SUNDAY FOCUS

It has been more than a year now since we were introduced to the Covid-19 virus, and since then, we have come a long way in the diagnosis, treatment, and management of the virus and infected persons. The last few months have been particularly traumatic for us as a nation and will last as some of the most horrifying times we experienced. Presently, even though the infections seem to have lowered down, we are still in the pandemic stage. It might be another month before we can shift into a relatively comfortable endemic stage of the disease.

New Delhi: My worst fears were confirmed when I opened the phone this morning in London. Dr KK Aggarwal, my friend and doctor for over three decades, had lost his battle against Covid. He was just 62.

My mind effortlessly recalls my long association with him. Whatsoever health problem one may have, he was always optimistic and his words reassuring. His frank yet friendly, honest voice will continue to reverberate in my ears for a long time to come.

Goodbye, my friend, you will be missed by thousands whose lives you saved and touched over the years.

New Delhi: Plasma therapy on COVID-19 patients has not been found effective in reducing the progression to severe disease or death and is likely to be dropped from the clinical management guidelines, sources said. In a meeting of the ICMR-National Task Force for COVID-19 on Friday, all members were in favour of removing the use of convalescent plasma from the Clinical Guidance for Management of Adult COVID-19 Patients citing its ineffectiveness and inappropriate use in several cases, they said.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) will issue an advisory on the matter soon, they said. The present guidelines allows “off label" use of plasma therapy at the stage of early moderate disease, that is, within seven days of the onset of symptoms and if there is availability of a high titre donor plasma.

New Delhi: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Saturday that the Covid crisis in the country was the result of the Centre “not doing any work" in the last six months as Union ministers and leaders were visiting Bengal daily to “capture" it. Banerjee was speaking in the assembly after TMC MLA Biman Bandyopadhyay was elected the Speaker for the third time.

Warning of stern action against communal incitements, the chief minister claimed the BJP was provoking violence after failing to win the elections. “I can challenge that had the Election Commission not helped them directly, they (BJP) could not have won even 30 seats. In this election, rigging took place in some places under the watch of the poll panel," Banerjee alleged, stressing the need to reform the EC.

New Delhi: America’s top pandemic expert and the White House chief medical adviser, Dr Anthony Fauci, on Friday prescribed a number of measures that India should immediately take to take on the second wave of Covid-19 in a war footing. The three primary recommendations laid down by Dr Fauci are an immediate imposition of lockdown for a couple of weeks, setting up of emergency units as hospitals like China and having a central organisation.

Along with the suggestions on how to tackle the pandemic, Dr Fauci also mentioned that that victory against the coronavirus was declared by the Indian government “too prematurely".