News Analysis India

Tag: ICMR

  • Experts seek ICMR norms on booster dose necessity against COVID-19 in India

    By Express News Service

    BENGALURU: The medical community is of the opinion that the government needs to issue guidelines to ascertain whether a booster Covid vaccine dose is necessary or not.

    Dr Ravindra Mehta, Senior Consultant and HoD, Pulmonology and Interventional Pulmonology at Apollo Speciality Hospitals, said that other countries have conducted studies and found that two vaccine doses are not enough to fight the Delta variant.

    “Hence, a booster dose may help,” he added. 

    He said booster doses can be given to people who are immunocompromised, or have waning vaccine immunity, or are unable to mount an immune response despite two doses, etc.

    “There needs to be a strategy in place. We do not have sufficient data on vaccine immunity waning, time-gap before the booster dose, etc. The discussion right now is presumptive,” he stated.

    Dr Pruthu Narendra Dhekane, Consultant, Infectious Diseases, Fortis Hospitals, said the focus right now should be on 100 per cent vaccine coverage. “We should first try to give both the doses to people, then we can think about a booster dose,” he said.

    “In the UK, booster doses will be administered for healthcare workers and the elderly in September. However, in India, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has not come out with guidelines,” said Dr Aravinda G M, Consultant, Internal Medicine, Manipal Hospitals.

    “ICMR is likely to take a call after looking at data on reinfection, antibody titres, the prevalence found in the recent serosurvey and benefits of the first two doses. A booster dose will be needed if the existing two doses do not offer sufficient protection,” the doctor added, and said the medical fraternity is divided over the subject. 

  • We may have COVID vaccine for children by September: ICMR-National Institute of Virology director

    By ANI

    NEW DELHI:: Coronavirus vaccine for children might be available for use in September or October this year, Dr Priya Abraham, the Director of Pune’s (Indian Council of Medical Research) ICMR-National Institute of Virology (NIV) informed.

    In an interview with an OTT channel of the Department of Science and Technology, Abraham said, “Phase 2 and 3 trials of Covaxin are underway for children between 2-18 years. Hopefully, the results will be available soon, which will then be presented to the regulators. So, by September or just after it, we may have COVID-19 vaccines for children.”

    Further, she informed that apart from the Covaxin, Zyuds Cadila’s vaccine trial for children is also underway. “Zydus Cadila’s vaccine will be the first DNA vaccine available for use. Besides, there is Gennova Biopharmaceuticals Ltd’s m-RNA, Biological -E vaccine, Serum Institute’s Novovax and another interesting one is an intranasal vaccine by Bharat Biotech, which doesn’t require a jab and can be delivered through nostrils,” Abraham added.

    Earlier in an interview with ANI, Dr Randeep Guleria, Director of AIIMS, on the COVID-19 vaccines for children had said, “Vaccines for children in India should come out now because trials are already underway for vaccines available in the country. Bharat Biotech’s trials are in the final phase, and by September, we will have the data.”

    Talking about how effective the COVID-19 vaccine is on the Delta Plus variant, Dr Priya Abraham said, “Delta Plus variant is less likely to spread than the Delta variant, which is present in over 130 countries. In NIV, we have studied antibodies produced in vaccinated people and have checked them against this variant. The efficacy of antibodies against Delta reduces two-three folds. Yet, the vaccines are protective against the variants.”

    Saying that the WHO has put a momentary stop on the booster dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, she said, “Studies (on booster dose) have been going on overseas. At least seven different vaccines have been tried out for booster doses. The WHO has put a stop to it till more countries catch up with vaccination, but in the future, recommendations for booster dose will definitely come.”

    Recently, speaking about booster dose, Dr Gagandeep Kang, professor at Christain Medical College, Vellore, on Tuesday, had said that whether people will have more antibodies or will be better protected with the booster dose is still not known.

  • Over 50-crore samples tested for COVID-19 in India till now: ICMR

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The number of samples tested for COVID-19 in the country has crossed the 50 crore-mark and in this month, the average daily testing has been over 17 lakh, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said on Thursday.

    The last 10 crore tests were done in only 55 days, the ICMR said in a statement.

    “On July 21, 2021, India had tested 45 crore COVID-19 samples, which reached the 50-crore mark on August 18, 2021,” the ICMR said.

