India Narrative

  The World Health Organization approved two new treatments for curing Covid-19 patients on Friday as Omicron cases continued to surge worldwide. WHO experts said arthritis drug baricitinib used with corticosteroids to treat severe or critical Covid patients led to better survival rates and reduced need for ventilators. Experts also recommended synthetic antibody treatment drug Sotrovimab for people with non-serious Covid at highest risk of hospitalization, such as the elderly, people with immunodeficiencies, or chronic diseases such as diabetes. Sotrovimab's benefits for people not at risk of hospitalization were deemed insignificant and the WHO said its effectiveness against new variants like Omicron was still uncertain. The recommendations have been published in British Medical Journal  BMJ. Only three other treatments for Covid-19 have received WHO approval, starting with corticosteroids for severely ill patients in September 2020. Read More

  The simultaneous spread of the Delta and Omicron variants of the coronavirus is creating a "tsunami of cases" that continue to put immense pressure on health systems that are already on the brink of collapse, the WHO warned on Wednesday. "Delta and Omicrom are now twin threats driving up cases to record numbers, leading to spikes in hospitalisation and deaths," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press conference. He said the pressure on health systems was not only due to new coronavirus patients, but also large numbers of health workers falling ill with Covid. The WHO said over 6.5 million cases new cases had been recorded worldwide in the week between Dec 22-28, while the United States and France both registered a record number of daily infections on Wednesday. Tedros said countries must share vaccines more equitably and warned that the emphasis on boosters in richer countries could leave poorer nations short of doses. Read More

  It was surely not a ‘silent night’ on Christmas in Kolkata . Frenzy gripped Kolkata’s Park Street and the adjoining areas, as scores of people – most of them without masks-- gathered to celebrate Christmas.  Restaurants, pubs and discotheques remained open way past midnight. Not just Christmas but the following day too saw large gatherings on the street with serpentine queues outside popular restaurants and street joints such as Mocambo, Peter Cat and Kusum Rolls. People of all age groups gathered singing, dancing and merrily posing for photographs on Park Street The restaurants were packed to capacity even as Kolkata reported its first Omicron case on Friday. Discotheques on Park Street including the popular Tantra drew crowds, who partied, drank and danced. Needless to say, Covid protocols sounded alien as the Trinamool Congress government relaxed norms for the Christmas-New Year period.  One could even catch a glimpse of a poster thanking state Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for a