scholarly journals Recent update on COVID-19 in India: Is locking down the country enough?

Author(s):  
Jitender Singh Virk ◽  
Syed Azmal Ali ◽  
Gurjeet Kaur

AbstractBackgroundIndia is the second-largest population in the world, and it is not well equipped, hitherto, in the scenario of the global pandemic, SARS-CoV-2 could impart a devastating impact on the Indian population. Only way to respond against this critical condition is by practicing large-scale social distancing. India lock down for 21 days, however, till 7 April 2020, SARS- CoV-2 positive cases were growing exponentially, which raises the concerns if the number of reported and actual cases are similar.MethodsWe use Lasso Regression with α = 0.12 and Polynomial features of degree 2 to predict the growth factor. Also, we predicted Logistic curve using the Prophet Python. Further, using the growth rate to logistic, and carrying capacity is 20000 allowed us to calculate the maximum cases and new cases per day.ResultsWe found the predicted growth factor with a standard deviation of 0.3443 for the upcoming days. When the growth factor becomes 1.0, which is known as Inflection point, it will be safe to state that the rate is no longer exponential. The estimated time to reach the inflection point is between 15-20 April. At that time, the estimated number of total positive cases will be over 12500, if lockdown remains continue.ConclusionsOur analysis suggests that there is an urgent need to take action to extend the period of lockdown and allocate enough resources, including personnel, beds, and intensive care facilities, to manage the situation in the next few days and weeks. Otherwise, the outbreak in India can reach the level of the USA or Italy or could be worse than these countries within a few days or weeks, given the size of the population and lack of resources.


1987 ◽  
Vol 119 (6) ◽  
pp. 595-597
Author(s):  
S.R. Loschiavo ◽  
N.D.G. White

Fumigants that are liquid formulations at room temperature have been widely used to kill insects in stored products, containers, and soil. Carbon bisulfide was one of the first fumigants used on a large scale as early as 1869 and is still the main fumigant used in some parts of the world (Bond 1984). Carbon bisulfide is highly flammable (Fleming and Baker 1935) and is usually formulated with carbon tetrachloride to aid distribution of fumigants in grain masses (Berck 1958) and to reduce the fire hazard. Although carbon tetrachloride is of low toxicity to insects it causes extensive liver damage in humans (Rouiller 1964). Liquid fumigants were widely used to disinfest stored grain in the USA until recently (White et al. 1985), and are still used in many other parts of the world (FA0 1985).



2020 ◽  
pp. 75-83
Author(s):  
Svetlana CEBOTARI ◽  
Victoria BEVZIUC

The activity of the World Health Organization is now becoming a topic in disputes between the big power centres – the USA and China. The role of the WHO is also becoming a research topic not only for researchers in medical sciences, but also for political specialists in international relations. With the COVID-19 crisis, the WHO is becoming a scene of the major challenges – the USA and China. This Article aims to highlight the USA and China relations with reference to the work of the WHO, including the effectiveness of the organization with a global pandemic such as that of the COVID-19.



2020 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruno Silva Andrade ◽  
Fernanda de Souza Rangel ◽  
Naiane Oliveira Santos ◽  
Andria dos Santos Freitas ◽  
Wagner Rodrigues de Assis Soares ◽  
...  

The SARS-CoV-2 outbreak originally appeared in China in December 2019 and became a global pandemic in March 2020. This infectious disease has directly affected public health and the world economy. Several palliative therapeutic treatments and prophylaxis strategies have been used to control the progress of this viral infection, including pre-(PrEP) and post-exposure prophylaxis. On the other hand, research groups around the world are still studying novel drug prophylaxis and treatment using repurposing approaches, as well as vaccination options, which are in different pre-clinical and clinical testing phases. This systematic review evaluated 1,228 articles from the PubMed and Scopus indexing databases, following the Kitchenham bibliographic searching protocol, with the aim to list drug candidates, potentially approved to be used as new options for SARS-CoV-2 prophylaxis clinical trials and medical protocols. In searching protocol, we used the following keywords: “Covid-19 or SARS-CoV-2” or “Coronavirus or 2019 nCoV,” “prophylaxis,” “prophylactic,” “pre-exposure,” “COVID-19 or SARS-CoV-2 Chemoprophylaxis,” “repurposed,” “strategies,” “clinical,” “trials,” “anti-SARS-CoV-2,” “anti-covid-19,” “Antiviral,” “Therapy prevention in vitro,” in cells “and” human testing. After all protocol steps, we selected 60 articles that included: 15 studies with clinical data, 22 studies that used in vitro experiments, seven studies using animal models, and 18 studies performed with in silico experiments. Additionally, we included more 22 compounds between FDA approved drugs and drug-like like molecules, which were tested in large-scale screenings, as well as those repurposed approved drugs with new mechanism of actions. The drugs selected in this review can assist clinical studies and medical guidelines on the rational repurposing of known antiviral drugs for COVID-19 prophylaxis.