    According to its website, 50,03,00,840 samples have been tested up to August 18.

    “ICMR has been enhancing COVID-19 testing capability across the country by expanding and diversifying testing capacity by leveraging technology and facilitating innovation in affordable diagnostic kits. The testing strategy has been carefully calibrated to increase access and availability of testing,” the ICMR said.

    ALSO READ: COVID-19 vaccines for children may be available by September, says NIV director

    It said that in this month, the average daily testing was of more than 17 lakh.

    ICMR Director General Balram Bhargava said, “We have seen that exponential increase in testing led to early identification, prompt isolation and effective treatment of COVID-19 cases.”

    “This testing milestone is testimony to the fact that India has been successful in implementing strategy of ‘5T’ approach ‘Test, Track, Trace, Treat and use of Technology’ efficiently, which will enable us to contain the spread of the pandemic,” he said.

    Further, enhanced production of diagnostic kits has made India ‘atmamirbhar’ (self-reliant), which has resulted in reduction of cost and improved availability of testing kits, Bhargava said.

  • Northeast becoming cancer capital of India with highest new cases: ICMR and NCDIR report

    By PTI

    ITANAGAR: Arunachal Pradesh’s Papum Pare district and Aizawl in Mizoram recorded the highest incidence of new cancer cases in the country among females and males respectively, as per a government report.

    The report, released by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and National Centre for Disease Informatics and Research (NCDIR), stated that Papumpare district has 219.8 per one lakh cancer cases among females.

    Mizoram’s capital Aizawl has 269.4 per one lakh cases among males, it said.

    Northeast India is the cancer capital of the country with the highest age-adjusted cancer incidence rates of newly diagnosed cancer cases in the country, said Dr Kaling Jerang, the principal investigator of Population Based Cancer Registry (PBCR) at Bakin Pertin General Hospital (BPGH) in Pasighat.

    The PBCR project under the ICMR-NCDIR, Bengaluru, has been studying the cancer trends under the National Cancer Registry Programme (NCRP), he said on Tuesday. He hoped that the cancer data revealed by the project will be used by the government in policy-making decisions regarding cancer prevention, treatment and management.

  • Prevalence of Delta variant not different between vaccinated and unvaccinated groups: ICMR study

    By PTI

    CHENNAI: A study by the ICMR on covid-infected individuals in the city has indicated that the prevalence of B.1.617.2 (Delta variant) “was not different between the vaccinated and unvaccinated groups.”

    B.1.617.2, or the Delta variant of covid causing Sars Cov2 was the dominant circulating strain and one of the primary drivers for the country’s covid second wave, the study, approved by the ICMR-National Institute of Epidemiology, Chennai, said.

    Those involved in the study include researchers from the National Institute of Epidemiology, here.

    Covid-infected persons, both vaccinated and unvaccinated ones, who visited the Greater Chennai Corporation’s triage centers between May 3 and 7, were enrolled in the study.

    “The study findings indicate that the prevalence of B.1.617.2 was not different between the vaccinated and unvaccinated groups. Delta variant was the dominant circulating strain and one of the primary drivers for the second wave ofRS-CoV-2 in India.”

    “Studies have documented reduction in neutralization titres among Covishield and Covaxin recipients after infection with delta variant. This might be the reason for the breakthrough infections observed in the fully vaccinated individuals,” it said.

    However, the proportion of patients progressing to severe illness and mortality was lower in the vaccinated groups, it added.

    While B.1.617.2 has the potential to infect both the vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals, however, the progression of illness seems to be prevented by vaccination.

    “Therefore, non-pharmaceutical interventions must continue to slow down the transmission. Additionally, the pace and scale of vaccination has to be increased to mitigate the further waves of the pandemic,” it said.

  • Covaxin capable of neutralising delta plus variant of Covid-19 too, shows ICMR study

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: A study carried out by the ICMR has shown that Covaxin, the country’s first fully developed indigenous vaccine, is capable of neutralising the delta plus variant of the Covid-19 virus just as it can neutralise delta albeit with lower efficacy.

    The Delta plus variant of the SARS CoV 2, with 70 cases of infection deteced in India so far, was seen as a potential public health threat due to its immune escape properties. 

    In July, the Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech had released data from the phase 3 clinical trials of Covaxin and said that it demonstrated overall efficacy of 77.8 per cent against symptomatic Covid-19 infection. 

