In some non-Covid news, a high-powered committee probing the leak of styrene vapour at LG Polymers factory at Visakhapatnam has recommended filing of cases against all directors and managers of the company, shutting it down or shifting it out, or converting it into a non-polluting unit. At least 12 persons died and more than 300 affected by the leak on May 7 early morning.

“The company cannot be allowed to function in its existing form at RR Venkatapuram. It should be shifted out or it should turn into a non-polluting unit,’’ stated the 4,000-page report submitted to Chief Minister YS Jagan Reddy on Monday. He directed authorities of various departments to initiate legal action against those responsible under relevant laws. Read Sreenivas Janyala's report

More than 200 people have contacted the Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS), Hyderabad, to volunteer for clinical trials of Covaxin, a candidate vaccine for Covid-19 that is being developed by city-based Bharat Biotech in collaboration with ICMR. “We have noted their names and contact details and we will contact them as per our requirement,” an official said. NIMS is one of 13 centres selected by ICMR to conduct the vaccine trials. Read more 

The Telangana High Court on Tuesday directed the state government to file a report on a petition alleging that private hospitals were charging excessively from COVID-19 patients beyond the limit prescribed by the government.

The PIL was filed by advocate Srikishan Sharma seeking a direction to the stategovernment to take action against the private hospitals for charging exorbitantly and issue guidelines for maintaining transparency in the matter of treatment and billing against all the patients. The petitioner submitted that Maharashtra government has imposed restrictions by way of a notification restricting the maximum bill that can be claimed by private hospitals but there is no such restriction imposed by Telangana government. The petitioner also cited some of the bills of few patients, including of a COVID-19 patient, to substantiate the "exploitation" by private corporate hospitals.

A division bench, comprising Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice B Vijaysen Reddy, referred to the petitioner's contention and asked for a report from the government over the matter. The Court, while posting the matter to July 14, also issued notices to the Central government and the private hospitals.

R K Roja, former south Indian actor and YSR Congress Party MLA from Nagari assembly constituency in Andhra Pradesh, was Tuesday afternoon seen driving around a newly inducted 108 ambulance, posing for photos and urging people to shoot videos in the constituency in Chittoor district. Roja, who is also the Chairperson of Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation, was present there to “receive” the ambulances.

Last week, the government inducted 412 new ambulances into the existing fleet and a few of the vehicles were allocated to the Nagari constituency which reached there Tuesday. Andhra Pradesh is reporting a huge surge in Covid-19 positive cases and there is huge demand for ambulances to take suspected Covid patients to hospitals and testing centres. On July 7, the state reported 1178 new positive cases taking the total to 21,197, while 13 deaths were reported taking the total number of deaths to 252. READ MORE

Andhra Pradesh recorded over 1,000 fresh COVID-19 cases for the second consecutive day, taking the aggregate to 21,197 while another 13 patients died, taking the overall toll to 252 on Tuesday. According to the latest bulletin, a total of 1,178 people tested positive for coronavirus in the state with 1,155 of them being locals.

Twenty-two people from other states and one from abroad also tested positive. Kurnool continued to report more COVID-19 deaths, with four added on Tuesday, for a total count of 85 so far. Anantapuramu reported three fresh deaths, Chittoor and Visakhapatnam two each and Prakasam and West Godavari one each. In the last 24 hours, 762 patients had recovered and were discharged from hospitals in the state.

The state now has 11,200 active cases after a total of 9,745 patients had recovered. It also completed testing of a little over 10.50 lakh people till date, the bulletin said. (PTI) 

The number of samples tested for novel Coronavirus in India crossed the 10-million mark (1 crore) on Monday. While that, no doubt, is a significant milestone, India’s testing numbers are still low compared to many other countries.

China, whose number of infections has all but remain static at around 85,000, has carried out more than 90 million tests, according to data on the Worldometer website. The same database shows that the United States has tested more than 38 million samples, Russia has carried out more than 21 million tests, while even the United Kingdom, right now, is marginally ahead of India.

