[srishiva]

https://www.rediff.com/news/intervie...a/20200504.htm

This says average age of people who died due to covid in India is 35 years ! I am not sure if this is right. Median age should be a better indicator though.

[Su-47]

Originally Posted by srishiva

This says average age of people who died due to covid in India is 35 years ! I am not sure if this is right. Median age should be a better indicator though.

This article has a lot of weird stuff like:

What is the difference between the common influenza virus and COVID-19?
There is no difference.

Anyway, here is a 4 day old link from TOI which talks about 34% deaths in 45-60 and more than half in 60+ group. Howsoever much one tortures this data, it will not confess to average age being 35 years.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...w/75481761.cms

[srishiva]

Originally Posted by Su-47

This article has a lot of weird stuff like:
Anyway, here is a 4 day old link from TOI which talks about 34% deaths in 45-60 and more than half in 60+ group. Howsoever much one tortures this data, it will not confess to average age being 35 years.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...w/75481761.cms

I think you have to be little alarmist to get heard
I too found the article useless.

[Behemoth]

There has been a huge spike in the new cases in the past 3-4 days. From an average of 1500 per day it touched 2400, then 2800 and then 3600+ yesterday. This acceleration is quite sharp and this is just when the lockdown is barely opened. When the lockdown opens and people are out on the roads, the increase will be really drastic.
The current rate means cases will grow. 10x in one month. So if we are currently at 46k+ cases now, we can expect 4.6 lacs by June 5th.
Guess this is th new normal and even India will need to accept these numbers. But at this rate India may become the 2nd worst affected country in less than a month.

[joslicx]

Originally Posted by Behemoth

There has been a huge spike in the new cases in the past 3-4 days. From an average of 1500 per day it touched 2400, then 2800 and then 3600+ yesterday. This acceleration is quite sharp and this is just when the lockdown is barely opened. When the lockdown opens and people are out on the roads, the increase will be really drastic.
The current rate means cases will grow. 10x in one month. So if we are currently at 46k+ cases now, we can expect 4.6 lacs by June 5th.

maybe you can try to plot on a log scale on the y-axis. That will give a better picture of the rate of growth.
Just a casual look at the numbers indicates the rate of growth is probably quite flat.

[DCEite]

Originally Posted by Behemoth

There has been a huge spike in the new cases in the past 3-4 days. From an average of 1500 per day it touched 2400, then 2800 and then 3600+ yesterday. This acceleration is quite sharp and this is just when the lockdown is barely opened. When the lockdown opens and people are out on the roads, the increase will be really drastic.
The current rate means cases will grow. 10x in one month. So if we are currently at 46k+ cases now, we can expect 4.6 lacs by June 5th.
Guess this is th new normal and even India will need to accept these numbers. But at this rate India may become the 2nd worst affected country in less than a month.

Yes number of cases have really spiked in the last few days. Not sure what could be the reason. I would have hoped the number to have stablized at around 1500-1800 per day and from there on it would have decreased slowly, but this spike was unexpected.

Perhaps its related to more number of testing or some particular state (maybe Maharashtra?) reporting a sudden surge in numbers.

But definitely its not related to the relaxation of lockdown (a.k.a Lockdown 3.0). The results of this relaxation would not come now but after 10-15 days.

[DigitalOne]

Couple of positive (pun intended ) updates:

Abbott introduces antibody test kits in India, to be available by May-end

These machines can run up to 100-200 tests per hour

Presence of antibody indicates that the person had been infected by the novel coronavirus, due to which the person’s immune system developed the antibodies

---
Gilead looks to make Remdesivir available globally

In India, people familiar with the development said the company is in discussions with Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, Cipla, Jubilant Lifesciences, and Strides Pharmaceuticals for granting them voluntary licences for manufacturing the drug.

[aadya]

Originally Posted by am1m

Question for the doctors (all of whom have been such a refreshing source of facts and information on this and other covid-19 threads, heartfelt thanks!).

Polio is different in a number of aspects
1. The virus is extremely stable, if I remember right the current vaccine virus has been cultured from the virus which was in the community in 1960s.
2. The immunity once vaccinated(full cycle) or diseased is long lasting.
3. The virus is rarely life threatening - it usually involves paralysis of singly limb and by that time our immunity takes over and restricts the virus replication.
4. Polio is almost exclusively spread by Feco-Oral route, though other routes are possible. Just clean drinking water and hand hygiene is enough cut the transmission.

[AZT]

Apple, Google ban use of location tracking in contact tracing apps

(Reuters) - Apple Inc and Alphabet Inc’s Google on Monday said they would ban the use of location tracking in apps that use a new contact tracing system the two are building to help slow the spread of the novel corona virus.

..

Both companies said privacy and preventing governments from using the system to compile data on citizens was a primary goal. The system uses Bluetooth signals from phones to detect encounters and does not use or store GPS location data.

