Covid India Updates: Does black fungus spread through onions? Know the truth

Reacting to the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA)'s rejection of Bharat Biotech's Covaxin jab for emergency use authorization, the Union Health Ministry on Friday said that it respects the decision taken by the authority but it will not have any impact on India's vaccine plan.

"Every country's regulatory system might have some things in common with others and some things different. We respect it. The scientific framework is the same but its nuancing is as per the context. All of these are scientific considerations and keeping those in mind, the nuancing might be different, especially in those countries where science is strong. Our manufacturing is strong. They have decided this. We respect it," Member-Health, Niti Aayog Dr VK Paul said.

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Maharashtra recorded as many as 11,766 coronavirus cases on Friday, taking the tally of infections in the state to 58,87,853, the death toll increased to 1,06,367 with 406 new fatalities. Earlier in the day, the state health department had said that between May 26 to June 10 this year, a total of 8,074 COVID-19 deaths took place. This was a revised figure, it said, without disclosing the earlier estimate.

As the number of cases was high in April and May, there was more burden on the government machinery which in some cases led to delayed recording of data, it said.

As per reports and medical experts, by breaking the chain of transmission by following COVID appropriate behaviour, one can ensure lesser strain on health infrastructure and better quality of care. 

Only 27 per cent of those who tried to get Covid vaccine appointment on the CoWIN/Aarogya Setu app in the last seven days were able to do so, said a survey by LocalCircles. The survey sought to understand the magnitude of issues with the CoWIN portal that still persist. When people were asked about their experiences with the CoWIN site, 21 per cent said "was able to register and get an appointment easily", while 6 per cent said "was able to register after many attempts and get an appointment".

Breaking down the poll further, 44 per cent said "was able to register easily but couldn't get an appointment", 20 per cent said "was able to register only after many attempts but couldn't get an appointment", while 9 per cent said "wasn't able to register due to OTP or other issues".

On an aggregate basis, the findings of the poll indicated that only 27 per cent of those who tried to get the Covid vaccination appointment on CoWIN site or Aarogya Setu app in the last seven days were able to do so. This question in the survey received 8,278 responses.

-- IANS

US pharmaceutical Pfizer's vaccine against Covid-19 can effectively neutralise Beta, Gamma variant of the Coronavirus disease, according to a study. The study led by researchers from the New York University, US, showed that the Pfizer BNT162b2 vaccination worked well against the majority of variants as the earlier virus, but the vaccine neutralised the South African variant and the Brazil variant with a 3-fold decrease in titer.

"Our interpretation of the results is that the vaccine antibodies are very powerful, and even if you lose 3-fold of the titer, there is still plenty of antibody there to neutralize the virus. We believe the findings demonstrate that the vaccines will remain protective against the variants that we tested," said Nathaniel "Ned" Landau, Professor in the Department of Microbiology at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine, in New York City.

The study, published in the journal mBio, also found that monoclonal antibody cocktail consisting of casirivamab and imdevimab might be less effective against SARS-CoV-2 variants in laboratory experiments.

Lab experiments on Regeneron pharmaceuticals' REGN-COV2 -- a 2 recombinant monoclonal antibody cocktail -- showed that casirivamab had lost some of its neutralising activity against the South African and Brazilian variants and the cocktail was 9- to 15-fold decreased in titer, the team said.

-- IANS

India on Friday recorded as many as 91,702 new Covid cases, taking the cumulative caseload to 29.3 million, according to Union Health Ministry. The country has registered above the 3,000-mark once again with 3,403 more people succumbing to the disease. With this, the death toll in the country has jumped to 3,63,079.

The country now has a total of 11,21,671, active cases, declining by 46,281, which comprises 4 percent of the total caseload, the data stated. India's recovery rate now stands at 94.77 percent. 

Meanwhile, 1,34,580 people were discharged after recuperating from Covid-19 on Thursday. This took the total number of discharges to 2,77,90,073.

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A post is going viral on social media in which it is being claimed that everyone needs to take special precautions while buying onions, as it can also cause black fungus infection. The outer covering of onions can also cause mucormycosis. Therefore, on whichever food item you see anything like black fungus, immediately destroy it carefully.

Regarding this claim, Dr Randeep Guleria, Director, AIIMS said that there is a need to manage blood sugar level to prevent fungal infection in patients infected with coronavirus. Talking about mucormycosis, Guleria said, the most important thing to remember about this is that mucormycosis is not a black fungus, it is a misnomer. Due to the lack of blood in this infection, the patient's skin gradually starts to fade and looks black, which is why people started calling it black fungus. But it does not spread through anything else.

There are many myths doing the rounds on the internet about Covid19. The latest is if the coronavirus can travel on radio waves or mobile networks. Debunking the myths, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting reveals that viruses can not travel on radio waves or mobile networks. Covid19 is spreading in many countries that do not have a 5G mobile network.