Covid 19

According to DailyMail, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has revealed that pregnant women are at increased risk of severe complications from Covid-19 and they only rose during the Delta variant wave. Reports published by the agency found the rate of pregnant women dying of Covid-19 during the period of time where the Delta variant was the nation's dominant strain increased five-fold.

There's little doubt SARS-Cov-2, the virus that caused the ongoing pandemic, came from an animal -- almost certainly a bat. And the prevailing scientific opinion is that there is an intermediate host, an animal of some sort, that was infected by a bat or bats and then infected people, the report added.

The research conducted by a team from the University of Manchester is based on the electronic primary healthcare records of 2,26,521 people from across the UK between February 2020 and December 2020. There was an almost six-fold increase in the likelihood of a covid infected person reporting fatigue, showed the results, published in JAMA Network Open.

While one in three (32 per cent) said they work from a proper office, nearly as many (31 per cent) said their bedroom is their office, 45 per cent work from a couch regularly, 38 per cent work from a bed, 20 per cent work outdoors and 19 per cent even work from a closet regularly.

It emerged as a real-time helpline as people supported one another on the service. Among these were many women from different parts of India, representing diverse backgrounds, cultures and languages, who used Twitter effectively to share reliable information and offer support to those in need. To acknowledge the efforts of these women and their contributions to Covid-relief through their online communities, Twitter India and women rights organisation Breakthrough came together to recognise them as 'Covid Sheroes'.

According to researchers at the University College London, understanding this mechanism of resistance can lead to the development of universal vaccines against the debilitating virus, the BBC reported. In the study published in the journal Nature, the team closely monitored hospital staff during the first wave of the pandemic -- including by taking regular blood samples.

Discussing the pandemic the gastroenterologist said that seeing death is very normal to the doctors but witnessing the entire families wiped out in some cases during this pandemic,  was entirely different and miserable. Recalling how the doctors themselves were clueless to deal with it initially, the physician said, “We were frightened. It was like a soldier going to war without weapons. To add to it, WHO predictions were like our weather predictions." 

Post-Covid syndrome or Long Covid has emerged as a major roadblock in the recovery of patients infected with SARS-CoV-2. Amidst many symptoms such as myalgia (muscle pain), headache, cough and breathlessness, fatigue is most prevalent and makes a Covid patient severely debilitated. The first-of-its-kind study, conducted jointly by Fortis C-DOC, AIIMS, C-NET, N-DOC and Diabetes Foundation, is published in the journal Diabetes & Metabolic Syndrome: Clinical Research & Reviews.

Researchers from The Ralph Veterinary Referral Centre in Marlow, the UK, reported four cases of alpha variant detected in cats and two in pet dogs. The alpha variant -- also referred to as the 'UK' or 'Kent' variant, as well as lineage B.1.1.7 -- was first detected in November in the south-east of England, the report said.

While India is on track to fully vaccinate its adult population, advanced nations like the US are preparing ground to administer a booster dose to ensure new variants of Covid-19 virus do not mutate and emerge into a major cause of worry.