Junior Digest

Mumbai, April 9,2021: Amid the surge in COVID-19 cases in Maharashtra, trains at Mumbai’s Lokmanya Tilak Terminus were seen packed with migrant workers as they feared an impending lockdown.
Speaking to ANI, a migrant worker who was travelling in an Uttar Pradesh bound train said, “This train will go to Gorakhpur. We’re leaving the city because COVID-19 cases are rising here.”
Taking cognisance of the emerging situation, Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam talked to the officials and asked the authorities to allay the fear of the migrants and monitor the COVID-19 situation. He said to the reporters, “Many of them fear that a lockdown will be imposed in the state due to rising COVID cases. However, our state government has no such plans. We do not want businesses or small businessmen to incur losses.”
Due to a sharp rise in COVID cases, Mumbai’s BMC on Thursday imposed a weekend lockdown in the city until further orders.
With 1,26,789 new cases in the last 24 hours, India’s active caseload reached 9,10,319 on Thursday.

New Delhi ,April 15,2021: India has reported a record 200,739 COVID-19 cases over the last 24 hours, according to the health ministry, as Delhi government announces weekend lockdowns in the capital and hospitals treating patients report severe shortages of beds and oxygen supplies.

Deaths stood at 1,038, taking the total to 173,123, the data showed on Thursday. The country’s total caseload reached 14.1 million, just behind the United States that leads the global tally with 31.4 million cases.

Thursday’s surge was the seventh record daily increase in the last eight days and comes as India battles a massive second wave of infections that has its epicentre in the economically significant state of Maharashtra, home to Mumbai. The western state accounts for about a quarter of the country’s total cases.
Delhi state will go into weekend lockdowns to contain a steep increase in COVID-19 infections, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said.

Shopping malls, gyms, dine-out service at restaurants and some weekly markets will be shut during the weekend and only essential services would remain operational, Kejriwal said.
‘Situation is horrible’

Due to the surge in cases, there has been huge stress on the country’s fragile health infrastructure, with many areas reporting shortages of intensive care (ICU) beds and oxygen cylinders in several states.

Hospitals and doctors in Maharashtra as well other regions including Gujarat and Delhi in the north reported chaotic scenes as healthcare facilities were overwhelmed with a surge in admissions of COVID-19 patients.
India saw a downward trend in infections starting at the end of 2020 but the numbers began rising again in mid-February.

Recent regional elections and festivals including the mammoth month-long Kumbh Mela are expected to accelerate the infection rate further, with virologist Shahid Jamil calling them super-spreader events.

India’s vaccine campaign started in January with the aim of inoculating 300 million of its 1.35 billion population by July.

More than 111 million vaccine doses have been given so far, of which 13 million were second doses, the health ministry said.

April 19,2021:The coronavirus variant discovered in South Africa may evade the protection provided by Pfizer/BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine to some extent, a real-world data study in Israel found, though its prevalence in the country is very low and the research has not been peer reviewed.

The study, released on Saturday, compared almost 400 people who had tested positive for COVID-19, 14 days or more after they received one or two doses of the vaccine, against the same number of unvaccinated patients with the disease.

It matched age and gender, among other characteristics.

The South African variant, B.1.351, was found to make up about 1% of all the COVID-19 cases across all the people studied, according to the study by Tel Aviv University and Israel’s largest healthcare provider, Clalit.

But among patients who had received two doses of the vaccine, the variant’s prevalence rate was eight times higher than those unvaccinated – 5.4% versus 0.7%.

This suggests the vaccine is less effective against the South African variant, compared with the original coronavirus and a variant first identified in Britain that has come to comprise nearly all COVID-19 cases in Israel, the researchers said.

“We found a disproportionately higher rate of the South African variant among people vaccinated with a second dose, compared to the unvaccinated group. This means that the South African variant is able, to some extent, to break through the vaccine’s protection,” said Tel Aviv University’s Adi Stern.

The researchers cautioned, though, that the study only had a small sample size of people infected with the South African variant because of its rarity in Israel.

They also said the research was not intended to deduce overall vaccine effectiveness against any variant, since it only looked at people who had already tested positive for COVID-19, not at overall infection rates.

Pfizer(PFE.N) declined to comment on the Israeli study.

A woman receives a vaccination against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at a temporary Clalit healthcare maintenance organisation (HMO) centre, in Herzliya, Israel February 3, 2021. REUTERS/Amir Cohen/File Photo

Pfizer and BioNTech(22UAy.DE) said on April 1 that their vaccine was around 91% effective at preventing COVID-19, citing updated trial data that included participants inoculated for up to six months.

They have been testing a third dose of their shot as a booster, and have said they could modify the shot to specifically address new variants if needed.

