|  | - India’s health ministry has confirmed 2,268,675 Covid-19 cases (639,929 active cases) and 45,257 fatalities. 53,601 fresh cases were recorded on Monday.
- Fatalities across the world are 736,254 (over 20.09 million infections).
The numbers are as of Tuesday, 12:30 pm IST. Check out the latest data here | |
| | TODAY’S TAKE | | Russia is launching a vaccine. But we know little about it |  | Russia is set to register its Covid-19 vaccine this week, which is a precursor to mass vaccination. It will be the first vaccine candidate to do so. The science: The vaccine uses two strains of adenovirus, which causes common flu in humans. These are genetically modified to cause the infected cell to make spike proteins associated with the coronavirus. This dupes the body into thinking it is infected, triggering an immune response. But then it gets murky - Phase I trials showed it prompted an immune response, the vaccine makers said, but the findings were never published in a peer-reviewed journal.
- The phase II trial included military volunteers. The results were not published.
- The phase III trial, which is crucial to determine the true efficacy (and side-effects), began only last week.
- Less than 100 people were inoculated with the vaccine candidate by early August.
A Kremlin project- The vaccine is made by the state-run Gamaleya Institute and the Russian Ministry of Defence.
- The project is funded by the Russian Direct Investment Fund, the sovereign wealth fund.
- The trials are overseen by the Russian health ministry.
Warning bells - “This is a Pandora’s Box and we don’t know what will happen to people injected with an unproven vaccine.” said Svetlana Zavidova, executive director, the Association of Clinical Trials Organisations, which represents a group of multinational companies that conduct clinical trials in Russia, including Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Novartis.
- “I do hope that the Chinese and the Russians are actually testing a vaccine before they are administering the vaccine to anyone, because claims of having a vaccine ready to distribute before you do testing I think is problematic at best,” said Dr Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious disease specialist.
And WHO?- “There are established practices and there are guidelines out. Between finding or having a clue of maybe having a vaccine that works, and having gone through all the stages, is a big difference,” said WHO spokesperson.
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| | | | STATE OF STATES | | What about our prison staff? |  | - Fact: The number of police personnel and prison staff testing positive for Covid-19 are increasing. “If more prison staff get infected, we will have to request deputation of home guards,” Jharkhand IG (prisons) Birendra Bhushan told TOI. While 39 prison staff members have tested positive in the state so far, the remaining have been asked not to step out of prison campuses without permission. In Uttar Pradesh, where 81 prison staff members have Covid, a similar rule’s in place.
- In Odisha, 17 prison staff members have tested positive so far. “We are decongesting our prisons fast. So far, we have released 16,789 inmates from the state’s 85 prisons,” said DGP (prisons) Santosh Upadhyay. And in Bihar, where 200 prisoners, prison staff and security personnel have tested positive, 18 jails have been set aside across the state solely to quarantine inmates. “All jails have isolation wards now, where prisoners are moved if they test positive,” said Bihar IG (prisons and correctional services) Mithilesh Mishra.
- Further, UP has about 4,500 cops who have tested positive, Jharkhand (2,500), Bihar (700), Madhya Pradesh (600) and Odisha (500). The highest is in Maharashtra, where nearly 9,000 cops have Covid.
- Add to this, at least 1,400 prisoners testing positive as well, per rights organisation Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI). When the outbreak first began, the Supreme Court had asked states to free up prisons. And so far, CHRI data shows 61,000 have been released.
- For those arrested and in prison, the ministry of home affairs had come up with a standard operating procedure early on. But while the plans focussed on ensuring prisoners don’t get infected, their points of contact, police personnel and prison staff have had to work around challenges in implementing them and keeping themselves safe.
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| Written by: Rakesh Rai, Judhajit Basu, Sumil Sudhakaran, Tejeesh N.S. Behl
Research: Rajesh Sharma | |
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