India will add four million more cases by May 1, says Giridhara Babu
The increase in daily cases has been very steep — from over 12,200 cases on March 1 to over 1,26,000 on April 7. The doubling time has reduced from 504…
Category: Mask
What is driving the second wave in India?
The rate of increase in cases in India during March has been faster than at any other time during the pandemic, which is also reflected in the modelling studies by…
Are the variants causing a spike in cases in India?
No spike in Kerala Contrary to claims made by the Health Ministry about a spike in Kerala, the daily fresh cases have in fact been slowly declining in the State…
Is the first coronavirus wave coming to an end in India?
The number of daily fresh coronavirus cases has been steadily dropping from a peak of nearly 98,000 cases on September 16 to below 25,000 daily cases in the last few days with no spike seen nationally. The cases have been reducing despite the festival season, winter, large gatherings and not so good adherence to non-pharmaceutical interventions. However, the cumulative test positivity rate nationally is 6.1% as on December 23, which suggests we aren’t near the end of the first wave immediately.
Three studies document in-flight transmission of coronavirus
While in-flight transmission of novel coronavirus among passengers is considered to be low, three studies have found instances where coronavirus transmission had probably taken place in-flight. The spread has probably become possible as mask wearing was not compulsory early in the pandemic. But thermal imaging, which has been in place since the beginning, has been found wanting.
Finally, CDC acknowledges aerosol as the ‘main way’ of coronavirus spread
On September 18, CDC revised its guidelines to acknowledge that the “main way” the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) spreads is through aerosols. It also for the first time mentions that virus can spread through breathing, stay suspended in air and travel to distances beyond six feet.
Can universal masking be a crude ‘vaccine’?
Universal mask wearing decreases the chance of infection and, if infected, decreases the amount of virus particles (inoculum) a mask-wearer is exposed to thus causing only asymptomatic infection or mild COVID-19 disease.
Two-layered polypropylene mask doubly better than a single-layered cotton mask, study finds
While fitted N95 masks allowed zero droplets to pass through, the three-layered surgical masks too performed very well with 0-10% droplet transmission. N95 masks with exhalation valve fared poorly. Double-layered…