In respect to the South African variant, they said that among a group of 800 study volunteers in South Africa, where B.1.351 is widespread, there were nine cases of COVID-19, all of which occurred among participants who got the placebo. Of those nine cases, six were among individuals infected with the South African variant. read more

Some previous studies have indicated that the Pfizer/BioNTech shot was less potent against the B.1.351 variant than against other variants of the coronavirus, but still offered a robust defence.

VARIANT IS NOT WIDESPREAD

While the results of the study may cause concern, the low prevalence of the South African strain was encouraging, according to Tel Aviv University’s Stern.

“Even if the South African variant does break through the vaccine’s protection, it has not spread widely through the population,” said Stern, adding that the British variant may be “blocking” the spread of the South African strain.

Almost 53% of Israel’s 9.3 million population has received both Pfizer doses. Israel has largely reopened its economy in recent weeks while the pandemic appears to be receding, with infection rates, severe illness and hospitalizations dropping sharply.

About a third of Israelis are below the age of 16, which means they are still not eligible for the shot.

Mumbai, Apr 8,2021: As the incidence of COVID-19 infections are high among those in the age group of 20 to 40 years across in the Maharashtra, the state health minister Rajesh Tope has demanded that vaccination drive for all those who are 18 years and above should be carried out at the earliest.

Mr Tope said that at present 4.5 lakh people are being vaccinated every day in the state.

Tope also said that if the vaccine was supplied quickly and expeditiously, it would be possible to carry out vaccination faster.

It may be noted that MVA alliance partner Congress party state president Nana Patole already made a similar demand two days back.

While state Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray wrote a letter to Prime Minister to allow vaccination of those above 25 years of age.

However, the Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan speaking on the demand to vaccinate everyone above 18 years has expressed concern over the rising Covid infection in Maharashtra.

He criticized the Maharashtra government’s ‘sluggish’ and ‘lax administration’ for failing to curb the Covid ban.

Maharashtra ranks first in the country in terms of number of cases as well as death rate.

He said allegations of non-supply of Covid vaccines were baseless and that full attention was being paid to the supply of vaccines.

Washington [US], April 7,2021: Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago analyzed gene expression in fresh brain tissue and found that gene expression in some cells actually increased after death.
In the hours after we die, certain cells in the human brain are still active. Some cells even increase their activity and grow to gargantuan proportions, according to new research from the University of Illinois Chicago.
In a newly published study in the journal Scientific Reports, the UIC researchers analyzed gene expression in fresh brain tissue — which was collected during routine brain surgery — at multiple times after removal to simulate the post-mortem interval and death. They found that gene expression in some cells actually increased after death.
These ‘zombie genes’ — those that increased expression after the post-mortem interval — were specific to one type of cell: inflammatory cells called glial cells. The researchers observed that glial cells grow and sprout long arm-like appendages for many hours after death.
“That glial cells enlarge after death isn’t too surprising given that they are inflammatory and their job is to clean things up after brain injuries like oxygen deprivation or stroke,” said Dr. Jeffrey Loeb, the John S. Garvin Professor and head of neurology and rehabilitation at the UIC College of Medicine and corresponding author on the paper.
What’s significant, Loeb said, is the implications of this discovery — most research studies that use postmortem human brain tissues to find treatments and potential cures for disorders such as autism, schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease, do not account for the post-mortem gene expression or cell activity.
“Most studies assume that everything in the brain stops when the heart stops beating, but this is not so,” Loeb said. “Our findings will be needed to interpret research on human brain tissues. We just haven’t quantified these changes until now.”

Loeb and his team noticed that the global pattern of gene expression in fresh human brain tissue didn’t match any of the published reports of postmortem brain gene expression from people without neurological disorders or from people with a wide variety of neurological disorders, ranging from autism to Alzheimer’s.
“We decided to run a simulated death experiment by looking at the expression of all human genes, at time points from 0 to 24 hours, from a large block of recently collected brain tissues, which were allowed to sit at room temperature to replicate the postmortem interval,” Loeb said.
Loeb and colleagues are at a particular advantage when it comes to studying brain tissue. Loeb is director of the UI NeuroRepository, a bank of human brain tissues from patients with neurological disorders who have consented to having tissue collected and stored for research either after they die, or during standard of care surgery to treat disorders such as epilepsy.
For example, during certain surgeries to treat epilepsy, epileptic brain tissue is removed to help eliminate seizures. Not all of the tissue is needed for pathological diagnosis, so some can be used for research. This is the tissue that Loeb and colleagues analyzed in their research.
They found that about 80% of the genes analyzed remained relatively stable for 24 hours — their expression didn’t change much. These included genes often referred to as housekeeping genes that provide basic cellular functions and are commonly used in research studies to show the quality of the tissue.
Another group of genes, known to be present in neurons and shown to be intricately involved in human brain activity such as memory, thinking and seizure activity, rapidly degraded in the hours after death. These genes are important to researchers studying disorders like schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease, Loeb said.
A third group of genes — the ‘zombie genes’ — increased their activity at the same time the neuronal genes were ramping down. The pattern of post-mortem changes peaked at about 12 hours.
“Our findings don’t mean that we should throw away human tissue research programs, it just means that researchers need to take into account these genetic and cellular changes, and reduce the post-mortem interval as much as possible to reduce the magnitude of these changes,” Loeb said.
“The good news from our findings is that we now know which genes and cell types are stable, which degrade, and which increase over time so that results from postmortem brain studies can be better understood,” he added.

