With inputs from Dr Monica Vasudev

Covid-19: India Update

Active cases in India have declined to 53,852. In the last 24 hours, 7533 new cases were reported. The recovery rate is 98.69%. The current daily positivity rate stands at 3.62% and the weekly positivity rate is 5.11%. Yesterday, a little over 2 lakh tests were carried out taking the total number of tests conducted so far to 92.63 crore. The number of vaccine doses administered in last 24 hours was 4775 with 220.66 crore total vaccine doses, including 95.21 crore second dose and 22.87 crore precaution dose… (Source: Press Information Bureau, April 28, 2023).

Covid-19: Global scenario

In the last 28 days, from March 27 to April 23, 2023, United States reported the highest number of new infections (383 887 new cases; -43%) followed by the Republic of Korea (305 099 new cases; +13%), the Russian Federation (224 054 new cases; -33%), Japan (217 420 new cases; -8%) and France (213 732 new cases; +32%), as per the latest edition of the WHO’s Weekly epidemiological update on Covid-19. US also recorded the highest number of new deaths in the same period at 4765 followed by Brazil (1298; +31%), the Russian Federation (995; -5%), France (797; +35%) and the Islamic Republic of Iran (718; +103%) … (Source: WHO, April 27, 2023).

XBB.1.16 is now a “variant of interest”

The XBB.1.16, unofficially named as “Arcturus”, has now been categorized as a “variant of interest” by the World Health Organization (WHO). About 4.2% of cases globally and 9.6% of cases in the United States are due to the XBB.1.16 subvariant of the omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2… (Source: WebMD, April 24, 2023).

SARS-CoV-2 variants 

There are two variants of interest (VOI) currently in circulation - XBB.1.5 and XBB.1.16, as per the latest WHO’s Weekly epidemiological update on Covid-19. There are now seven variants under monitoring (VUMs) namely BA.2.75, CH.1.1, BQ.1, XBB, XBB.1.9.1, XBB.1.9.2 and XBF, with XBB.1.9.2 being the latest entrant to this list. Globally, XBB.1.5 has been reported from 103 countries, while XBB.1.16 has been reported from 37 countries… (Source: WHO, April 27, 2023).

“Covid here to stay but moving out of emergency phase” says WHO Director General 

“Covid-19 is here to stay and all countries will need to learn to manage it alongside other infectious diseases”, said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director General of the WHO at a media briefing on Wednesday. However, the world is beginning to transition out of the emergency phase of the pandemic, he further added. Hopefully, Covid-19 will no longer be a public health emergency of international concern this year... (Source: Reuters, April 26, 2023).

BCG vaccine not superior to placebo in preventing Covid-19

BCG vaccination did not reduce the risk of Covid-19 among healthcare workers compared to placebo, in the multinational BRACE trial. The likelihood of symptomatic Covid-19 at 6 months was 14.7% with BCG-Denmark vaccine vs 12.3% with placebo. The risk of severe infection was 7.6% in the BCG group vs 6.5% in the placebo group… (Source: New England Journal of Medicine, April 27, 2023).

A 3-fold increase in risk of Bell’s palsy after Covid-19

Bell’s palsy occurred more often among Covid-19 vaccine recipients compared to those who did not take the vaccine, according to a new systematic review and meta-analysis in JAMA Otolaryngology. However, compared to the vaccine recipients, Covid-19 was associated with 3.23-fold increase in the risk of Bell’s palsy. The authors note that “this finding does not equate to causality” … (Source: JAMA Otolaryngology, April 27, 2023).