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<keyword id="21333142" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="Indias-population" source="keywords">India's population</keyword> is projected to peak in the early 2060s at about <keyword id="22386427" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="1-7-billion" source="keywords">1.7 billion</keyword> and then decline by 12%, but the country will remain the world's most populous throughout the century, the <keyword id="19896118" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="United-Nations" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="United Nations" meta.hostid="153" meta.entityid="United Nations">United Nations</keyword> has said. The World Population Prospects 2024 report, released on Thursday, said that the world's population is expected to continue growing over the coming 50-60 years, reaching a peak of around 10.3 billion people in the mid-2080s, significantly up from 8.2 billion in 2024. After peaking, the global population is projected to start declining gradually, falling to 10.2 billion people by the end of the century. India, which surpassed <keyword id="19894886" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="China" source="keywords">China</keyword> as the world's most populous nation last year, will continue to hold that position through 2100. "The population of India, which is expected to remain the world's largest throughout the century, will likely decline by 12% after reaching its peak in the early 2060s at about 1.7 billion," the <keyword id="19898339" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="UN" source="keywords">UN</keyword> report published by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), <keyword id="271075" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="population-division" source="Orion">Population Division</keyword> said. According to the report, India's population in 2024 is projected at 1.45 billion and this will peak to 1.69 billion in 2054. After this, India's population is projected to decline to 1.5 billion by the end of the century in 2100, but the country will still remain the most populous nation on Earth. Responding to a question by PTI on population projections for India, Senior Population Affairs Officer, Population Division, <keyword id="6355835" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="un" source="Orion">UN</keyword> DESA Clare Menozzi said at a press conference that "India is currently the largest country in the world in terms of population, and it is projected to stay so throughout the century. The population is currently estimated at 1.45 billion, and it's supposed to increase further to 1.69 billion. "It's supposed to peak around the 2060s in size and then it starts to slightly decline. So by the end of the century, India is projected to be around 1.5 billion, but will still the largest country in the world by a large margin." The report said that China's population, currently 1.41 billion in 2024, will fall to 1.21 billion in 2054 and further decline to 633 million by 2100. "It is anticipated that China, the country currently with the world's second-largest population, will likely experience the largest absolute population loss between 2024 and 2054 (204 million)," followed by <keyword id="6355311" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Japan" source="Orion">Japan</keyword> (21 million) and <keyword id="6358826" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Russia" source="Orion">Russia</keyword> (10 million). "Longer-range population projections are more uncertain" for China, it said. "However, due to its large size and sustained low level of fertility, China is also likely to record the largest population decline of any country through the end of the century (786 million people). By 2100, China is projected to have lost more than a half of its current population and to have returned to a population size comparable to that recorded in the late 1950s (50% probability)." Responding to a question on the significantly low population projection for China, Director of the Population Division at UN DESA John Wilmoth said that "it really relates to the level of fertility that's observed currently in China. The current number is right around one birth per woman on average over a lifetime." "Given that you need 2.1 births to maintain the current population without migration, if fertility levels remain at such a low level, even if they come up slightly, any fertility level if it's below two, or especially below 1.8 or below 1.5, you're really getting into low levels of fertility and it produces a long run decline that's quite significant. And that's true for China. It's true for some other countries in this analysis," Wilmoth said. Currently, nearly one-fifth of all countries and areas, including China, Italy, the Republic of Korea and Spain, are experiencing what is sometimes referred to as "ultra-low" fertility, with fewer than 1.4 live births per woman over a lifetime. The report added that the global fertility rate currently stands at 2.25 live births per woman, down from 3.31 births in 1990. "More than half of all countries and areas globally have fertility below the replacement level of 2.1 live births per woman. This is the level required for a population to maintain a constant size in the long run (without migration), with each generation being followed by another of roughly equal size," it said. Pakistan is projected to overtake the US as the third-largest country in the world, with a population of 389 million in 2054. Currently, the US is the third largest country in the world with a population of 345 million and in 2054, it will be the fourth largest with 384 million people. Pakistan will remain the third largest country in the world, with a population of 511 million people in 2100. The report said that the estimated likelihood that the world's population will peak within the current century is very high, with a probability of 80%, a major change in UN projections from a decade ago, when this probability was around 30%. The size of the world's population in 2100 is now expected to be 6%smaller - or about 700 million people fewer - than anticipated a decade ago. In about 126 countries and areas, the population is likely to continue growing through 2054, potentially reaching a peak later in the century or beyond 2100. This group includes several of the world's most populous countries: India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Pakistan and the United States of America. In 2023, the global number of deaths among children under age 5 fell below 5 million for the first time in recent history. However, 95% of such deaths took place in the 126 countries with populations that are still growing, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, India, Nigeria and Pakistan. The report added that globally, life expectancy at birth reached 73.3 years in 2024, an increase of 8.4 years since 1995. Further reductions in mortality are projected to result in an average longevity of around 77.4 years globally in 2054. Since 2022, life expectancy has returned to levels observed before the emergence of the coronavirus disease in nearly all countries and areas. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic during 2020 and 2021, global life expectancy at birth fell to 70.9 years, down from 72.6 in 2019. The report said that by 2080, persons aged 65 or older will outnumber children under 18. "By the late 2070s, the number of persons at ages 65 years and higher globally is projected to reach 2.2 billion, surpassing the number of children (under age 18). By the mid-2030s, it is projected that there will be 265 million persons aged 80 years or older, more than the number of infants (1 year of age or less)," it said.