Paris, Apr 17,2021: Eight people have died in France over blood clots following the vaccination with the AstraZeneca drug, the National Agency for Medicine and Health Product Safety (ANSM) said.

As of April 8, more than 2.72 million AstraZeneca vaccines had been used in France.

From April 2 to April 8, nine new thrombosis cases and two cases of isolated disseminated intravascular coagulation after the AstraZeneca vaccine had been confirmed in France.

The total number of blood clots cases after the inoculation with AstraZeneca in France stands at 23, including eight lethal ones.

The World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on March 11, 2020. To date, more than 139.5 million people have been infected with the coronavirus worldwide, with over 2.99 million fatalities, according to Johns Hopkins University.

France has confirmed more than 5.28 million coronavirus cases so far, with over 100,000 fatalities.

Washington , March 24: Good news for all the coffee lovers! A cup of strong coffee might do a lot more good than just helping you overcome the morning drowsiness. According to a new study, just one cup of strong coffee before exercising can help in weight loss.
The findings of the study were published in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition.
Scientists from the Department of Physiology of the University of Granada (UGR) have shown that caffeine (about 3 mg/kg, the equivalent of a strong coffee) taken half an hour before aerobic exercise significantly increased the rate of fat-burning.
They also found that if the exercise is performed in the afternoon, the effects of the caffeine are more marked than in the morning.

Despite the fact that its consumption in the form of supplements is very common, the scientific evidence for its beneficial claims is scarce.

“The recommendation to exercise on an empty stomach in the morning to increase fat oxidation is commonplace. However, this recommendation may be lacking a scientific basis, as it is unknown whether this increase is due to exercising in the morning or due to going without food for a longer period of time,” explained the lead author of this research, Francisco Jose Amaro-Gahete of the UGR’s Department of Physiology.
A total of 15 men (mean age, 32) participated in the research, completing an exercise test four times at seven-day intervals. Subjects ingested 3 mg/kg of caffeine or a placebo at 8 am and 5 pm (each subject completed the tests in all four conditions in random order).
The conditions prior to each exercise test (hours elapsed since last meal, physical exercise, or consumption of stimulant substances) were strictly standardised, and fat oxidation during exercise was calculated accordingly.
“The results of our study showed that acute caffeine ingestion 30 minutes before performing an aerobic exercise test increased maximum fat oxidation during exercise regardless of the time of day,” explained Francisco J. Amaro.
The existence of a diurnal variation in fat oxidation during exercise was confirmed, the values being higher in the afternoon than in the morning for equal hours of fasting.
These results also showed that caffeine increased fat oxidation during morning exercise in a similar way to that observed without caffeine intake in the afternoon.
In summary, the findings of this study suggested that the combination of acute caffeine intake and aerobic exercise performed at moderate intensity in the afternoon provides the optimal scenario for people seeking to increase fat-burning during physical exercise.

Brasilia [Brazil], April 4,2021: Deaths from COVID-19 in Brazil surpassed 330,000 on Saturday after 1,987 new fatalities registered, bringing the country’s death toll to 330,193, the Ministry of Health reported.
Besides, 43,515 new cases were registered, bringing the national count to 12,953,597.
Brazil is currently the global epicentre of COVID-19, ranking second in terms of deaths and cases worldwide, after the United States.

Sao Paulo, the most populated state in Brazil, has also been hardest hit by the virus with 2,520,204 cases and 76,750 deaths, followed by Rio de Janeiro, with 657,139 cases and 37,629 deaths.
Brazil has been experiencing a new wave of COVID-19 since January, which has in recent weeks overwhelmed the healthcare systems in most of the 27 states of the country.
As of Friday, Brazil has vaccinated over 24 million people against COVID-19. Among them, 18.8 million, or 8.9 per cent of the population, received the first dose and 5.2 million, or 2.49 per cent, received both doses.