All these countries, however, began testing much earlier than India, because the outbreak started at least two months earlier there. In India, regular testing started happening only in the first week of March after the emergence of the first few cases. Starting with just one laboratory, the Pune-based National Institute of Virology, that was testing samples at that time, India now has a network of more than 1,100 laboratory that are conducting these diagnostic tests. More than two lakh samples are being tested every day now, compared to just a few hundred when the exercise had begun.

Hospitalisation amidst the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, even if a patient has not tested positive for the novel coronavirus may add several thousands of rupees in out-of-pocket expenses as insurers are unwilling to cover the costs of personal protective gear under the insurance policy as they fall in the list of non-payable items. COVID-19 positive patients could end up spending as much as half of their hospital bills and non-COVID patients a fourth of their hospital bills on personal protective equipment (PPE) during an extended hospitalization. This is because, considering the highly contagious nature of the deadly virus, hospitals have made it mandatory for their entire staff to wear protective gear, including bodysuits and face shields, which indirectly adds to the costs of patients. Read more here

The New York Times reported recently that 239 scientists from 32 countries have written an open letter to the World Health Organization (WHO) that the virus causing Covid-19 can remain airborne for a period of time and thus transmit itself. The scientists have “outlined the evidence showing that smaller particles can infect people, and are calling for the agency to revise its recommendation”. The paper titled ‘It is Time to Address Airborne Transmission of Covid-19’ is likely to be published in a scientific journal next week.

A respiratory infection such as Covid-19 is transmitted through droplets of different sizes. If the droplets particles are larger than 5-10 microns in diameter, they are referred to as respiratory droplets; if they are smaller than 5 microns in diameter, they are referred to as droplet nuclei. “According to current evidence, Covid-19 virus is primarily transmitted between people through respiratory droplets and contact routes,” the WHO states. However, the letter written by the scientists suggests aerosol transmission too can happen. Read more here

New building design of the Secretariat (Telangana CMO)The Chandrashekhar Rao-led dispensation in Telangana began razing of the old secretariat building complex. The move comes days after the Telangana High Court dismissed a bunch of PIL's challenging the state's decision to construct a new secretariat complex here demolishing the existing one.

The chief minister's office released the elevation design of the proposed 'integrated secretariat new building,' which would come up at the existing site. Rao laid the foundation stone for the new administrative complex on June 27 last year. Later, some PILs were filed in the High Court against the construction of the new one alleging that it would cause unnecessary burden on the state's exchequer.

Opposition parties have protested the construction of new secretariat buildings by demolishing some of the existing structures. "While Chief Ministers across the country are busy building infrastructure to accommodate COVID-19 patients, unfortunately Telangana has a Chief Minister, who is busy demolishing the existing infrastructure, which can easily be turned into a massive facility to accommodate thousands of COVID-19 patients," Chief Spokesperson of Telangana BJP, K Krishna Saagar Rao said in a statement on Tuesday.

"BJP strongly protests the attrocious action of the TRS Government in demolishing the old secretariat buildings for false prestige of CM KCR in the midst of a global pandemic crisis. Telangana State is now rated as the second highest in the rate of infection, while it stands at number one position in conducting lowest number of Covid-19 tests in its population category. CM KCR seems to be hardly worried and untouched by these alarming statistics. Every other state in the country is building make shift hospitals and expanding their bed count, while Telangana State Government is demolishing existing infrastructure which could be very well turned into a make shift Covid-19 hospital to meet the existing demand for hospital beds," a statement from the state BJP read. It further stated, "BJP strongly believes the old secretariat buildings complex could have been easily turned into a 20,000 bed facility. As the buildings are located in the heart of GHMC area, they could have been the best location to use for Covid-19 treatment. Telangana state currently has more than 90 per cent cases originating from GHMC area. These buildings are functional and strong, and demolishing them is a pure waste of tax payers money."

A 94-year-old woman, P Vijaylaxmi, who was undergoing treatment for Covid-19 at Gandhi Hospital in Hyderabad was discharged yesterday, ANI reported.