India's population to peak in early 2060s to 1.7 billion before declining: UN

Nearly 74 per cent of the new <keyword id="8763838" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="covid-19">COVID-19</keyword> recoveries are from 10 states and UT, including Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, UP, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Delhi, Kerala, West Bengal and Chhattisgarh, the Union Health Ministry said on Thursday. Daily new recoveries in India have surpassed the new cases of <keyword id="1754604" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="coronavirus">coronavirus</keyword> infection for the the last six days and the country's total COVID-19 recoveries have surged to 46.7 lakh exceeding active cases by more than 37 lakh. A total 87,374 people have recuperated in a span of 24 hours in the country, while the number of new confirmed cases reported is 86,508, according to the data updated at 8 am. With its focussed strategies and effective people-centric measures, India is reporting exponential increase in recoveries, the ministry said. "New recoveries in India have exceeded the new cases for the last six days. This is a result of focus on testing, tracing, treatment, surveillance and clear messaging, as highlighted by the prime minister in his review meeting with seven high focus states and UTs on Wednesday," the ministry said. A total 87,374 people have recuperated in a span of 24 hours taking the total number of recoveries to 46,74,987 pushing the recovery rate to 81.55 per cent, the ministry said. "As India records more recoveries than the new cases, the gap between recovered cases and active cases is continuously widening. The recovered cases (46,74,987) exceed active cases (9,66,382) by more than 37 lakh. "This has also ensured that the active caseload accounts for merely 16.86 per cent of the total cases," the ministry highlighted. Following the national lead, 13 states and UTs are also reporting higher number of new recoveries than the new cases. Among the 10 states and UT reporting 74 per cent recovered cases, Maharashtra has maintained this lead with 19,476 cases (22.3 pc) for the sixth consecutive day. These sustained encouraging results have been made possible with the Centre-led proactive and calibrated strategy of 'test, track and treat' which has focussed on 'Chase the Virus" approach, the ministry said. "Early identification through high and aggressive testing, prompt surveillance and tracking combined with high quality medical care through Standard of Care protocol issued by the Centre has aided the high number of recoveries," it underlined. There has been sustained focus of the Union and state and UT governments on improved and effective clinical treatment in hospitals, supervised home isolation, use of non-invasive oxygen support, use of steroids, anti-coagulants, and improved services of ambulances for ferrying patients for prompt and timely treatment. Tireless efforts of ASHA workers have ensured effective surveillance and tracking progress of patients in supervised home isolation The 'eSanjeevani' digital platform has enabled telemedicine services which have been successful in containing the spread of COVID while simultaneously enabling provisions for non-COVID essential healthcare. The Centre has focussed on building the clinical management capacities of doctors manning ICUs. The 'National e-ICU on COVID-19 Management' exercise conducted by domain experts from AIIMS, New Delhi have substantially helped in this. Twenty such sessions with 278 Institutions and Centres of Excellence have been conducted in 28 states and UTs. India's COVID-19 caseload mounted to 57,32,518 with 86,508 people testing positive in a day, while the death toll climbed to 91,149 with 1,129 people succumbing to the disease in a span of 24 hours, the data updated at 8 am showed. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/education/news/cbse-to-declare-class-12-compartment-exam-results-by-october-12/articleshow/78291395.cms">CBSE to declare class 12 compartment exam results by October 12</a>

In India, COVID-19 recoveries are surpassing new cases for six days now

<ul><li>The daily <keyword id="8763838" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="covid-19">COVID-19</keyword> cases count is reducing in India. Over the past 14 days, they have been significantly lower than the reported high of 90,000 cases/day in September. </li><li>Experts <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-54419959">believe</a> India may have witnessed COVID-19 peak in mid-September. </li><li>However, the onset of the festival season may <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-54419959">reverse </a>the recovery seen over the past few weeks in India. </li></ul>Eight months into the COVID-19 outbreak in the country, India has witnessed a steep decline in daily average COVID-19 cases from 86,000 in late September to 64,000 in early October. New cases reported in the last 14 days are below the previous high of 90,000 per day. <div type="image" title="India covid-19 case daily" msid="78528169" hostid="261"></div> There has been no reduction in the number of tests conducted in a day. India is performing 828 tests per day per million population. According to the Health Ministry, new recoveries have been more than the new cases over the last two weeks. Since daily COVID-19 cases are increasing at a diminishing rate, the growth rate has dropped to 1.28% per day. Many states in the country, including Bihar and Tamil Nadu, have less than 1% growth rate. <table style="border-width: initial; border-style: none; width: 468pt; table-layout: fixed;"></colgroup><tbody><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">COVID-19 timeline </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Average daily cases </td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">September 2 to September 8 </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">84,179 </td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">September 30 to October 6 </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">77,113 </td></tr></tbody></table>Source: <a href="https://www.mohfw.gov.in/">Health Ministry</a> The worst is not behind us yet Experts <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-54419959">believe </a>India may have witnessed COVID-19 peak in mid-September when it recorded around 93,000 average daily cases. COVID-19 deaths have also declined significantly in most states in the country. However, the festival season is around the corner in India, which may <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-54419959">reverse </a>all the recovery seen in the country over the last two weeks. "There is still a lot of forest left for the virus to spread like wildfire. Let us try to keep it as a slow-burning coil. We also want to give our health care system time to replenish, recharge, restock,” Dr Bhramar Mukherjee, a professor of biostatistics and epidemiology at the University of Michigan, told BBC. Moreover, a higher number of tests and lower cases may not be substantial bases to conclude — especially since India has been using rapid antigen tests that have 50% accuracy. "How much of India's declining case numbers have been contributed by these rapid tests, and how much of it is a real slowdown is difficult to say," Dr Shahid Jameel, a leading virologist, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-54419959">told BBC. </a> India’s COVID-19 tally is rising So far, India has recorded over 6.5 million cases and over a million deaths due to COVID-19 pandemic. It remains the second-worst hit COVID-19 affected nation after the US. However, India has the lowest mortality rate among the 20 worst coronavirus-hit nations. According to Johns Hopkins University, Mexico has the highest mortality rate of 10.4%, followed by Ecuador at 8.3% and the UK at 8.2%. <table style="border-width: initial; border-style: none; width: 468pt; table-layout: fixed;"></colgroup><tbody><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Worst hit nations </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">COVID-19 mortality rate </td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">USA </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">2.8% </td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">India </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">1.6% </td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Brazil </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">3% </td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Russia </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">1.8% </td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Colombia </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">3.1% </td></tr></tbody></table>Source: John Hopkins University Maharashtra <a href="https://www.mohfw.gov.in/">continues </a>to be the worst-hit with 2,47,468 active cases followed by Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi. Ten states, including Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh, account for 77% of the active coronavirus cases in the country. About 48% of the country’s COVID-19 fatalities have been reported from 25 districts in eight states. "Of these 25 districts, 15 are in Maharashtra alone, two each in Karnataka, West Bengal and Gujarat and one each in Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh," Rajesh Bhushan, secretary in the Ministry of Health, told the media. The World Health Organisation <a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/who-coronavirus-covid19-1-in-10-people-infected-worldwide-1728667-2020-10-05">warned </a>of a “difficult period” ahead after stating that every one in ten people in the world has COVID-19 infection. According to Dr. Michael Ryan, the vast majority of the world remains at risk. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/india/news/no-coercive-action-against-facebook-india-vp-delhi-assembly-tells-supreme-court/articleshow/78526524.cms">No coercive action against Facebook India VP, Delhi Assembly tells Supreme Court</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/entertainment/news/schitts-creek-star-dan-levy-lashes-out-at-an-indian-channel-for-censorship-on-the-show/articleshow/78526614.cms">Schitt’s Creek star Dan Levy lashes out at an Indian channel for censorship on the show</a>