Aurangabad, Apr 15,2021: Eight districts of Maharashtra’s Marathwada region recorded the biggest single-day spike of 8,468 novel coronavirus cases and 114 fatalities, health authorities here told media on Thursday.

Details from all the district headquarters collected by UNI show that out of the eight districts of the region, Nanded was the worst affected, which recorded the highest number of positive cases ie 1,172 cases and 28 deaths, followed by Aurangabad with 1718 new cases and 27 deaths, Parbhani registered 1172 new cases and 20 deaths, Osmanabad had 613 cases and 14 deaths ,Latur had 1761 cases and 8 deaths, Jalna had 701cases 8 deaths, Beed had 928 cases and 7 deaths and Hingoli had 136 cases 2 deaths.

Meanwhile, during the past 24 hours total of 58,952 fresh cases of COVID-19 highest spike out across the state, bringing the total number of infections in the state to 35,78,160.

The state also registered 278 more deaths, taking the death toll to 58,809.

Meanwhile, the highest 39,624 patients recovered and were discharged, taking the total number of recoveries to 29,05,721 across the state.

The state’s recovery rate currently stands at 81.21 per cent and the fatality rate is 1.64 per cent.

At present there are 6,12,070 active patients across the state undergoing treatment at different COVID-19 centres and hospitals, they added.

In view of the rising number of cases, the state government had imposeef a 15-days curfew in the state from 2000 hours on last night upto May 1 under the initiative of ‘ break the chain and exempting emergency services.

New Delhi, Mar 17,2021: As India recorded the year’s highest single-day spike of Covid-19 cases, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday warned of a second wave of the virus transmission and asked all States and Union Territories to take decisive steps before it gets too late.

India recorded a total of 28,903 new cases of COVID-19 during the past 24 hours, pushing the country caseload to 1,14,38,734, while the death toll soared to 1,59,044 with 188 more fatalities.

Mr Modi while addressing the chief ministers of all the States and UT said India has been appreciated around the world in its fight against coronavirus and decisive steps like micro-containment and restrictions must be taken immediately to prevent the “emerging second wave”.

“If we don’t act now, there will be a nationwide outbreak,” he warned.

Of the total fresh cases, 17,864 cases came alone from Maharashtra, while more than 70 per cent of total cases are recorded from Maharashtra, Punjab, Karnataka, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu.

The Prime Minister suggested micro-zoning of an area instead of complete lockdown and appealed for increasing daily tests and contact tracing.

Meanwhile, on the vaccination front, total inoculation reached close to 3.5 crores as per the latest data from Union Health Ministry.

However, the Opposition charged the government with moving with a “slow pace” in vaccination stating that only 0.045 per cent of the population has been vaccinated so far.

In a discussion in the Lok Sabha Congress member Manish Tewari alleged that the central government was more focused on the export of Covid vaccines instead of vaccinating its own people as over five crore doses been exported to date.

“The Government is giving more importance to vaccine diplomacy and playing with the lives of the people.’Mr Tiwari alleged.

All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIN) LS MP Syed Imtiaz Jaleel said the government envisages vaccinating 30 crore people, but as per the estimate in one year, only 10 crore people can be reached. “Our people are dying, people are standing in queues, we are supplying vaccines to other countries,” he stated.

Responding to the criticism of the pace of vaccination, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan in Lok Sabha said out of eight million people vaccinated all over the world so far, nearly three million are in India which is 36 per cent.

Dr Vardhan refuted the allegations of supplying vaccines to other countries at the expense of Indians, saying a balance has been stuck with due care.

He said in the coming days, to face any pandemic situation, integrated public health labs at block levels will to be set up. For tracing, an integrated health information portal will also be introduced, Dr Vardhan added.

The minister recalled Rs 35,000 crore has been arranged by the Finance Minister for vaccination. Pneumococcal vaccines which were available in only five States are now being supplied across the country, he stated.

On vaccine diplomacy, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar stated that India’s reputation as a pharmacy of the world has been reinforced.

“Our reputation as pharmacy of the world has been reinforced. Made-in-India vaccines supplied to 72 nations. Our ambassadors feel the warmth of people across the world,” Mr Jaishankar said in a statement.

Meanwhile, addressing a press conference, Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said the average COVID-19 vaccine wastage in India is 6.5 per cent. Vaccine wastage is the sum of vaccines discarded, lost, damaged, or destroyed.

Some countries have suspended the administration of the Oxford AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine over reports of blood clot-related complications.

