Government institutions and pharma industry are examining if a 'cocktail' approach to making a multi-variant Covid-19 vaccine works against multiple strains of the ever-mutating virus, reports Sohini Das.
Adar Poonawalla said he was hopeful that Covovax, the Novavax vaccine made by SII, will be launched around October this year for adults and for children by the first quarter of next year, depending on DCGI approvals.
According to the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP), the air quality is considered to be in the emergency category if the PM2.5 and PM10 levels continue to be above 300 micrograms per cubic metre and 500 micrograms per cubic metre respectively for 48 hours or more.
The phase 3 trial findings indicate that Covaxin induces a robust antibody response with no severe vaccine-related adverse events or deaths reported among the trial participants, the authors of the study said.
The neighbouring cities of Faridabad (469), Greater Noida (464), Ghaziabad (470), Gurgaon (472) also recorded 'severe' air pollution levels.
People living in the national capital and in states such as Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu are more likely to contract COVID-19 due to prolonged exposure to high concentration of PM 2.5, according to a new pan-India study.
'Under Doval, foreign powers traditionally suspicious of India were wooed.' 'Enemies were embraced.'
The Covid-19 vaccine demonstrated an overall 90.4 per cent efficacy in phase 3 clinical trials, reports Sohini Das
Nasal droplets fall within 2 metres from a COVID-19 infected person and the aerosols can travel in air up to 10 metres, the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser said on Thursday, adding that proper ventilation can decrease the risk of transmission.
The Chinese capital Beijing was shrouded in thick brown dust on Monday morning as a result of heavy winds blowing in from Inner Mongolia and other parts of northwestern China.
'Almost 70 per cent production time of a vaccine is dedicated to quality control, which is done through several hundred tests.'
Scientists have used virus-like particles to predict how environmental factors affect the survival of the novel coronavirus on surfaces, and found that the COVID-19 virus may remain infectious longer as temperatures drop in winter.
The researchers noted that transmission rates of SARS-CoV-2 are much higher indoors than outdoors, and transmission is greatly reduced by indoor ventilation.
The central government's Air Quality Early Warning System for Delhi said a "significant improvement in air quality is not likely" owing to slow wind speed, particularly during night time, and contribution from farm fires.
Experts said while meteorological conditions were "moderately" favourable for dispersion of pollutants, a "very high" number of farm fires in Punjab was the primary reason for "severe" air quality.
Air pollution may lead to a faster spread of Covid-19 infection as it causes coughing and sneezing, government officials told a parliamentary panel on Friday, according to sources.
India is gearing up for the Festival of Lights in the times of the pandemic.
'Every time you put on a mask and take the mask off and adjust the fit, you are putting additional fatigue on the materials.'
The study also noted that the currently followed physical distancing guidelines are inadequate in curbing the transmission of COVID-19.
'The Afghans used to say that if there is any person whose name should be taken after Allah, it is Hindustani.'
According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the 24-hour average concentration of lung-damaging fine particles known as PM2.5 in Delhi-NCR shot up from 243 micrograms per cubic metre at 6 pm on Thursday (Diwali day) to 410 micrograms per cubic metre at 9 am on Friday, around seven times the safe limit of 60 micrograms per cubic metre.
The researchers discovered that just a 4.6 ppb reduction in long-term exposure to NO2 would have prevented 14,672 deaths among those who tested positive for the virus.
Exposure to higher air pollution levels for several hours a day can increase insulin resistance in the body and further affect those with diabetes, says diabetologist Dr Manoj Chawla.
'Covid patients have infected lungs and the pollutants will further damage it.'
Large areas of California have burned for weeks as fires consumed 2.3 million acres, or 20 times what burned all of last year, Governor Gavin Newsom said on Tuesday. In Washington state, wildfires virtually wiped out an entire small town Tuesday. In Oregon, thousands of people were forced to evacuate their homes Wednesday after fires broke out across the state, The Oregonian reported.
The N95 masks reduced a cough's initial velocity by up to a factor of 10, and limit its spread to between 0.1 and 0.25 meters, the researchers said.
Experts said unfavourable meteorological conditions -- calm winds and low temperatures -- and smoke from farm fires in neighbouring states led to a dense layer of haze as the air quality index entered the "severe" zone.
R S Dev from Bengaluru sent us these amazing recipes!
The central government's Air Quality Early Warning System for Delhi said a significant increase in the number of "fire points" was observed over Punjab (around 3,000), Haryana and Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday, which is likely to impact the air quality of Delhi-NCR and other parts of northwest India.
The results are based on epidemiological data collected up to third week in June 2020 and the researchers say a comprehensive evaluation will need to follow after the pandemic has subsided.
Dr Kanchan Sanyal, health and wellness advisor at Columbia Pacific Communities, a healthcare group, shares some crucial tips to stay safe.
'Between its natural immunity with Delta, in so many populations, and then getting on top of the vaccination (situation), I do not think India is going to have another bad wave.'
'Vaccination is the only safe way to get immunity.'
The smog reduced the visibility to merely 300 meters in the morning affecting traffic, an official of the India Meteorological Department said.
In their review of studies, published in the journal Aerosol and Air Quality Research, the scientists specifically drew focus on relative humidity, which is a measure of water vapour in the air compared to the total saturation of vapour that can exist in the air at its current temperature.
While a recent study has claimed that dining out, and grocery shopping could be more dangerous than air travel during the COVID-19 pandemic, partly due to special ventilation systems in airplanes, some scientists say such a comparison cannot be made without knowing if mask-wearing and social distancing norms are properly followed in each of these scenarios.
He said it was an infringement of copyright but did not threaten legal action.
According to the scientists, shorter adults and children could be at higher risk if they are located within the trajectory of the saliva droplets.
If gum infection is ignored or not taken care of at an early stage, it could lead to heart disease, diabetes, respiratory ailments, or stroke, warns Dr Karishma Jaradi, head dental surgeon at Dentzz Dental.
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