Corporate and government offices, which are resuming operations after the two-month lockdown, have been advised by various state-level Pollution Control Boards to take the help of bio-medical waste handlers to dispose-off “disinfectant consumables” and anti-Covid safety gears used by their employees while on duty. This may add to the workload of medi-waste handlers.
India currently has over 1,82,00 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 5,164 deaths, according to the Union Health Ministry. According to the World Health Organisation's COVD-19 tracker, India is the seventh-most affected nation in terms of coronavirus cases after the US, Brazil, Russia, UK, Spain and Italy.
As healthcare workers deputed in the treatment of coronavirus patients are at the higher risk of contracting virus, a pivotal study done by India's apex medical research body has revealed a significant reduction (>80 per cent) in the odds of COVID19 infection in the HCWs was identified with the intake of six or more doses of HCQ prophylaxis.
A governmental panel dealing with Covid-19 testing and surveillance has asked the health ministry to enhance testing capacity and get state governments to ease the process of registering phlebotomists.
The government had in 2016 decided to close Indian Drugs and Pharmaceutical Ltd and Rajasthan Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Ltd. It had also announced strategic sale of Hindustan Antibiotics Ltd and Bengal Chemicals and Pharmaceutical Ltd.
In late May, BDR had sought the approval of India’s drug regulator to make and sell remdesivir in India without entering into an arrangement with Gilead. The Mumbai-based company has now signed a contract to make the drug for Cipla, which is one of the licensed companies.
The recommendations come as four Indian drug companies, Cipla, Hetero, Mylan and Jubilant, gear up to get an approval for the drug in the treatment of Covid-19.
A comparative analysis of impact of Covid-19 on consumer sentiments in 15 countries reveals that Indians are more concerned about their physical well-being, health of their family members, making upcoming payments and as a result are delaying large purchases.
Private diagnostic centres and hospital laboratories have seen a 50% increase in the number of requests for RT-PCR tests within a day of home ministry’s new guidelines for opening up lockdown.
During his interaction with the captains of the pharmaceutical industry, and office-bearers of the pharma associations through the video conference, he also said that the country should become Aatmanirbhar in Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API).
According to the study, published in the journal ACS Nano, the test uses a simple assay containing gold nanoparticles to detect a colour change when the virus is present.
She was speaking in a webinar on 'Pharma and Healthcare' Engaging With Customers in Uncertain Times; Business Model Post-COVID-19', organised by CorpGini.
The survey conducted by LocalCircles, a community social media platform, received around 40,000 responses on five questions related to public perception of government and private hospitals for COVID-19 treatment.
To promote safe behaviour, Nicotex has collaborated with the efforts of Karnataka to protect the frontline workers, who are presently engaged in field work under high vulnerability amidst the COVID-19 outbreak.
The three Indian companies are Alpha Design Technologies Pvt Ltd, Bharat Forge Ltd and Medha Servo Drives Pvt Ltd, the space organisation said in a statement on Friday.
In an open letter to The Lancet’s editor, Richard Horton, and the paper’s authors, the scientists asked the journal to provide details about the provenance of the data and called for the study to be independently validated by the World Health Organization or another institution.
"Gilead Sciences has applied seeking marketing authorisation for its anti-viral drug remdesivir to India's Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO). The CDSCO will examine the application with the help of the expert committee. It will take a final decision based on the recommendations of the expert committee," a source said.
Projection of hospital beds required for Covid-19 patients should reflect actual needs of each state and not assumed to be 20%, one of the Centre’s empowered group has suggested.
The Covid-19 case fatality rate (CFR) for India was 2.84% on Friday, for the first time below 3% in the last one-and-a-half months. The rate indicates the percentage of people who have died of the pandemic among the total number of people who have tested positive.
Drugmaker Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd said on Friday that it received Indian regulatory approval to start clinical trials of pancreatitis drug nafamostat mesilate in COVID-19 patients.
The algae in the respirator conduct photosynthesis and remove carbon dioxide (C02) and other air pollutants while producing oxygen, making the air passing through it more breathable, the researchers from Lovely Professional University (LPU) in Punjab said.
In India with the country in lockdown, we only are made aware of few clusters, namely, in Nizamuddin, Chennai vegetable market, Nanded pilgrimage and Mumbai slums. Moving forward, the formation of clusters will define the course of the epidemic in India.
Karnataka and its capital Bengaluru have managed to keep coronavirus infection numbers low as compared with other regions.
In another setback for former Ranbaxy promoters Malvinder and Shivinder Singh, a Singapore Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed their appeal against the order of the Singapore High Court which had earlier refused to set aside the arbitration award in favour of Japanese drug firm Daiichi Sankyo Inc.