Tokyo [Japan], March 21,2021: Writing on a physical paper can lead to more brain activity when remembering the information an hour later, suggest the findings of a recent study led by Japanese university students and recent graduates.
Researchers say that the unique, complex, spatial and tactile information associated with writing by hand on physical paper is likely what leads to improved memory.
“Actually, the paper is more advanced and useful compared to electronic documents because paper contains more one-of-a-kind information for stronger memory recall,” said Professor Kuniyoshi L. Sakai, a neuroscientist at the University of Tokyo and corresponding author of the research recently published in Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience. The research was completed with collaborators from the NTT Data Institute of Management Consulting.
Contrary to the popular belief that digital tools increase efficiency, volunteers who used paper completed the note-taking task about 25 per cent faster than those who used digital tablets or smartphones.
Although volunteers wrote by hand both with pen and paper or stylus and digital tablet, researchers say paper notebooks contain more complex spatial information than digital paper. Physical paper allows for tangible permanence, irregular strokes, and uneven shape, like folded corners. In contrast, the digital paper is uniform, has no fixed position when scrolling, and disappears when you close the app.
“Our take-home message is to use paper notebooks for information we need to learn or memorize,” said Sakai.
In the study, a total of 48 volunteers read a fictional conversation between characters discussing their plans for two months in the near future, including 14 different class times, assignment due dates and personal appointments. Researchers performed pre-test analyses to ensure that the volunteers, all 18-29 years old and recruited from university campuses or NTT offices, were equally sorted into three groups based on memory skills, personal preference for digital or analog methods, gender, age and other aspects.
Volunteers then recorded the fictional schedule using a paper datebook and pen, a calendar app on a digital tablet and a stylus, or a calendar app on a large smartphone and a touch-screen keyboard. There was no time limit and volunteers were asked to record the fictional events in the same way as they would for their real-life schedules, without spending extra time to memorize the schedule.
After one hour, including a break and an interference task to distract them from thinking about the calendar, volunteers answered a range of simple (When is the assignment due?) and complex (Which is the earlier due date for the assignments?) multiple choice questions to test their memory of the schedule. While they completed the test, volunteers were inside a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner, which measures blood flow around the brain. This is a technique called functional MRI (fMRI), and increased blood flow observed in a specific region of the brain is a sign of increased neuronal activity in that area.

Participants who used a paper datebook filled in the calendar within about 11 minutes. Tablet users took 14 minutes and smartphone users took about 16 minutes. Volunteers who used analog methods in their personal life were just as slow at using the devices as volunteers who regularly use digital tools, so researchers are confident that the difference in speed was related to memorization or associated encoding in the brain, not just differences in the habitual use of the tools.
Volunteers who used analog methods scored better than other volunteers only on simple test questions. However, researchers say that the brain activation data revealed significant differences.
Volunteers who used paper had more brain activity in areas associated with language, imaginary visualization, and in the hippocampus — an area known to be important for memory and navigation. Researchers say that the activation of the hippocampus indicates that analog methods contain richer spatial details that can be recalled and navigated in the mind’s eye.
“Digital tools have uniform scrolling up and down and standardized arrangement of text and picture size, like on a webpage. But if you remember a physical textbook printed on paper, you can close your eyes and visualize the photo one-third of the way down on the left-side page, as well as the notes you added in the bottom margin,” Sakai explained.
Researchers say that personalizing digital documents by highlighting, underlining, circling, drawing arrows, handwriting colour-coded notes in the margins, adding virtual sticky notes, or other types of unique mark-ups can mimic analog-style spatial enrichment that may enhance memory.
Although they have no data from younger volunteers, researchers suspect that the difference in brain activation between analog and digital methods is likely to be stronger in younger people.
“High school students’ brains are still developing and are so much more sensitive than adult brains,” said Sakai.
Although the current research focused on learning and memorization, the researchers encourage using paper for creative pursuits as well.
“It is reasonable that one’s creativity will likely become more fruitful if prior knowledge is stored with stronger learning and more precisely retrieved from memory. For art, composing music, or other creative works, I would emphasize the use of paper instead of digital methods,” said Sakai.

Mumbai, Apr 14 ,2021: Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday directed the district administrations to be more vigilant while enforcing curfew curbs, asking them not be indifferent in their efforts to break the chain of infection.

Addressing a meeting of all the divisional commissioners and collectors, Municipal commissioners and police officers via videoconferencing, he said, “Last time we tried to prevent corona infection, but now the test is more difficult and challenging, so all the collectors as well as the police should ensure that the restrictions in Break the Chain are enforced strictly.”

He told them not to have any confusion in mind while implementing the curbs.

The Chief Minister further said, “With the coronavirus mutating itself, the rate of infection is much higher than last year, with the younger generation becoming more infected. We are trying at the war footing level to make oxygen available. The state’s task force should understand exactly what district doctors should do about the changed treatment modalities. Careful steps need to be taken regarding proper use of oxygen as well as remediation.”

