Ministry’s official spokesperson Anurag Srivastav said these supplies were based on requests from these countries.
“Over the next few days, we plan to gift further quantities to Oman (1 lakh), CARICOM countries (5 lakh), Nicaragua (2 lakh) and Pacific Island states (2 lakh) doses,’ he added.
The spokesperson said that external supplies of vaccines, whether as gifts or on a commercial basis, are based on domestic availability, licensing issues and regulatory approvals in the countries concerned.
Commercial exports of Covid-19 vaccines have taken place to Brazil, Morocco and Bangladesh. Further supplies on a commercial basis are likely to take place to Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Canada, Mongolia.
“Further, we are going to supply one crore doses to Africa and 10 lakh to UN health workers under GAVI’s COVAX facility,’ he added.
He said that India will continue to supply vaccines to partner countries over the coming weeks and months in a phased manner. Decisions on these supplies will be calibrated against the requirements of the roll out of the COVID-19 vaccine at home, he added.
New York [US], January 26,2021: US biotechnology firm Moderna announced on Monday that its COVID-19 vaccine has demonstrated a ‘neutralising impact’ on coronavirus variants first found in the United Kingdom and South Africa.
According to a news release by the firm, the two doses of the vaccine “is expected to be protective against emerging strains detected to date.”
“Results from in vitro neutralisation studies of sera from individuals vaccinated with Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine (are) showing activity against emerging strains of SARS-CoV-2… Vaccination with the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine produced neutralizing titers against all key emerging variants tested, including B.1.1.7 and B.1.351, first identified in the UK and Republic of South Africa, respectively. The study showed no significant impact on neutralising titers against the B.1.1.7 variant relative to prior variants,” Moderna said.
This study was conducted in collaboration with the Vaccine Research Center (VRC) at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The manuscript has been submitted as a preprint to bioRxiv and will be submitted for peer-reviewed publication.
The company is advancing an emerging variant booster candidate (mRNA-1273.351) against the variant first identified in South Africa.
“A six-fold reduction in neutralising titers was observed with the B.1.351 variant relative to prior variants. Despite this reduction, neutralising titer levels with B.1.351 remain above levels that are expected to be protective,” it said.
According to Sputnik, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the B.1.1.7 variant of the coronavirus, initially reported to be 50-70 percent more contagious, has been discovered and it is likely to be 30 percent deadlier.
CNN reported that David Montefiori, a virologist at Duke University Medical Center, said while he’s “cautiously optimistic” Moderna’s vaccine will work well against this strain, he is still not sure.
“The efficacy might be reduced somewhat, but it may still be very effective,” he said, as quoted by CNN and added, “Hopefully the vaccine will still be 70-80 per cent effective.”
The variant first identified in the UK has also appeared in more than 45 other countries, including 195 cases in the US. The variant first identified in South Africa has appeared in more than 20 other countries.