Author(s):  
Abhijit Paul ◽  
Samrat Chatterjee ◽  
Nandadulal Bairagi

The pandemic disease Covid-19 caused by SARS-COV-2, which emerged from Wuhan, China, has established itself as the most devastating disease in the history of infectious disease, affecting 216 countries/territories across the world. Different countries have developed and adopted various policies to contain this epidemic and the most common were the social distancing and lockdown. Though some countries have come out of this pandemic, the infection is still increasing and remains very serious in the rest of the world. Even when the disease is not under control, many countries have withdrawn the lockdown and going through the phase-wise unlocking process, causing a further increment in the infection rate. In such a scenario, the role of the undetected class of infected individuals has become very crucial. The present study is an attempt to understand and estimate the possible epidemic burden during the unlock phase in the presence of an undetected class. We proposed a modified SEIR model and dissected the epidemiological status of different countries with the available data. With the initial establishment of the model with the epidemic data of four countries, which have already attained the epidemic peak, the study focused more on countries like India and the USA, where the epidemic curve is still growing, but the unlock process has started. As a straightforward result, we noticed a significant increase in the undetected and detected infected cases under the ongoing unlock phase. Under such conditions, our recalibration exercise showed that an increase in the testing could revert the existing growth rate of the infected cases to the lower growth rate of the lockdown period. Our present study emphasizes on the implementation of 3T principles, trace, test, and treat, to contain the epidemic. The significance of large scale testing in controlling the epidemic is true for both India and the USA though they have different socio-economic conditions. The use of repurposing drugs may further decrease the infected cases and help the disease controlling process. We believe our proposed strategy obtained through a mathematical model will help to make a better policy for the unlock phase.



2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (1and2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dr Shri Prakash ◽  
Ms. Sonia Anand

The factor endowment theorem better known as the Heckscher - Ohlin Theorem has been much been researched topic in the arena of International Trade. The H-O theorem envisages that trade between different countries is caused due to differences in relative factor endowments of those countries. H-O theorem is a theorem of long term general equilibrium in which the two factors are mobile between sectors. Leontief was the first to find that despite the fact that the USA was capital-abundant country it was exporting labour-intensive products. This clearly indicated factor reversal in the case of USA and popularly came to be known as Leontief paradox. This very study instigated the researchers all over the world to test H-O theorem for other countries. This paper is an attempt to review literatures related to the studies on growth, factor endowment and trade of India.



2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 129-140
Author(s):  
Moh. Dliya’ul Chaq

Abstract: The Covid-19 that emerged since December 2019 in Wuhan China has subsequently spread throughout the world and is determined to be a global pandemic on March 11, 2020 by WHO. One of the efforts to break the chain of the spread of Covid-19 in Indonesia was carried out with Large-Scale Social Restrictions on March 31, 2020. This had an impact on the economic conditions of the community at large. This condition encourages MUI to issue legal fatwas related to handling Covid-19 and its impact through the implementation of zakat. By looking at the role of the fatwa, several conclusions can be formulated, first that the MUI fatwa Number 23 of 2020 is a quick-responsive and effective effort that plays a clear role in overcoming the danger of difficulties in fulfilling the necessities of life that are being experienced by the people of the Covid-19 pandemic era so that life humans and the continuity of religion is maintained. This fatwa is in accordance with the logic of the theory of closing the opportunity for danger (sadd al-dzari'ah) which aims to save human life (hifdz al-nafs) and the continuity of religion (hifdz al-din). Second, that the MUI fatwa Number 23 of 2020 acts as a medium for social change needed during the Covid-19 pandemic era.