He said the district and police administration should check whether all the rules are being followed and there is no crowd anywhere, otherwise, the facilities should be closed by the local administration.

Mr Thackeray also instructed the district administration to ensure that the financial assistance announced for the weaker sections and the poor reach properly without any complaints.

Meanwhile,15-day curfew came into force across the state from 2000 hours tonight to break the chain of Covid.

Brasilia, Apr 7,2021: Brazil on Tuesday recorded more than 4,000 COVID-related deaths for the first time, health authorities reported.

With the latest additions the country’s total death toll is now almost 337,000, which is second only to the US, the BBC reported.

Hospitals are continuously witnessing an overwhelming number of people flocking to get admitted and in many cases people have been dying as they wait for treatment in some cities. The health authorities said that the country’s health system is on the brink of collapse in many areas.

But despite the spike in the number of cases and deaths from COVID President Jair Bolsonaro is conytinuing to oppose any lockdown measures to curb the outbreak.

He has continued to argue that the damage to the economy would be worse than the effects of the virus itself, and has tried to revert some of the restrictions imposed by local authorities in the courts.

Speaking to supporters outside the presidential residence on Tuesday, he criticised quarantine measures claiming they were linked to obesity and depression and led to unemployment. He did not comment on the 4,195 deaths recorded in the past 24 hours.

To date, Brazil has recorded more than 13 million cases of coronavirus, according to the health ministry. Some 66,570 people died of COVID-19 in March alone, more than double the previous monthly record.

Bhubaneswar, April 9,2021: A five-layered mask has been observed to be the “most effective preservative measure” with minimum leakage of the droplet, says a study by IIT Bhubaneswar which highlights that mask and adequate ventilation is the key to curb COVID-19 spread in indoor environments.
A press release by IIT Bhubaneswar said it explored aerosol droplets’ reach and leakage from various protective measures like face masks and shields during “breathing”.
The study has been conducted by Dr Venugopal Arumuru, Assistant Professor, School of Mechanical Science (SMS), and his team at IIT Bhubaneswar.
The breathing patterns simulated in the study imitated typical breathing frequencies that include breathing while standing at rest and also slightly longer breaths of healthy adults involved in a moderate activity like walking.
“The study highlights that the smaller droplets (diameter < 10um), expelled during breathing, can travel up to 4 ft in 5 sec. It strongly recommends not to use a surgical mask during normal conversations,” the release said.
It said that surgical mask and face shield combinations are discouraged in hospitals and other places where strict social distancing guidelines are difficult to follow.
“The leakage of the droplets is noticeable in these cases. A commercial N -95 mask completely impedes the leakage of the droplets in the forward direction. However, the droplets’ leakage from the gaps between the mask and nose is observed to be significant,” the release said.
“A five-layered mask is observed to be the most effective preservative measure with minimum leakage of the droplets,” it added.
The release said the peer-reviewed article has been selected as a “Featured Article” in the American Institute of Physics (AIP) Advances Journal.
Prof. R. V. Rajakumar, Director, IIT Bhubaneswar said the insttitute has contributed various technologies and research studies relevant to COVID-19.
“Breathing as a source of virus transmission is not adequately explored in the past. Our recent study is a step ahead in this direction. The study highlights that the commonly used protective measures like face masks and shields are unable to prevent the escape of droplets generated during breathing. The
leaked aerosol particle may contain the virus, which may trigger the airborne transmission of COVID-19 and other similar diseases,” he said.
“Under these circumstances, the conventional CO2 level measurement in confined space for assessing Air Quality Index may not be sufficient to regulate the airflow. New guidelines need to be formulated for deciding air circulation rate in confined space considering the leakage of the aerosol particle from protectives measures,” he added.

New Delhi, March 28,2021: India reported 62,714 new COVID-19 cases, 28,739 discharges and 312 deaths in the last 24 hours, as per the Union Health Ministry on Sunday.
The cumulative cases reached 1,19,71,624 including 1,13,23,762 recoveries, 4,86,310 active infections. The death toll reached 1,61,552.
With 3,04,809 active cases, Maharashtra remains the worst affected state. As many as 23,14,579 recovered from the disease while the state recorded 54,073 deaths.
According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the total number of samples tested up to March 27 is 24,09,50,842 including 11,81,289 samples tested yesterday.
A total of 6,02,69,782 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered so far in the country.

Mar 30,2021: A top health official in the United States has warned of “impending doom” amid rising cases of COVID-19, even as the country continues to outpace expectations on vaccine distribution.

During a news conference on Monday, Dr Rochelle Walensky, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said she was “going to reflect on the recurring feeling I have of impending doom”.

“We have so much to look forward to, so much promise and potential of where we are, and so much reason for hope, but right now, I’m scared,” she told reporters.