India’s COVID-19 infections seem to have peaked — but it is not the time to lower the guard

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The US's <keyword id="11894307" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="delta" source="Orion">Delta</keyword> cases are rising at a slower rate than earlier in the summer.</li><li>In countries like the UK and India, Delta surges seemed to spike quickly then fizzle.</li><li>Experts say the US is still vulnerable to more Delta outbreaks, but future surges will likely be weaker.</li></ul>The Delta <keyword id="12004893" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="variant" source="Orion">variant</keyword> appears to be loosening its hold on the US.Roughly two months into this fourth case wave, the growth rate of daily cases is slowing, suggesting that a peak is nigh. Nationally, daily cases rose 9% in the last week, and 8% the week prior. That's compared to double-digit weekly increases throughout July and early August - and a 61% increase from July 21 to 28.Over the last several weeks, daily cases have declined in southern states hit hardest by Delta, including Arkansas, Missouri, Louisiana, and Florida.A <a href="https://covid19.healthdata.org/united-states-of-america?view=infections-testing&amp;tab=trend&amp;test=infectionsfections">model</a> from the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation suggests the US's true number of new daily infections may have peaked in mid-August, since official tallies usually represent infections contracted two weeks prior. Under the IHME's current projection, infections could steadily decline for the rest of the year."I do think that we're going to see the Delta surge wane, like others have," Jeffrey Morris, director of biostatistics at the University of Pennsylvania, told Insider. At the very least, Morris said, daily hospitalizations could decline soon, given how much of the population has at least some form of immunity: 62% of Americans are at least partially vaccinated and 12% have had a confirmed case of COVID-19, though these groups overlap. "It's possible we might see [outbreaks] pop up in other parts of the country that haven't been hit hard yet" by Delta, Morris said, but he added that "unless we have another, even more transmissible variant, we shouldn't expect any future surge to be as intense as this one."<h2>Delta surges seemed to spike quickly then fizzle in other countries</h2><div type="image" title="india covid second wave" height="1772" width="2500" msid="85912000" hostid="261"></div>If Delta cases do drop off soon in the US, they would follow a pattern seen in several other countries: The variant appears to tear through a population like wildfire, then fizzle out fairly quickly.India's Delta outbreak started in early March, then peaked roughly two months later. The UK's outbreak also peaked after two months, with cases rising from late May until late July. Delta surges in France and Indonesia were even shorter: They peaked after around one-and-a-half months.By comparison, it took around four months for <keyword id="11893194" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="coronavirus" source="Orion">coronavirus</keyword> cases to reach their peak during the US's third wave of infections over the fall and winter.One likely explanation for Delta's sharp rise and fall, Morris said, is that the variant is highly transmissible, but fewer people are susceptible to infection now than at any other point in the pandemic. "People with no immune protection - no vaccination or previous infection - they're kind of like dry kindling," he said. "If a spark hits it, it's going to light on fire. Whereas the more immune protection an individual has from the previous infection, vaccination, or both, then they're kind of like a wet log. If you have a big enough, hot enough fire, the wet log will burn, but not as much."<h2>Could cold weather and in-person school drive cases up again?</h2><div type="image" title="A student wears a mask as she enters the St. Lawrence Catholic School on the first day of school after summer vacation in north of Miami, on August 18, 2021." height="2600" width="3900" msid="85912005" hostid="261"></div>But if the pandemic has taught us anything, it's that no pattern is guaranteed. As the weather gets cold, people will inevitably spend more time indoors, where it's easier for Delta to spread. Some experts think the US hasn't seen the worst of school transmission, either, since some schools don't resume in-person class until later this month."The folks that kids, teachers, and parents were interacting with over the summer aren't the same folks as who they'll be interacting with in the fall," Dr. Maimuna Majumder, a research associate at Harvard Medical School, told Insider. "Mobility patterns shift, too, as college students fly from their home cities and countries to go back to university in-person. Both of these realities carry with them the chance to 'stir the pot.'" She added: "I'm not sure that the slight plateau that we're seeing nationally will last." But Morris said school transmission usually isn't enough to drive up national cases on its own."It would be reasonable to expect there might be an uptick from school going back - whether it really lights a new forest fire, I personally don't think so," he said.Plus, the risk of transmission goes down as vaccination rates rise, and the US's daily vaccinations have been steadily climbing over the last two months. Daily vaccinations rose 20%, on average, from the end of July to the end of August. "The vaccination is a little more in our favor, but Delta still spreads like crazy," Morris said. "We'll see what people's behavior is like."