2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 71-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jingwei Li ◽  
Jun Shao ◽  
Chengdi Wang ◽  
Weimin Li

Abstract An outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a disease caused by a novel pneumonia virus, has affected over 200 countries and regions worldwide. With the increasing number of patients and deaths, WHO have declared it as a global pandemic currently, indicating a third large-scale epidemic coronavirus has appeared since the emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS) and Middle-East respiratory syndrome (MERS) in the twenty-first century. Considering the great harm it has caused, researchers throughout the world have been chasing to exploit the pathophysiology, characteristics, and potential remedies for COVID-19 to better battle the outbreak. Therefore, the current study revisits advances of the virology, epidemiology, clinical features, therapeutic options, and prevention of COVID-19. The features of asymptomatic carriers are also been explored.



PLoS ONE ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (11) ◽  
pp. e0240345 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meriem Laamarti ◽  
Tarek Alouane ◽  
Souad Kartti ◽  
M. W. Chemao-Elfihri ◽  
Mohammed Hakmi ◽  
...  

In late December 2019, an emerging viral infection COVID-19 was identified in Wuhan, China, and became a global pandemic. Characterization of the genetic variants of SARS-CoV-2 is crucial in following and evaluating it spread across countries. In this study, we collected and analyzed 3,067 SARS-CoV-2 genomes isolated from 55 countries during the first three months after the onset of this virus. Using comparative genomics analysis, we traced the profiles of the whole-genome mutations and compared the frequency of each mutation in the studied population. The accumulation of mutations during the epidemic period with their geographic locations was also monitored. The results showed 782 variants sites, of which 512 (65.47%) had a non-synonymous effect. Frequencies of mutated alleles revealed the presence of 68 recurrent mutations, including ten hotspot non-synonymous mutations with a prevalence higher than 0.10 in this population and distributed in six SARS-CoV-2 genes. The distribution of these recurrent mutations on the world map revealed that certain genotypes are specific to geographic locations. We also identified co-occurring mutations resulting in the presence of several haplotypes. Moreover, evolution over time has shown a mechanism of mutation co-accumulation which might affect the severity and spread of the SARS-CoV-2. The phylogentic analysis identified two major Clades C1 and C2 harboring mutations L3606F and G614D, respectively and both emerging for the first time in China. On the other hand, analysis of the selective pressure revealed the presence of negatively selected residues that could be taken into considerations as therapeutic targets. We have also created an inclusive unified database (http://covid-19.medbiotech.ma) that lists all of the genetic variants of the SARS-CoV-2 genomes found in this study with phylogeographic analysis around the world.



Author(s):  
Meriem Laamarti ◽  
Tarek Alouane ◽  
Souad Kartti ◽  
M.W. Chemao-Elfihri ◽  
Mohammed Hakmi ◽  
...  

AbstractIn late December 2019, an emerging viral infection COVID-19 was identified in Wuhan, China, and became a global pandemic. Characterization of the genetic variants of SARS-CoV-2 is crucial in following and evaluating it spread across countries. In this study, we collected and analyzed 3,067 SARS-CoV-2 genomes isolated from 55 countries during the first three months after the onset of this virus. Using comparative genomics analysis, we traced the profiles of the whole-genome mutations and compared the frequency of each mutation in the studied population. The accumulation of mutations during the epidemic period with their geographic locations was also monitored. The results showed 782 variant sites, of which 512 (65.47%) had a non-synonymous effect. Frequencies of mutated alleles revealed the presence of 38 recurrent non-synonymous mutations, including ten hotspot mutations with a prevalence higher than 0.10 in this population and distributed in six SARS-CoV-2 genes. The distribution of these recurrent mutations on the world map revealed certain genotypes specific to the geographic location. We also found co-occurring mutations resulting in the presence of several haplotypes. Moreover, evolution over time has shown a mechanism of mutation co-accumulation which might affect the severity and spread of the SARS-CoV-2.On the other hand, analysis of the selective pressure revealed the presence of negatively selected residues that could be taken into considerations as therapeutic targetsWe have also created an inclusive unified database (http://genoma.ma/covid-19/) that lists all of the genetic variants of the SARS-CoV-2 genomes found in this study with phylogeographic analysis around the world.



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