Still unexplained
The hunt for the origins of Covid-19 has for the past four years been a tangled web of politics, power struggles, and international finger-pointing.
In the last 24 hours India reported 3,277 new coronavirus patients and 128 deaths bringing the total number of cases in the country to 62,939, including 2,109 deaths, the Union Health Ministry said on Sunday.
The bulk of these cases was reported from five major cities – Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, and Chennai.
The government on Saturday revised its guidelines for mild COVID-19 cases. No Reverse transcription, Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) or RT-PCR tests, conducted to detect the presence of pathogens in the body, will be done for coronavirus patients showing mild symptoms before they are discharged, the Union Health Ministry said. The revised guidelines come amid a surge in COVID-19 cases that has increased the burden on hospitals.
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The Indian Council of Medical Research or ICMR, the nodal body for COVID-19 testing, has partnered with a biotech firm – the Bharat Biotech International Limited (BBIL) – to develop a fully indigenous vaccine for the virus, news ageny PTI reported. The vaccine will be developed using the virus strain isolated at the ICMR’s National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune, a statement by the top medical body on Saturday said. Coronavirus is spreading fast across the world yet no antiviral drug or vaccine are currently available while many countries continue the search for a cure.
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