Delta cases may finally be reaching a peak in the US. Future surges are likely to be weaker.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>World Health Organization officials called <keyword id="6383835" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="delta">Delta</keyword> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/delta-fittest-coronavirus-variant-who-warns-vulnerable-2021-6">the "fittest" variant to date</a> on Monday.</li><li>Delta is more transmissible, and potentially deadlier, than any other <keyword id="1754604" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="coronavirus">coronavirus</keyword> variant so far.</li><li>Scientists now wonder if the virus has reached "peak fitness," though it's likely too soon to tell.</li></ul>No coronavirus variant spotted so far is more concerning than Delta, the strain first identified in India in February. World Health Organization officials on Monday said Delta is <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/delta-fittest-coronavirus-variant-who-warns-vulnerable-2021-6">the "fittest" variant to date</a>, since it spreads even more easily than other <keyword id="112799" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="variants">variants</keyword> and may lead to more severe cases among unvaccinated people."Delta is a superspreader variant, the worst version of the virus we've seen," Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, <a href="https://twitter.com/EricTopol/status/1404790585219719170">tweeted last week</a>.But it's possible that Delta is the worst the coronavirus is going to throw at us - that the virus, in other words, has reached what epidemiologists call "peak fitness."Topol and Italian virologist Roberto Burioni explore that scenario in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-021-01421-7">a letter published in the journal Nature</a> on Monday. The virus, they wrote, is likely to hit a point after which it no longer mutates to become more infectious. In that case, they said, "a "'final' variant will prevail and become the dominant strain, experiencing only occasional, minimal variations." It's too soon to know whether that's happened, since Delta isn't yet dominant worldwide. But it likely will be soon -Delta has been detected in more than 80 countries so far and is already dominant in India and the UK."Delta is absolutely going up the fitness peak - whether it's at the top, I think that's very hard to say until we just don't see any further change," Andrew Read, <keyword id="6366244" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="who">who</keyword> studies the evolution of infectious diseases at Pennsylvania State University, told Insider."If Delta takes over the world and nothing changes," he added, "then we'll know in a while - a year or two - that it is the most fit."<h2>The fittest variants are the best at spreading</h2><div type="image" title="coronavirus hug " height="2794" width="3900" msid="83777673" hostid="261"></div>The coronavirus is constantly mutating in relatively harmless ways, but every once in a while, a mutation turns the virus into a more menacing threat. A new variant develops that can evade antibodies generated in response to a vaccine or prior infection, results in more serious illness, or spreads more easily. Emerging research indicates that Delta checks at least two of those boxes.Public Health England <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/confirmed-cases-of-covid-19-variants-identified-in-uk">found</a> that Delta is associated with a 60% increased risk of household coronavirus <keyword id="67884" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Transmission">transmission</keyword> compared to Alpha, the variant discovered in the UK. Alpha is already around <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7003e2.htm">50% more transmissible</a> than the original strain, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Researchers in Scotland also found that getting infected with Delta <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)01358-1/fulltext">doubles the risk</a> of hospital admission relative to Alpha. (Previous studies have <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/982640/Feb_NERVTAG_update_note_on_B.1.1.7_severity.pdf">suggested</a> that Alpha may be 30% to 70% deadlier than the original strain.)What's more, emerging research indicates that a single vaccine dose doesn't hold up as well against Delta as it does against other coronavirus strains. Recent Public Health England <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/vaccines-highly-effective-against-hospitalisation-from-delta-variant">analyses</a> found that two doses of Pfizer's vaccine were 88% effective at preventing symptomatic COVID-19 from Delta, while a single shot was just 33% effective. That's compared to 95% efficacy against the original strain, with 52% after one shot.The best way for the coronavirus to achieve peak fitness, Topol and Burioni <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-021-01421-7">wrote in their letter</a>, is to become more contagious. If a variant is already spreading quickly, there's no urgent need for it to evade the body's immune response; it can simply jump to another person."Increasing rate of transmission from person to person is what we're looking for," Read said.So far, Delta is by far the most transmissible variant. The US's Delta cases appear to have <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/delta-coronavirus-variant-growing-in-us-could-imperil-recovery-2021-6">tripled in just 11 days</a>, from 10% of all cases sequenced in early June to 31% last week, <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/d4abbe5e-8650-4a76-9fea-2d3efa2ed52b">according to a recent estimate from the Financial Times</a>. At that rate, experts predict Delta will become the nation's dominant strain in weeks. That doesn't necessarily mean the coronavirus has reached maximum transmission, though.Read said Delta could still acquire combinations of mutations that make it even better at spreading (what he called a "Delta-plus" variant). It's also possible that two separate variants - Delta and Alpha, for instance - could combine mutations to produce an even more infectious strain. Under a third scenario, Read said, an entirely new lineage might replace Delta as the dominant variant."The biggest concern at the moment is just the sheer number of people that have the virus and therefore the sheer number of variants that are being generated," Read said. "Some of those might be the jackpot which are even fitter than Delta."Still, vaccines will likely provide at least some protection against whatever strain represents the coronavirus' peak fitness."No human vaccine has ever been undermined by a variant to the point where the vaccine was completely useless," Read said.