Read more: https://in.reuters.com/article/us-he...-idINKBN22G28W

[srishiva]

Originally Posted by AZT

Apple, Google ban use of location tracking in contact tracing apps
..
Attachment 2002152

Read more: https://in.reuters.com/article/us-he...-idINKBN22G28W

This is if you use their tool (and APIs they provide) in a app that does contact tracing. If you dont use their tool and develop a app that independently does contact tracing using GPS and bluetooth, it should not matter.

[DCEite]

Originally Posted by DigitalOne

---
Gilead looks to make Remdesivir available globally

I don't know why the pharma industry is gung ho about Remdesivir. Results from a study by the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases showed that COVID-19 patients who took remdesivir usually recovered after 11 days, four days faster than those who didn’t take the drug. Is this really something to celebrate about ?

Why much cheaper drugs like HCQ take a backseat and more expensive (an earlier failed drug for Ebola) suddenly start finding takers ?

There is more to it that meets the eye.

[psbali]

Originally Posted by DCEite

I don't know why the pharma industry is gung ho about Remdesivir. Results from a study by the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases showed that COVID-19 patients who took remdesivir usually recovered after 11 days, four days faster than those who didn’t take the drug. Is this really something to celebrate about ?

Why much cheaper drugs like HCQ take a backseat and more expensive (an earlier failed drug for Ebola) suddenly start finding takers ?

There is more to it that meets the eye.

Remdesivir is hogging all the limelight that would otherwise belong to Favipiravir. For eg Favipiravir is reported to be more efficient at fighting covid 19. There was a statement from China that the same is "clearly effective". A simple google search will show you that a lot of countries like Russia, Indonesia etc have stockpiled on favipiravir.

Remdesivir enjoys patent protection while favipiravir patents have expired and can be manufactured en masse.

It is also interesting to note that this is the third time remdesivir is being pushed as a treatment for an illness. It was originally tested to treat marburg virus and was found ineffective . It was later repurposed for Ebola and it again failed to treat it effectively. Covid 19 is the 3rd attempt by Gilead.

Anyway this is just my point of view based on different articles and like a layman I have compared remdesivir with favipiravir. My views could be wrong/untrue as I have zero experience with how the medical industry and medical research works.


I really hope and pray that an effective treatment is found soon that brings down mortality rates massively especially for people having co-morbidities. I recently read that a young person in Pune lost his fight with covid19 as he used to regularly consume alcohol. the news didnt use the word alcoholic but regular consumption.

[rdst_1]

I think we are now starting to see the effect the high number of cases are having on our medical infrastructure and whatever has been done in the name of preparedness during the last 40 days.
Someone I know shared how his friend's aunt's family is being treated in Wadala, Mumbai. The aunt's husband died due to CoVID. Now the whole family is being held in a quarantine facility but no test has been done for the last 3 days, despite them being in direct contact with the deceased. I am guessing that most state govts have decided not to conduct any tests unless the person shows severe symptoms. But to not test direct contacts of a known case is preposterous, especially while holding them in institutional quarantine. When the guy tried complaining to the police , he was reprimanded and told to let the doctors do their jobs. Have we such extreme shortage of test kits now that we are not even gonna test direct contacts? And what effect will such a policy have on how the fight against Coronavirus progresses in India.

[ritz3645]

Originally Posted by rdst_1

I Now the whole family is being held in a quarantine facility but no test has been done for the last 3 days, despite them being in direct contact with the deceased.

Google is truly the best friend.


Asymptomatic Coronavirus Patients in Mumbai to be Tested After 5 Days: BMC


https://www.india.com/news/india/cor...s-bmc-4002983/

[vivek95]

Originally Posted by rdst_1

I think we are now starting to see the effect the high number of cases are having on our medical infrastructure and whatever has been done in the name of preparedness during the last 40 days.
Someone I know shared how his friend's aunt's family is being treated in Wadala, Mumbai. The aunt's husband died due to CoVID. Now the whole family is being held in a quarantine facility but no test has been done for the last 3 days, despite them being in direct contact with the deceased. I am guessing that most state govts have decided not to conduct any tests unless the person shows severe symptoms. But to not test direct contacts of a known case is preposterous, especially while holding them in institutional quarantine. When the guy tried complaining to the police , he was reprimanded and told to let the doctors do their jobs. Have we such extreme shortage of test kits now that we are not even gonna test direct contacts? And what effect will such a policy have on how the fight against Coronavirus progresses in India.

Let's understand this in detail first. When did the relatives come into direct contact with the deceased patient after he was tested positive. It is very much prudent not to test the asymptomatic direct contacts within the first 5 to 7 days. Chances of the result showing negative will be very high if the viral load is low. If they have not been tested 3 days after moving into quarantine, ask them to hold on. They may be tested after 5 or 7 days and this is a rational approach.

-Dr. Vivek