Speaking at the Facebook LIVE programme organised by Regional Outreach Bureau, under Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Dr. Fettel said the only way to avoid community spread is to comply the simple rules of ‘Break the Chain’ which include proper wearing of masks, hand washing and social distancing. He said if need arises for testing of COVID-19, contact the DISHA Call centre of Health department (O471 2552056 & 1056- Toll free) and proceed accordingly. Dr. Fettel said eating good food, which contains more vegetables and fruits and avoiding over stressing of the body will raise the immunity level. Yoga, meditation, prayer, most liked hobbies etc can be followed as per one’s choice to avoid mental stress.

State Nodal Officer pointed out that it is those who disobey the COVID protocols and violate quarantine rules, turns out to be super spreaders of the pandemic. He pointed out that if the cases increase rapidly in a very short time, the state will not be able to bear the load in spite of very extensive planning and preparedness. Strict compliance of regulations prescribed by the authorities should be complied without any fault.

In the one-hour long face book live programme, Dr. Amar Fettel answered queries from netizens related to basic steps to keep away the virus, proper wearing of masks, home quarantine, reverse quarantine, disinfecting of things purchased from shops, etc. Mrs. K.A. Beena, Deputy Director, Regional Outreach Bureau moderated the programme.

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India’s first COVID-19 vaccine COVAXIN has got the Drug Controller General of India’s approval for phase I and II of human clinical trials. The two trials are designed to test whether the vaccine is safe, rather than whether it is effective.

The experimental vaccine has been developed by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech, in collaboration with the ICMR (Indian Council for Medical Research) and the National Institute of Virology (NIV). This could get underway across the country in July 2020. Results are expected to be out by October 2020, following which larger clinical trials will be conducted.

The trials are among many across the world. There are around 120 vaccine programmes under way worldwide. This is the first India-made vaccine and developed from a strain of the virus that was isolated locally and weakened under laboratory conditions.

Bharat Biotech, which has delivered more than 4 billion doses of vaccines worldwide, has developed vaccines for H1N1 and rotavirus, among other diseases.

The permission to initiate clinical trials came after the company submitted results that they had generated through pre-clinical studies, demonstrating safety and effective immune responses.

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Researchers in China have discovered a new type of swine flu that is capable of triggering a pandemic, according to a study published in the US science journal PNAS.
Named G4, it is genetically descended from the H1N1 strain that caused a pandemic in 2009.
It possesses “all the essential hallmarks of being highly adapted to infect humans,” say the authors, scientists at Chinese universities and China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
From 2011 to 2018, researchers took 30,000 nasal swabs from pigs in slaughterhouses in 10 Chinese provinces and in a veterinary hospital, allowing them to isolate 179 swine flu viruses.
The majority were of a new kind which has been dominant among pigs since 2016.
The researchers then carried out various experiments, including on ferrets, which are widely used in flu studies because they experience similar symptoms to humans — principally fever, coughing and sneezing.
G4 was observed to be highly infectious, replicating in human cells and causing more serious symptoms in ferrets than other viruses.
Tests also showed that any immunity humans gain from exposure to seasonal flu does not provide protection from G4.
According to blood tests which showed up antibodies created by exposure to the virus, 10.4 per cent of swine workers had already been infected.
The tests showed that as many as 4.4 per cent of the general population also appeared to have been exposed.
The virus has therefore already passed from animals to humans but there is no evidence yet that it can be passed from human to human — the scientists’ main worry.
“It is of concern that human infection of G4 virus will further human adaptation and increase the risk of a human pandemic,” the researchers wrote.
The authors called for urgent measures to monitor people working with pigs.

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