    The whole-virion inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine used for mass immunization in India had shown a 65.2% protection against the delta variant in a double-blind, randomized, multi-centre, phase 3 clinical trial, lower than the virus variant against which the vaccine had been specifically designed last year. 

    The scientists associated with the National Institute of Virology under the ICMR meanwhile said in the latest study that all fully vaccinated recipients of Covaxin, whether previously infected by Covid-19, never infected, or those with breakthrough infections, show sufficient immune responses against delta, AY. 1 (a type of delta plus detected in India) and B.1.617.3 variants. 

    ALSO READ | Kerala model of Covid management gets both brickbats and pats even as cases rise

    Scientists said that as long as there are four different groups of people, non-vaccinated, vaccinated, Covid infected and vaccinated and vaccinated and then infected, the study aimed to analyse separately how vaccination with Covaxin worked in these groups. 

    It was found that all the three groups, with vaccination, had enough response to neutralise all the variants.  

    “Those recovered from Covid-19 are low in number and infected last year with B.1 variant so they either had no or low antibody protection but still after immunisation the neutralisation titer was found to be very high and protective in them due to boosting effect,” a researcher from NIV told The New Indian Express.  A report by INSACOG, a network of laboratories for Covid virus genomic surveillance, had in June associated the delta plus variant with increased transmissibility, stronger binding to receptors of lung cells and potential reduction in monoclonal antibody response.

    The first case of infection with the variant had been detected in Maharashtra on April 5, followed by other states, prompting the Centre to raise an alarm and issue public health measures to curb its spread.

    However, later reports by the consortium said that the variant, contrary to concerns being raised, may not be more transmissible or virulent than the delta variant, which had caused the devastating second wave in India. 

  • Government suggests state-specific serosurveys in consultation with ICMR 

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The Centre has advised all states and Union territories to conduct seroprevalence surveys in consultation with the ICMR to generate district-level data on seroprevalence which is essential in formulating localised public health response measures.

    This was stated in a letter written by Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan to additional chief secretaries/principal secretaries/secretaries (Health) of all states/UTs, a statement by the Union health ministry said.

    The ministry also shared findings of the recent national serosurvey conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) across 70 districts of the country, according to which the seroprevalence was found to be 79 per cent among the surveyed population in Madhya Pradesh, 58 per cent in Maharashtra, 44.4 per cent in Kerala, 76.2 per cent in Rajasthan, 75.9 per cent in Bihar.

    It was 75.3 per cent in Gujarat, 71.0 per cent in Uttar Pradesh, 69.8 per cent in Karnataka, 69.2 in Tamil Nadu, 68.1 per cent in Odisha, 66.5 in Punjab, 63.1 in Telangana, 50.3 in Assam and 60.9 in West Bengal.

    Referring to the findings of the fourth round of the national seroprevalence survey done by ICMR, the ministry has advised states/UTs to conduct the seroprevalence studies in their own regions in consultation with the ICMR, so that such studies follow a standardised protocol, and the findings can then be utilised by the respective state and UT to guide objective, transparent and evidence-based public health response to COVID-19.

    “The national serosurvey by ICMR was designed to capture the extent of the spread of Covid infection at the national level.

    Therefore, the national serosurvey results do not reflect the heterogeneity of seroprevalence between districts and even between states,” the statement said.

  • Seropositivity highest in MP, lowest in Kerala, finds ICMR survey

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: The results of the fourth national serosurvey by the ICMR have shown that nearly 79% of samples from Madhya Pradesh had antibodies against coronavirus, while the seroprevalence, at about 44%, was the lowest in Kerala. 

    The Centre last week had already announced, based on the findings that on average nearly 68% or two in every three Indians, now had antibodies against SARSCoV2 and the seropositivity was comparable across most age groups, but the state-specific data was not released. 

    Now, the Union Health Ministry has asked states to carry out state-level surveys in order to generate district-specific data, with the help of ICMR, that can be used for guiding public health response to the pandemic. 

    The data shared on Wednesday showed that there are nine states which showed a seropositivity rate of over 70%. They are Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh. 

    The states with a seroprevalence of 60-70% included Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Punjab, Telangana, Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, and Haryana. 

