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country are linked to “one particular place”.
“Rigorous contact tracing is on across 17 states which have r e por t e d c a s e s r e l a t e d to Tablighi Jamaat congregation,” the health ministry official said.
The Tablighi Jamaat congregation was held earlier last month in Delhi’s West Nizamuddin area, which has turned into a Covid-19 hotspot.
The number of coronavirus cases in Uttar Pradesh rose to 227 on Saturday with 94 cases linked to the religious congregation. Of these, 21 have fully recovered while others are undergoing treatment at hospitals, principal secretary (medical and health) Amit Mohan Prasad said.
Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said the number of coronavirus cases stood at 445 in the Capital but the situation was under control and there was no community transmission. There were 40 cases of local transmission while a majority of other patients either had foreign travel history or they were recently evacuated from Nizamuddin Markaz, he said.
Ministry of home affairs (MHA) spokesperson Punya Salila Srivastava said that through a massive effort, around 22,000 Jamaat members and their contacts have been quarantined.
Agarwal said India is increasing Covid-19 testing capacity progressively, adding that there is no need to panic but awareness is needed to fight the battle against the pandemic that has claimed over 60,000 lives globally and infected at least 1.2 million people since the December last year when it was first reported.
The health ministry official said the testing capacity has been ramped up significantly to over 10,000 tests per day to detect the infection, and emphasised on continuous compliance to lockdown and social distancing measures, along with personal and environmental hygiene, to win this “daily battle”.
Officials said about 75,000 tests have been conducted so far, with the number of daily tests doubling to more than 10,000 from about 5,000 a few days ago. While the number of government labs has increased to over 100, several private labs have also been roped in, Agarwal said. sure, but it is not too serious and the grid operators are well prepared to handle the sudden drop in power demand with ease.
“We have been asked by the grid operator to be flexible,” said Bharat Rohra, chief executive officer at Jindal Power Ltd. “Our grid handles such shocks on a daily basis when the solar generation goes out in the evening. The system can handle this too if it’s planned well.” three days, if all requirements are met. Anything related to Covid-19 must be cleared on a priority basis,” said a senior health ministry official, requesting anonymity.
As a result, the ecosystem is abuzz with activity.
Pharmaceutical major Zydus Cadila has already begun preclinical animal trials for two vaccine candidates, which act completely differently. “We got approvals within days. In another four to six weeks, we should have the results of the animal trials. Depending on the results of the pre-clinical trials, we will decide which to take forward and apply for approvals accordingly,” said Pankaj Patel, chairman, Zydus Cadila.
Through the week, and even on weekends, DST officials review discoveries and innovations. “We have been having meetings every day and have come up with strategies to prioritise our research work. The focus has been on developing improved diagnostic kits, looking for novel molecules or repurposed drugs for the treatment of the disease, and also developing a vaccine,” said Dr Renu Swarup, secretary, department of biotechnology.
The research group works under the guidance of the Science and Technology core group set up by K Vijayraghavan, principal scientific advisor to the government. His office has created a “S&T Core-team on Covid-19”, composed of experts who help define problems that need urgent and immediate solutions. They also work with academia and industry to help connect teams to solve these problems swiftly.
“The focus of the consortium is on better prevention of the disease by looking at vaccine development, better diagnostics, and therapy – both in terms of ancillary treatment needed and new molecules for treatment. Basically, the health care sector is currently focusing on how to deal with Covid-19 with what we have, our job is to look at what we should have and make it happen,” says Dr Anurag Agarwal, director, Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB).
Collaborations have resulted in the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) developing a biosuit to keep medical, paramedical and other personnel on the frontlines of the war against Covid-19 safe. “It has a special sealant as an alternative to seam sealing tape based on the sealant used in submarine applications. Presently, biosuits prepared using this glue for seam sealing by an industry partner has cleared test at Southern India Textile Research Association (Sitra), Coimbatore. DRDO can mass produce this glue through industry to support the seam sealing activity by suit manufacturers,” DRDO said in a statement.
The implementing agency of CAWACH is the Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE), a Dst-supported technology business incubator at IIT Bombay, long considered India’s equivalent of Stanford for its ability to link academia with industry.
SINE is working on boosting innovations in novel ventilators, respiratory aids, protective gears, solutions for sanitisers and disinfectants, diagnostics, therapeutics, and informatics. It will offer up to 50 potential start-ups financial assistance for innovations that can be brought to market within the next six months.
Meanwhile, in the background, the Indian Council of Medical Research is providing technical support by validating diagnostic kits for accuracy and specificity, having validated five of 20 kits for Covid-19 testing in two weeks.
Its apex virology laboratory at National Institute of Virology in Pune has cultured 11 virus strains of SARS-COV-2. “We got lucky that we managed to grow all 11 specimens. It will have longterm implication in vaccine and drug development,” a senior ICMR official said on condition of anonymity.