Topic: Updates by National Medical Associations

23^rd April, 2022, Saturday, 9.30-10.30 am 

• USA Update: The CDC came out with its top three causes of death in the US in 2021. Covid-19 was ranked 3rd in the top 3 causes of deaths with 415,000 deaths due to covid 19, following behind all cancers (605k) and heart disease (693k). We are living in a new world of surveillance. The sewage sampling sites are not evenly distributed across the country. There has been an increase in the number of cases: 41% for Minnesota, 37% for Wisconsin, 35% for California, 37% for Texas and 33% for Florida. Majority of cases in the US are BA.2; few are BA.2.12.1(which are beginning to rise) and BA.1.1. The B.1.1.529 constitutes 0.5% of total cases. The FDA authorized the first breath test for corona virus on April 14, 2022.This was released based on the data from 2400 people with or without symptoms. It accurately identified 91.2% of positive samples and 99.2% of negative samples, so its very sensitive and specific. A negative result means that they are truly negative because the test has 99.6% negative predictive value. People who are positive should consider a PCR test. A judge had said that it was no longer necessary to wear masks. Now every major airline in the US and many airports, though not all, would no longer enforce face masking. The same goes for Uber, Lyft, Greyhound and Amtrak. The CDC is continuing assessment that at this time, an order requiring masking in the indoor transportation corridor remains necessary for public health. CDC will continue to monitor public health conditions to determine whether such an order remains necessary. CDC believes that this is a lawful order, well within its legal authority to protect public health. The Dept. of Justice has filed an appeal. The federal mask mandate was announced in January 2021, replacing the previous masking rules in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic. This mandate was set to last until at least May 3^rd.
• Singapore Update: The Covid Task Force has announced the reduction of Disease Outbreak Response System Condition (Dorscon) level from orange to yellow. Lot of measures like group size – it used to be 10 persons and below have been lifted. Mask is still required indoors, but not outdoors. Now everybody can go back to work. At workplace you dont need to wear a mask if you are sitting by yourself. Earlier everybody in the office needed to wear masks. For big events more than 1000 people, there are no restrictions on capacity. Predeparture tests before coming to Singapore are not required if fully vaccinated. TraceTogether App requirements have been lifted. The number of cases in the ICU due to covid are now zero. We have vaccinated people with 4th dose for people above 80 years but yesterday the Expert Committee, which is part of the Task force has said that if you are 60-79 you do not need booster. It is optional. There was a massive omicron wave, which was 90% BA.2. We have vaccination of 97% and those who received booster is >70%.

• South Africa Update: The numbers are going up in the last one week. In the last 24 hours, 4631 new cases were reported; death rate has gone up to 10 in last 24 hours. Yesterday 25,000 tests were done; positivity rate was 10.5. Admission in hospital were 2100 out of that 163 patients were in ICU and 53 went on ventilation. Recovery rate is 96.7%. Active cases still 22k-23k.Vaccine is 34.5 million, booster vaccination is going very slow. Borders are open, if fully vaccinated PCR is not required, just need a vaccination certificate. Now people are doing rapid tests at home and often do not disclose their status. The fifth wave was expected in May but it looks it has already started.

• India Update: There seems to be a trend towards having more cases. We reached a state when we had only 500-600 cases but since last two weeks there has been an increase in cases. Today there were almost 2562 cases. This is partly because of relaxation of use of mask by the states of Delhi and Maharashtra. Delhi now has more than 1040 cases due to relaxation of Covid-appropriate behavior particularly mask wearing. But seeing an upward trend, not wearing mask has been made punishable. Even in Maharashtra also the number of cases is increasing due to relaxation of norms. Unfortunately, now that the number of cases has come down, many states have stopped reporting the number of cases to that extent that the data available is not absolutely correct but we dont feel that we are going towards fourth wave because the numbers are still low and cases are mainly from two states (Delhi and Maharashtra) where mask wearing and other covid appropriate behavior have been relaxed. Over 180 crore doses of vaccine have been administered so far. Almost 3 lakh people have received booster dose. Vaccination of children aged 8-14 years is being debated. The vaccine usage has come down to the extent that the Serum Institute of India has stopped production of vaccine as they have millions of doses with them not being used. They are ready to give them free of cost to any state or any nation. Hospitalization is much less and is less than 1%. But deaths are occurring. Variant BA.2 and BA.3 have not significantly gone up. Only 300 cases so far. Apart from Covid appropriate behavior and masking, there are no restriction. Everything has returned to normal. No restrictions in domestic flights except for masks. For international travel, no PCR is required.

• Pakistan Update: Cases have gone down but the active cases are 3368. Last week there were 108 cases, today we had 82 new cases. This can be because of political rallies where people do not wear masks. There was one death reported in the last 24 hours. If people behave intelligently and the government imposes some restrictions on these rallies, we could be corona free very soon. There are more new cases than recovered cases. Around 56.6% population has been vaccinated and about 2 lakh vaccines are administered every day.

Member National Medical Associations

Dr Yeh Woei Chong, Singapore, Chair of Council CMAAO

Dr Marthanda Pillai, India Member World Medical Council, Advisor CMAAO

Dr Akhtar Hussain, South Africa

Dr Salma Kundi, Pakistan

Invitees

Dr Monica Vasudev, USA

Dr Joshua Lim

Dr Ong Joon Hong Derrick 

Dr James Tan Siah Heng

Dr Patrician La Brooyi

Dr S Sharma, Editor IJCP Group

Moderator

Mr Saurabh Aggarwal