    ALSO READ | Covid played major role in heart attack cases: Doctors

    Maharashtra, Assam, and Kerala on the other hand had the lowest seropositivity rates with Kerala showing, at 44.4%, even less than 50% of people with antibodies against the virus, which may offer an explanation in the continued high cases being recorded in the state every day. 

    The serosurvey by the ICMR had been conducted in the last 10 days of June and the first week of July in 70 districts across 22 states — the same districts where the first three rounds of this exercise had been carried out earlier. 

    Meanwhile, the letter by Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan states said that ICMR’s consultation in conducting the serosurveillance exercise will help them follow a standardized protocol. 

    The findings of such studies can then be utilized quickly by the respective states to guide objective, transparent, and evidence-based public health responses to Covid, it added.    

    The government stressed that the national serosurvey by the ICMR was designed to capture the extent of the spread of Covid infection at the national level. 

    “Therefore, the national serosurvey results do not reflect the heterogeneity of seroprevalence between districts and even between states,” it maintained.

  • Open primary schools first in districts reporting less than 5% Covid TPR, suggests ICMR chief

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: Top government officials on Tuesday suggested that primary schools in India can be opened first in districts reporting less than 5% Covid test positivity rate as kids can handle infection better.

    It was, however, also recommended that full vaccination of teachers and all support staff in schools should be ensured before schools can be reopened.

    Schools across India have been shut since March 2020 and while physical classes for classes 9 and above had begun last year briefly in a few states when the Covid19 cases started declining, they were again forced shut and shifted to online mode due to the devastating second wave of the pandemic.

    “We know clearly that children can handle viral infections much better than adults as they have fewer ACE receptor cells which the virus uses to invade the body,” said ICMR director general Balram Bhargava in a press briefing on Tuesday.

    Referring to the findings of the latest round of the national Covid serosurvey which showed that 57.2% kids in the 6–10-year age group and 66.7% of kids in the 10–17-year age group had antibodies against SARS CoV 2, Bhargava also said that antibody exposure in children is not very different from adults.

    He also pointed out that some Scandinavian countries didn’t shut their primary schools through any of the Covid waves so far.

    ALSO READ | Two-thirds of Indians have Covid antibodies, another 40 crore still vulnerable to infection: Government

    “Once India starts considering (opening of schools), it’ll be wise to open primary schools first before opening secondary schools. All the support staff whether it be school bus drivers, teachers & other staff in the school need to be vaccinated,” said.

    His remarks come on a day, AIIMS director Randeep Guleria too advocated the staggered reopening of schools.

    Meanwhile, speaking to a leading portal, Guleria suggested that schools can be reopened in places where Covid cases are falling and positivity rates are less than 5%. “I am a proponent of opening up schools in a staggered way, for districts that are seeing less virus circulation”

    Guleria, who is also a member of the country’s Covid19 task force on Covid said that districts with less positivity rate and cases should explore the option of bringing children back to schools on alternate days and look for other ways of a staggered reopening.

    He added that if surveillance hints at the spread of infection, classes can be immediately suspended.

    Last month, stressing that there has been a major loss in studies in the last one-and-half years on account of the Covid19 pandemic, Guleria said, “Schools have to be reopened and vaccination can play an important role in that.

  • Once India starts reopening schools, it will be wise to begin with primary section: ICMR chief

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Once India starts reopening schools, it will be wise to being with the primary section as children have a lower number of ace receptors to which virus attaches, making them much better at handling viral infections than adults, said ICMR Director General Balram Bhargava on Tuesday.

    He, however, stressed that for such a step to be considered, it must be ensured that school teachers and other support staff members are vaccinated.

    Addressing a press conference, he said the Indian Council of Medical Research’s (ICMR’s) latest national serosurvey has found that the seroprevalence among those aged six to nine was 57.2 per cent which is very similar to adults.

    Asked about opening schools since COVID-19 cases have declined in many districts, Bhargava said children can handle viral infection much better than adults and it has also been established that they have a lower number of ace receptors to which virus attaches.

    “In some countries, particularly the Scandinavian ones, they (authorities) did not shut down their primary schools during the first, second or third wave whatever (Covid) waves they had, their primary schools were always open.

    “So, once India starts considering opening schools, it will be wise to begin with the primary schools. Also, we have to ensure that all support staff members, be it school bus drivers or teachers, are vaccinated,” Bhargava said.