Has the coronavirus reached 'peak fitness'? Experts wonder if the Delta variant is the worst we'll see.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>A category-4 super <keyword id="6386783" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="CYCLONE">cyclone</keyword> is due to hit <keyword id="3658" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="India">India</keyword>'s coast on Wednesday, and thousands of people are being evacuated. </li><li>Super cyclone Amphan is set to bring heavy rain and winds will reach up to 105 miles per hour when it hits, <a href="https://mausam.imd.gov.in/Forecast/marquee_data/indian111.pdf">according to the India Meteorological Department</a>.</li><li>The cyclone comes just after India's <keyword id="1754604" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="coronavirus">coronavirus</keyword> cases are at a peak. It reported its <a href="https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6">highest-ever number</a> of new cases on Sunday. The country is currently easing its lockdown. </li><li>Under social distancing orders, cyclone shelter capacity is reduced by more than half, <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2020/05/19/asia/super-cyclone-amphan-india-banglash-intl-hnk/index.html">according to CNN</a>.</li></ul>Hundreds of thousands of people in India are in danger as a category-4 super cyclone heads towards the east coast, as the country is still grappling with a serious coronavirus outbreak. The super cyclone, dubbed "Amphan," is set to hit the West Bengal coast on Wednesday.The storm is carrying extremely heavy rains and wind speeds that could reach up to around 105 miles per hour when it hits the land, <a href="https://mausam.imd.gov.in/Forecast/marquee_data/indian111.pdf">according to the India Meteorological Department</a>.The country's director general of the National Disaster Relief Force, Satya Narayan Pradhan, said that as many as 260,000 people in West Bengal and the state of Odisha may need to be evacuated, <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2020/05/19/asia/super-cyclone-amphan-india-banglash-intl-hnk/index.html">CNN reported</a>. The cyclone also threatens the neighboring nation of Bangladesh. Millions could be uprooted by the storm, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-52718826">the BBC reported</a>. At its height on Monday night, the US Joint Typhoon Warning Center <a href="https://www.metoc.navy.mil/jtwc/products/abioweb.txt">recorded wind speeds of up to 166 miles per hour</a> in the Bay of Bengal.Since then, Super Cyclone Amphan has eased slightly and has been downgraded to a category-4 storm. <div type="image" title="NASA amphan india cyclone" height="512" width="1024" msid="75826820" hostid="261"></div>Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a meeting of the National Disaster Management Authority on Monday, <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/cyclone-amphan-tracker-live-updates-amphan-intensified-into-a-super-cyclonic-storm/liveblog/75796712.cms">according to The Times of India</a>. The West Bengal government halted port operations and began evacuating people from the coast on Tuesday morning, the newspaper reported. Narayan Pradhan said that cyclone shelter capacity will be reduced under coronavirus social distancing orders, <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2020/05/19/asia/super-cyclone-amphan-india-banglash-intl-hnk/index.html">CNN reported</a>. While West Bengal usually has capacity for 500,000 people, this may be reduced to 200,000.The cyclone comes as India eases its coronavirus lockdown, although the virus is still at a peak. On Sunday, the country reported <a href="https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6">around 5,000 new cases</a>, its highest number to date. This was followed by around 4,600 new cases on Monday, its second-highest figure.In total, India has reported more than 100,000 cases of the virus and 3,164 deaths. <div type="image" title="storm amphan india kolkata west bengal calcutta cyclone" height="1000" width="2000" msid="75826823" hostid="261"></div>Although the country's lockdown period has been officially extended to May 31, many measures have been relaxed, <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/india/lockdown-extended-till-may-31-but-most-curbs-lifted-states-will-decide-on-transport-and-zones-6414933/">according to The Indian Express</a>.Offices, markets and shops have been allowed to open, and some inter-state travel on buses is allowed, the paper reported. Entertainment and religious venues will remain shut. Districts are being demarcated into "red" "green" and "orange" zones, with differing levels of movement allowed for each. Amphan is the second super cyclone to hit the west coast of India. In 1999, Odisha was devastated by a cyclone that killed nearly 10,000 people, <a href="https://apnews.com/b352ace4688b5c11de7dd3bc9b5dec33">according to the Associated Press</a>. Read the original article on <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/india-braces-for-super-cyclone-amphan-amid-coronavirus-outbreak-2020-5">Business Insider</a>

India is about to get hit by a super cyclone at the same time as its coronavirus outbreak is peaking

<ul><li>As COVID-19 forces thousands of people to stay home, Eros Now is offering a 2-month free subscription to Indian customers. </li><li>This comes after several state governments have urged people to avoid all non-essential travel and work from home to contain the outbreak. </li><li>According to an online app Annie, its daily active user rose by 78% between 27 February and 7 March. </li></ul>As COVID-19 is forcing lakhs of people to stay home, streaming player Eros Now is offering a 2-month free access to its Indian customers. “We are opening the gates of Eros Now to watch the product, which otherwise would cost ₹49 a month. So we are allowing 2 month free access until the end of March. There might be a little bit of flow bound on the new content that comes in but we have at least 10,000 <keyword id="6369154" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="films">films</keyword> across languages for our audiences,” Ali Hussein, CEO told Business Insider India. This comes after several state governments urged people to avoid all non-essential travel and work from home to contain the novel <keyword id="8595403" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Coronavirus-outbreak">coronavirus outbreak</keyword>. So far, the virus has infected 151, and killed 3 in India. 
	
