[ad_1]
|
 |
- India on Thursday reported 31,923 new cases and 282 fatalities, taking the cumulative caseload to 33,563,421 (301,640 active cases) and fatalities to 446,050.
- Worldwide: Over 230.88 million cases and over 4.73 fatalities.
- Vaccination in India: 833,990,049 doses. Worldwide: Over 6.01 billion doses.
|
|
|
| TODAY’S TAKE |
| Any takers for anti-Covid drugs & products? |
 |
- With the second wave waning, the sale of Covid-19 mitigation drugs and products like sanitisers, masks, immunity booster Vitamin C, pulse oximeters and even Remdesivir has plunged by about 90% across India.
- Till June this year, the All-India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists Associations had pegged the decline in sale of masks and sanitisers at about 40%. Its president Jagannath Shinde told TOI: “Over 1.5 lakh vials of Remdesivir have expired with stockists in Maharashtra as there have been few takers and its manufacturers are not accepting expired stock despite several letters to them. Almost 200 stockists across India had a month’s supply of Remdesivir but these have now expired. Some stockists had 100-500 vials.”
- Shinde said there was still some demand for Remdesivir in states like Kerala, but most other states recorded a major drop. (During the initial days of the second wave, Remdesivir was being used frequently. Studies later showed that it was only beneficial to a niche group of patients,” he said.)
- All-India Mask Manufacturers’ Association president Anshumali Jain quoted a 90% drop in sales of masks since the second wave waned.
- Sources in Maharashtra Chemists & Druggists Association stated that the sale of surgical masks, sanitisers and pulse oximeters during the second wave of Covid-19 was 50% of the sales during the first wave. This dropped further as the second wave subsided in June. It has become almost negligible now.
- The drop in sales of masks and sanitisers is alarming. Dr Sanjay Pujari of the ICMR National Task Force on Clinical research for Covid-19 pointed out that people “must not let their guard down” as the economy slowly opens up and “must continue to follow all necessary norms”.
|
|
|
Box
|
| TELL ME ONE THING |
| UK recognises Covishield but unsure about CoWin certificate |
 |
- The United Kingdom has included Covishield, the AstraZeneca shot made by Serum Institute of India, among the Covid-19 vaccines recognised in the country, but fully vaccinated Indian travellers will still have to quarantine upon arrival due to differences over India’s vaccination certificate, CoWin.
- “We’re clear Covishield is not a problem. The UK is open to travel and we’re already seeing a lot of people going from India to the UK,” Alex Ellis, British high commissioner to India, said.
- Reports say the UK has raised doubts over the credentials of CoWin’s certification process. Ellis, without elaborating on the concerns, said the British authorities are in talks with India to resolve the issue. “We have been having detailed technical discussions regarding certification, with the builders of the CoWin app and the NHS app (UK’s certificate)… They’re happening at a rapid pace, to ensure that both countries mutually recognise the vaccine certificates issued by each other,” he said.
- The chief of India’s National Health Authority, R.S. Sharma, who also heads the CoWin team, insisted India’s verification system is foolproof. “It is a foolproof certificate with each and every information validated on the system,” Sharma told TOI.
|
|
|
Follow news that matters to you in real-time.
Join 3 crore news enthusiasts. |
|
|
|
Written by: Rakesh Rai, Judhajit Basu, Sumil Sudhakaran, Tejeesh N.S. Behl
Research: Rajesh Sharma
|
|
|
|
[ad_2]
Source link
What's your reaction?
0Smile0Angry0LOL0Sad0Love