The US is averaging 63,000 new cases a day as of March 29, according to data from Johns Hopkins University – a rise that comes after a recent plateau in new infections.

Meanwhile, an average of 2.7 million vaccine jabs have been administered across the country per day during the last week, CNBC reported.

The CDC says more than 145.8 million vaccine doses have been administered as of Monday since the country’s vaccination drive began late last year, while 73 percent of seniors have received their first dose, according to the White House.
President Joe Biden said on Monday that 90 percent of all US adults will be eligible for the vaccine by April 19.

“For the vast, vast majority of adults, you won’t have to wait until May 1. You’ll be eligible for your shot on April 19,” Biden said during a news conference on Monday.

Andy Slavitt, acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said the announcement was “good news”, but warned that Americans need to continue to follow public health guidelines.

“We’re headed in the right direction. But we can’t slow down. Millions remain unvaccinated and at risk,” Slavitt said.

Some officials have criticised scaled-back mitigation measures as contributing to the increase in new cases.

Some states, such as Texas and Mississippi, have lifted restrictions and mask mandates in spite of CDC recommendations. Businesses are still able to enforce the restrictions.

White House Chief Medical Adviser Dr Anthony Fauci told CBS on Sunday that the rise in cases could be attributed to “things like spring break and pulling back on the mitigation methods”.

Meanwhile, some have weighed the possibility of the US government issuing “vaccination passports” to allow those fully vaccinated to work and travel freely.

But White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Monday the Biden administration would not issue a federal mandate for vaccine passports. “We believe it will be driven by the private sector,” Psaki said.

The US has reported more than 30.2 million COVID-19 cases and more than 549,000 coronavirus-related deaths as of Monday, according to the Johns Hopkins University tally.

Rome [Italy], March 30,2021: Italy on Monday reported 12,916 new COVID-19 infections as over half of its 20 regions turned into red zones, according to the latest data from the Ministry of Health.
The country’s death toll rose by 417 to 108,350, while the recoveries increased by 19,725 to over 2.87 million, according to the ministry.
Health Minister Roberto Speranza signed a March 26 order designating which regions fall into which color-coded zone, with the new rules going into effect on Monday and lasting through April 6.
In a bid to contain the new wave of the pandemic, the Italian government late last year divided the country into three color-coded areas — yellow or low risk, orange or medium risk, and red or high risk — with varying restrictions according to the level of transmission of the virus.
The new orders moved the regions of Calabria, Tuscany and Valle d’Aosta into the red zone, where they joined Campania, Emilia Romagna, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Lazio, Lombardy, Marche, Piedmont, Puglia, Veneto and the Autonomous Province of Trento.

Washington , March 29,2021: Scientists during a recent study found that Odontoblasts, the cells that form a tooth’s dentin function to sense cold, which can trigger a toothache. They also found a way to block the pathway to cold-sensitive teeth.
Researchers report in Science Advances that they have uncovered a new function for odontoblasts, the cells that form dentin, the shell beneath the tooth’s enamel that encases the soft dental pulp containing nerves and blood vessels. “We found that odontoblasts, which support the shape of the tooth, are also responsible for sensing cold,” says pathologist Jochen Lennerz, MD, PhD, one of the paper’s senior authors and medical director of the Center for Integrated Diagnostics at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). “This research contributes a new function to this cell, which is exciting from a basic-science standpoint. But we now also know how to interfere with this cold-sensing function to inhibit dental pain.”
Teeth that hurt from exposure to cold can occur for many reasons. Many people have experienced intense pain from cold when they have a hole in a tooth from an untreated cavity, for example. But teeth can also become very sensitive to cold from gum erosion due to aging. Some cancer patients treated with platinum-based chemotherapies have extreme cold sensitivity all over their bodies. “A breeze on the face registers as extreme pain in the teeth, which may even cause some patients to stop therapy,” says Lennerz.
Tooth pain has been notoriously difficult to study. A tooth’s hardness makes it a challenging tissue to study and inducing tooth pain in humans requires opening the tooth. The team of researchers, therefore, conducted experiments on mice whose molars were drilled under anesthesia. Mice with dental injuries manifest pain with their behavior; they drink up to 300% more sugar water than their litter mates without dental injuries, for example. In previous research, the team of investigators had discovered TRCP5, a protein encoded by the TRCP5 gene that is expressed in nerves in many parts of the body. Their earlier discovery allowed the researchers to zero in on TRCP5 as a mediator of pain from cold.