	<div type="twitter" handle="ErosNow" handlename="Eros Now" image="http://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1236991142383632384/C4T52R23_normal.jpg" favoritecount="67" retweetcount="19" status="Your stay at home just got a lot more interesting! To help you get through your #quarantinetime, Eros Now brings… https://t.co/10oEGNkesC" createdat="1584546439000" id="1240303778005475328"></div>





 People have been binge watching more due to social isolation and closure of malls and cinema halls. Eros Now is among the many platforms in India that have witnessed a peak in its unique viewers. According to an online app Annie, its daily active user rose by 78% between 27 February and 7 March. According to a Business Standard report, most Zee5 and Voot witnessed u<a href="https://theprint.in/india/ficci-launches-online-course-on-coronavirus-management-to-help-if-situation-gets-worse/383525/">pto 20% rise in usage the past few days</a>. Eros Now is now looking to cash in on the renewed interest in streaming shows and movies. It claims to have 137 million registered users and 26 million paid subscribers. “It is still early to say how much. But yes, there is an opportunity for us. If there is free time available then entertainment tends to be a free choice for a lot of customers in India. That’s the reason why we are not charging our customer but providing them the window to indulge with entertainment on our platform,” Hussein added. Eros Now had planned to add at least one original series in a month and 40 theatrical releases in its content library. It aims to spend between $50-70 million on original content in the next 12-18 months. However, some of its releases like Haathi Mere Sathi have also been postponed due to <keyword id="1754604" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="coronavirus">Coronavirus</keyword>. Apart from education apps like Byju’s and Unacademy, Amar Chitra Katha also offered free access to all its comics online See also: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/environment/news/dolphins-return-to-italy-venice-canal-shines-chinas-air-clears-up-the-impact-of-coronavirus-isolation-says-we-need-to-rethink-our-ways/articleshow/74705435.cms">Dolphins return to Italy, Venice canal shines, China’s air clears up – the impact of Coronavirus isolation says we need to rethink our ways</a>

Eros Now offers 2-month free subscription after its unique users peak to a new high

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Scientists worldwide are closely tracking an <keyword id="12616996" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="omicron" source="Orion">Omicron</keyword> subtype, called BA.2.</li><li>In <keyword id="12068458" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="denmark" source="Orion">Denmark</keyword> BA.2 is surpassing the BA.1 Omicron subtype, the most common cause of new <keyword id="11893994" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="covid-19" source="Orion">COVID-19</keyword> cases.</li></ul><keyword id="11894571" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="health" source="Orion">Health</keyword> officials and scientists worldwide are closely watching a subtype of the highly infectious <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ba-2-omicron-lineage-covid-harder-track-s-gene-dropout-2021-12" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Omicron</a> COVID-19 variant.The new subtype, called BA.2, is a sister to BA.1 — the virus driving most COVID-19 cases worldwide. Scientists have spotted that the number of people infected with BA.2 has steadily increased in several countries including India, the <keyword id="11897975" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="uk" source="Orion">UK</keyword>, Sweden, and Singapore. It was first detected in the Philippines in December 2021.This could signal BA.2 is more infectious than BA.1, though there isn't enough data yet to determine any meaningful difference between the two, <a href="https://twitter.com/EricTopol/status/1485365284361805825" target="_blank" rel="noopener">experts have said.</a>Scientists worldwide are now scrambling to work out if current vaccines will still work on the subtype, and whether BA.2 is more deadly.In Denmark, BA.2 has displaced BA.1 and now accounts for almost half of the new infections in the country, <a href="https://en.ssi.dk/news/news/2022/omicron-variant-ba2-accounts-for-almost-half-of-all-danish-omicron-cases" target="_blank" rel="noopener">health officials said Thursday. </a>Early data from the country suggests there hasn't been an uptick in hospitalizations since the subtype took hold.<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/scientists-track-covid-variant-high-number-mutation-botswana-south-africa-2021-11" target="_blank" rel="noopener"></a><a href="https://twitter.com/PeacockFlu/status/1485241706555576323" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dr Tom Peacock</a><a href="https://twitter.com/PeacockFlu/status/1484658726871126021" target="_blank" rel="noopener">, a researcher at Imperial College London</a>, who was one of the first to sound the alarm about Omicron in November, said on<a href="https://twitter.com/PeacockFlu/status/1484658726871126021" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Twitter Friday</a> that BA.2 probably wouldn't cause a a second Omicron wave: "I think the likely scenario is BA.2 just exacerbates what the national Omicron situation is (slows down decreases, increases peaks, etc)."Peacock said that the subtype was not a "major cause of concern", but "definitely worth keeping an eye on," per <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/34fef135-7408-47d1-83b2-61a6a59bc943">the Financial Times.</a>Omicron comprises three viruses: BA.1, BA.2 and BA.3.The BA.1. and BA.2 sister viruses share common mutations, but there are about 50 that differ between either subtype, <a href="https://twitter.com/PeacockFlu/status/1485241706555576323" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Peacock said Sunday.</a>Francois Balloux, director at the University College London Genetics Institute said in a statement to the <keyword id="11896083" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="science" source="Orion">Science</keyword> Media Center Monday that the two Omicron sub-lineages were sisters that split from each other several months ago, and were not derived from each other.Scientists have previously warned that BA.2. is a bit <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ba-2-omicron-lineage-covid-harder-track-s-gene-dropout-2021-12">harder to track</a> in lab tests than BA.1 due to mutations in the part of the virus that attaches to cells. As of Monday, the BA.2 Omicron subtype had been detected in 10,811 sequenced tests from 49 countries and 17 US states, according to <a href="https://outbreak.info/situation-reports?pango=BA.2">Scripps University's Outbreak.info.</a> Outbreak.info pulls data from a well-regarded central database called the Global Initiative on Sharing Avian Influenza Data, or GISAID. Countries with more than 100 BA.2 cases include: Denmark (8,357), India (711), the UK (607), Sweden (224), and Singapore (203). But as a percentage of cases overall, it remains low. For example, BA.2 accounts for about 0.03% of all tests sequenced in the UK, according to Outbreak info.UK health officials labeled BA.2 a "variant under investigation" on Friday. <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-variants-genomically-confirmed-case-numbers/variants-distribution-of-cases-data" target="_blank" rel="noopener">This essentially means</a> UK officials are concerned about its mutations, but it hasn't yet been determined whether the subtype is more deadly, more infectious or better able to evade vaccines.The UK Health and Security Agency <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1049138/Therapeutics_programme_intro_report-21012022.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said Friday</a> that their decision was based on "small but increasing numbers" of the virus in the country and its spread internationally. "There is still uncertainty around the significance of the changes to the viral genome, and further analyses will now be undertaken," <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/covid-19-variants-identified-in-the-uk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">it said.</a>"It is the nature of viruses to evolve and mutate, so it's to be expected that we will continue to see new variants emerge as the pandemic goes on," Dr Meera Chand, UKHSA COVID-19 incident director, said.

