Coronavirus live updates: Vaccine availability to see exponential rise in coming months, says Harsh Vardhan

A day after Rajasthan declared mucormycosis an epidemic, Gujarat followed suit on Thursday. Other states like Punjab, Haryana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Telangana have declared it a “notifiable disease” under the Epidemic Diseases Act, making it mandatory to report every mucormycosis case to the state government.At least 10 states—Delhi, Telangana, Odisha, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Gujarat, Karnataka and Kerala—said they have either run out of the drugs to treat the deadly infection or stocks are fast depleting. Some of the states said there were no stocks in private pharmacies.

President Joe Biden on Thursday signed into law the Covid-19 Hate Crimes Act that overwhelmingly passed Congress in a rare show of bipartisanship following a spate of high-profile attacks on Asian Americans in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic."Silence is complicity and we cannot be complicit. We have to speak out. We have to act," Biden told lawmakers. "That's what you've done. And I can't thank you enough. I'm proud today."The legislation passed the Senate by a vote of 94-1 in April and the House of Representatives by 364-62 earlier this month. Both chambers are narrowly controlled by Democrats.Reports of violence against Asian Americans have spiked since the start of the pandemic last year. Activists and police said anti-Asian sentiment was fed by comments from former President Donald Trump blaming the pandemic on China, using terms such as “kung flu.”

The CoWin system is unlikely to have a feature that will ask citizens booking appointments for vaccination about their Covid-19 status or disable appointments for those who had the infection but did not complete the three-month period after recovery.

On Thursday, the daily positivity rate (percentage of people who test positive among those tested) in the state was 10.6%, the lowest in months. It was 9.3% in mid-February, when the second wave began, and rose to 29% on April 4. With the increase in testing, it has been steadily declining since.

Vaccination will be through online appointments only on Friday and Saturday, meaning people cannot walkin to the centres on both these days, said the BMC. Vaccination will be held from 10am-3pm.The arrangement is part of the larger strategy adopted by the civic body this week to avoid crowding at vaccination centres. Civic chief I S Chahal had passed an order on May 12, saying vaccination on Monday to Wednesday would be only through walk-ins for citizens above 60 years, while that on Thursday to Saturday would be exclusively through online appointments for all above 45 years. Since Monday’s drive was cancelled due to the cyclone, the walk-in drive was extended till Thursday.

The interval between two doses of Covishield has been increased to 12-18 weeks as the first dose developed strong immunity but the four-week gap for Covaxin is unchanged as the immunity after the initial shot is not as high. Explaining the government decision to make a three month interval mandatory for Covishield, ICMR head Dr Balram Bhargava said the immunity post the first shot was found to be quite strong. He said a three-month gap will give the best results. “On the other hand, immunity level after the first shot of Covaxin is not as high and this means the second dose should be taken after four weeks to ensure full efficacy,” Dr Bhargava said.

Delhi recorded 3,231 new Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, the lowest in the last 50 days, but fatalities remained high at 235. The positivity rate has dipped further to 5.5%, which is the lowest since April 4.

The overall Covid-19 positivity rate continues to decline, holding out hope that the worst of the second wave is over with more districts reporting a progressive fall in positivity along with increased testing over the last three weeks. The better news is, however, tempered with concern over positivity rate remaining high in some states with 22, including West Bengal, Karnataka, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh, reporting over 15% positivity, health ministry data shows.

Close to 5,500 people have suffered from black fungus or mucormycosis in India till Wednesday, with 126 of them succumbing to the infection that is increasingly being seen in Covid-19 patients. Maharashtra accounts for 1,500 cases and 90 deaths. Fourteen people have died in Haryana and eight in UP. Two hundred patients, most above 50 years and with one or more comorbidities, in Delhi are currently suffering from mucormycosis.

Two anti-virals — Remdesivir and Favipiravir — and Tocilizumab injections being used in the Covid-19 treatment have witnessed massive shortages over the last few months. Antibiotics such as Azithromycin and Doxycycline, steroids including dexamethasone, methylprednisolone and prednisolone are in huge demand with Covid-19 infections surging across the country.

Argentina will go into total lockdown for nine days as it grapples with the worst phase yet of the Covid-19 pandemic, President Alberto Fernandez said Thursday."We must accept that we are in a critical moment," Fernandez said as Argentina recorded 35,000 new cases in one day. The pandemic has claimed nearly 73,000 lives in the South American giant."We must come together to overcome this catastrophe," the president added.Only businesses deemed essential will remain open under the lockdown, which starts Saturday. In-person classes will be suspended, as will social, religious and sporting events.

Pitching for increased ventilation, the advisory, issued by the office of principal scientific advisor (PSA) to the government on Thursday, said droplets and aerosols become quickly concentrated and greatly increase the risk of transmission in “closed unventilated indoor” spaces.

India reported 2,59,410 fresh cases, a drop from over 2.76 lakh recorded on the previous day, as per TOI’s Covid database collated from state government figures. The sevenday average of daily cases has now fallen steadily for the past 12 days. It stood at 2,83,676, down 27% from the peak of 3,91,263 recorded on May 8.