Wednesday, 11 November 2020

Winter Pollution can make Covid-19 severe

 

Winter Pollution can make Covid-19 severe 

  • The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said that there was a clear indication that pollution was a major contributor to COVID­-19 mortality.
  • At a Health Ministry press meeting, the council also said that children who were thought to be better protected were now showing some evidence of being spreaders or even super­spreaders.
  • This has been seen in Mizoram, where the number of active COVID cases is small. Children (under 17) form only a very small portion (8%) of the total active cases across India
  • Speaking about Kawasaki disease occurring alongside COVID­-19 it was an autoimmune disease that affected children less than five years of age. “It is less common in India. I don’t think we have had any experience of Kawasaki with COVID­-19 in India so far. That is a very rare condition
  • Advising against any hurry to declare a COVID­free status, the Health Ministry said the idea was to tackle the virus slowly and steadily. “What is a matter of concern now is the fact that States like Kerala, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Delhi are not showing an improvement to the level we were expecting. 58% of new deaths are reported in five States and Union Territories [Maharashtra, West Bengal, Delhi, Chhattisgarh, and Karnataka] in the last 24 hours,
  • Winter could be playing a role as is the fact that we may be becoming lax about the prevention measures. Slowing down containment strategy is also playing an important role in the pandemic
  • 78% of the new recovered cases were concentrated in 10 States and Union Territories, with Maharashtra leading with more than 9,000 single­day recoveries. Additionally, 76% of the new confirmed cases were from 10 States and UTs. India’s case fatality rate (CFR) stood at 1.5%.
Source: The Hindu

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