Scientists are closely watching an Omicron subtype spreading in Denmark, the UK, Singapore and India

<ul><li>The number of infections in some of the big cities are already past their peak and are likely to trend down hereon. </li><li>The latest Sero survey from two of the most affected cities in the country — <keyword id="6358070" type="LOCATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="mumbai">Mumbai</keyword> and Delhi — have sparked the hope for <keyword id="2147226" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="herd-immunity">herd immunity</keyword> against COVID-19. </li><li><keyword id="12864" type="LOCATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Chennai">Chennai</keyword>, which recently emerged as the worst-affected city in Tamil Nadu, is likely to witness its peak soon.</li></ul>India's COVID-19 tally stands went from 1.4 million to 1.5 million in 2 days with a total of 34,193 deaths. At the same time the recoveries are just a little short of the million mark, according to <keyword id="3717035" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="the-union-health-ministry">the Union Health Ministry</keyword> data. However, there is a silver lining. As per the latest data by <a href="https://www.timesnownews.com/times-facts">India Outbreak Report</a>, the number of infections in Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad and Thane are already past their peak and are likely to trend down hereon. These are the dates in which other cities and states are likely to see the maximum number of daily infections, after which the daily increase will start waning. <div type="image" title="Peak-Pandemic (1)" msid="77242567" hostid="261"></div> The latest sero survey from two of the most affected cities in the country — Mumbai and Delhi — have sparked the hope for <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/health/news/slums-in-mumbai-are-showing-signs-of-herd-immunity-but-it-is-too-soon-to-conclude/articleshow/77238721.cms">herd immunity</a> against COVID-19. However, experts warn that it may be too soon to say that a big chunk of the population has developed antibodies against the novel <keyword id="1754604" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="coronavirus">coronavirus</keyword>. Even those who may have, may see the resistance depleting after some time. The fall in active cases and fresh infections should not be a cue for being less careful. The count may fall but it will not disappear in a hurry. Masks, gloves, social distancing and other protective measures should continue to avoid contraction. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/mahindra-and-mahindra-finance-managing-director-gets-candid-about-the-rights-issue/articleshow/77212386.cms">EXCLUSIVE: M&amp;M Financial Managing Director gets candid about the rights issue, the bleak prospects for this year and why there should be no more loan moratorium</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/india-stock-brokers-hit-by-sebi-direct-market-access/articleshow/77198064.cms">India's broking industry just got the shock of its life – SEBI may soon allow investors to trade directly on the exchange</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/these-10-indian-colleges-have-produced-indias-most-funded-startup-owners/slidelist/77140792.cms">These 10 Indian colleges have produced India’s most funded startup owners</a>

These are the projected dates for peak COVID-19 infections in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Bhopal, Jaipur