By studying genetically altered mice that did not have the TRCP5 gene, the researchers found that the mice with injured teeth did not manifest the increased drinking behavior and behaved like mice without dental injuries.
“We now have definitive proof that the temperature sensor TRCP5 transmits cold via the odontoblast and triggers nerves to fire, creating pain and cold hypersensitivity,” says Lennerz. “This cold sensitivity may be the body’s way to protect a damaged tooth from additional injury.”
Specifically, in response to cold, the TRCP5 protein opens channels in the membrane of odontoblasts, enabling other molecules, such as calcium, to enter and interact with the cell. If the tooth’s pulp is inflamed from a deep cavity, for example, TRCP5 is overabundant, causing increased electrical signaling via the nerves emerging from the root of the tooth and running to the brain, where pain is perceived. When gums recede from aging, teeth can become hypersensitive because the odontoblasts are sensing cold in a newly exposed region of the tooth. “Most cells and tissues slow their metabolism in the presence of cold, which is why donor organs are put on ice,” says Lennerz. “But TRPC5 makes cells more active in cold, and the odontoblasts’ ability to sense cold via TRPC5 makes this discovery so exciting.”
Lennerz confirmed the presence of the TRPCS protein in extracted human teeth, which was a technical tour de force. “Our teeth aren’t meant to be cut into ultra-thin layers so they can be studied under the microscope,” says Lennerz, who first had to decalcify the teeth and put them in epoxy resin before slicing them and identifying the TRPC5 channels in the odontoblasts.
The research team also identified a pharmacological target for minimizing tooth sensitivity to cold. For centuries, the oil of cloves has been used as a remedy for tooth pain. The active agent in oil of cloves is eugenol, which happens to block TRCP5. Toothpastes containing eugenol are already on the market, but the findings of this study may lead to more potent applications to treat teeth that are hypersensitive to cold. And there may be novel applications for eugenol, such as treating patients systemically for extreme cold sensitivity from chemotherapy. “I’m excited to see how other researchers will apply our findings,” says Lennerz.

New Delhi, Apr 5,2021: India on Sunday recorded a total of 1,03,558 COVID-19 cases- the highest ever daily surge since the outbreak of the pandemic- as per the Union Ministry of Health and family Welfare data this morning.

With the new addition, the country’s cumulative tally touched 125,89,067, while 52,847 recuperations during the same period put the total recoveries till date to 1,16,82,136.

Also, 478 more deaths mounted the toll to 1,65,101.

The recovery rate of the country currently stands at 92.80 per cent while the death rate is being pegged at 1.31 per cent.

Maharashtra continues to be the worst affected state in the country with 29,344 new cases taking the cumulative tally in the state to 4,31,896.

A total of 27,508 patients recovered from the ailment during the past 24 hours in the state taking the overall recoveries to 25,22,823 while 222 patients died during the same period pushing the death toll to 55,878.

Meanwhile, the vaccination campaign, the only likely solution to the pandemic, is in full swing as 16,38,464 more people received their shots on Sunday.

Till date 7,91,05,163 vaccines have been administered across the country, as per the Ministry’s data.

Sunday saw 8,93,749 Covid tests being carried out across the country.

New Delhi, Apr 3,2021: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday claimed that Delhi is seeing fourth wave of coronavirus but imposition of lockdown is not being considered yet as this time, the infection is less lethal.

Addressing a press conference here, AAP convenor said, ‘Fourth wave of coronavirus in Delhi. We are not considering imposing lockdown but if there is a need for it in the future, a decision will be taken after consultation.

There is decline in number of casualties and people being admitted to Intensive Care unit.In October, 2020, 1,700 people were admitted in ICU and 40 lives were lost, but today 4,000 patients are being admitted to ICU and seven -eight people are losing lives per day,” former IRS officer said.

Rising number of infections is a cause of concern but there is no need to worry as the Delhi government is vigilant about the increase in coronavirus infections and taking every essential step to contain the contagion, he said.
‘We are concentrating on testing, tracing and isolation to arrest the spread of the virus. The government is also focusing on hospital management- if somebody is taken ill, he/she should be provided best medical treatment.

We are focusing on vaccination front also, yesterday,71,000 people were vaccinated,’ Mr Kejriwal added.

The Chief Minister appealed to people people to wear face masks, maintain social distancing and regularly wash hands to ward off the virus.

Delhi on Thursday recorded 2,790 fresh cases of Covid-19 and nine more deaths from the virus.

Mexico City, Mar 26,2021: The number of people, who have died of the coronavirus in Mexico, has risen by 584 to 200,211 within the past 24 hours, the national Ministry of Health said.

The number of confirmed cases has increased by 5,787 to 2,409,459 within the same period of time.

The World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on March 11, 2020. To date, more than 125.38 million people have been infected with the coronavirus worldwide, with over 2.75 million fatalities, according to Johns Hopkins University.