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Public-health experts and physicians are urging the US to donate vaccine doses to <keyword id="3658" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="India">India</keyword>.</li><li>India's COVID-19 surge is shattering world records. The country recorded 349,691 new cases Sunday.</li><li>In the US, daily vaccination rates are down 19% from a peak, as supply starts to outstrip demand.</li></ul>A growing chorus of doctors and public-health experts are urging President Joe <keyword id="60973" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Biden">Biden</keyword> to donate <keyword id="8624004" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="coronavirus-vaccine">coronavirus vaccine</keyword> doses to India, which has rapidly deteriorated into the epicenter of the pandemic. India recorded 349,691 new cases on Sunday, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/india-coronavirus-cases-set-new-global-record-us-readies-help-2021-04-25/">smashing a global record for a fourth consecutive day</a>. Hospitals are being overrun and medical supplies are in short supply. Vaccinations have also been few and far between in the world's second-most populous country, with <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/covid-vaccine-tracker-global-distribution/?sref=Hhue1scO">less than 2% of the population fully immunized</a>.India provides the most glaring example of the inequity in vaccine distribution, where rich nations have bought up the vast majority of supply. In the US, 53% of all adults have received at least one dose and 36% are fully vaccinated. The rate of infections and deaths have fallen by about 75% since January peaks, and much of the US has already started to reopen. Perhaps the sharpest contrast between the two countries is shown in the latest US vaccination figures. The seven-day average of number of shots being given daily in the US is down 17% from a recent peak of 3.35 million. Evercore ISI analysts attribute the decline to "softening demand," as experts anticipate the US campaign is now inflecting from a supply to a demand challenge.Public-health experts and doctors are now urging the US to do much more in assisting India. In particular, they are urging the Biden administration to relax restrictions on exporting raw materials needed for vaccines and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/astrazeneca-coronavirus-vaccine-has-murky-future-in-us-2021-3" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">to donate doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine</a>, which is not authorized in the US.The US government signed a deal with AstraZeneca last summer to eventually deliver 300 million doses of the shot. The US already has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/11/us/politics/coronavirus-astrazeneca-united-states.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">at least 30 million of those doses on hand</a>, a supply which experts say would be best used by donating to other nations that need it."We need to get these doses donated to countries where supply is limited. Immediately. They do absolutely no good to anyone just sitting on a shelf," <a href="https://twitter.com/Craig_A_Spencer/status/1386168956768108547">said</a> Dr. Craig Spencer, an assistant professor of emergency medicine at Columbia University's medical center. "Donating money isn't enough. Committing to future initiatives isn't either."In <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/04/24/indias-coronavirus-surge-could-collapse-its-health-system-us-can-help/">an opinion piece published Saturday in The Washington Post</a>, Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public <keyword id="6354750" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="health">Health</keyword>, called for the US to help India scale up testing, establish field hospitals, provide more medical supplies like oxygen, and donate vaccine doses. "The United States has strategic interests in helping India weather the pandemic; it is also the right thing to do," Jha wrote. "Only the United States has the capacity, resources and technical know-how to bend the curve of India's catastrophic second wave of disease. The faster we assist our ally, the more lives will be saved."<h2>Top US officials respond, vow to take action</h2>Under the increased pressure, top US officials have vowed to help India, but details have yet to be made public. "Our hearts go out to the Indian people in the midst of the horrific COVID-19 outbreak," Anthony Blinken, US Secretary of State, <a href="https://twitter.com/SecBlinken/status/1386148447179493380">wrote Saturday night on Twitter</a>. "We are working closely with our partners in the Indian government, and we will rapidly deploy additional support to the people of India and India's health care heroes."Part of the hesitation in donating vaccine doses has been uncertainty over the viral variants that are present in India, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious-disease expert and Biden's chief medical advisor.Certain variants can partially evade the protection given by vaccines. For instance, AstraZeneca's shot appeared to be particularly less protective against the B.1.351 variant first identified in South Africa, <a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2102214">according to a 2,000-person clinical trial</a>. "They have a situation there where there are variants that have arisen," Fauci said Friday at a White House COVID-19 task force briefing. "We have not yet fully characterized the variants and the relationship between the ability of the vaccines to protect. But we're assuming, clearly, that they need vaccines."

Pressure is building on Biden to send vaccine doses to India, as the country breaks global records with COVID-19 outbreak

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The <keyword id="6383835" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="delta">Delta</keyword> Plus <keyword id="396427" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="variant">variant</keyword>, found in dozens of countries, is the Delta variant with an extra mutation.</li><li>It's not yet clear whether Delta Plus is more transmissible than Delta.</li><li>The fact Delta remains dominant worldwide, however, is a sign Delta Plus won't overtake it soon.</li></ul>As the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cdc-fully-vaccinated-people-can-spread-delta-variant-2021-7">Delta coronavirus variant</a> tears across the globe, scientists are keeping a close eye on its relative: Delta Plus.The two variants are genetically similar, which is why they share the same Greek letter. But Delta Plus (also known as AY.1) has an extra mutation in the code for its spike protein, which helps the <keyword id="1754604" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="coronavirus">coronavirus</keyword> access our cells.<keyword id="3658" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="India">India</keyword>'s health ministry said last month that Delta Plus appeared to spread more easily than Delta and might be able to bind more easily to lung cells or resist antibody drugs. But an Indian genomics consortium suggested more recently that Delta's sublineages <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/70-delta-plus-variant-cases-found-across-16-states-ut-govt-tells-lok-sabha-101627641823857.html">probably weren't more transmissible</a> than Delta. As of July 23, India had recorded no more than 70 Delta Plus cases.The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization track Delta Plus as part of the Delta variant, meaning the cases aren't separated. But data from Scripps Research's <a href="https://outbreak.info/about" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Outbreak.info tracker</a> suggests just 430 Delta Plus cases have been detected worldwide.<keyword id="5565" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="South-Korea">South Korea</keyword> on Tuesday announced it had recorded its first two cases of Delta Plus. The nation is recording its heaviest surge of infections yet, most likely driven by the original Delta strain."It doesn't terrify me any more, really, than Delta," Andrew Read, a Pennsylvania State University professor who studies the evolution of infectious diseases, said of Delta Plus.Though Delta Plus has made its way to at least 29 countries and 17 US states, Read noted that "the widespread geographic nature doesn't mean that it's one thing spreading widely.""It could be that it's several independent events that are spreading locally," he said.In the US, Delta Plus cases peaked in late June at less than 5% of the nation's sequenced cases, according to <a href="https://outbreak.info/about" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Outbreak.info</a>. Health experts say it's a sign Delta Plus isn't outcompeting other variants."If it started to rise in frequency against the Delta variant, that would tell you that it was perhaps on track to take over from Delta - but we're not really seeing that at the moment," Read said. "If it had a big advantage, we'd be seeing it rising in frequency pretty rapidly."<h2>Scientists don't know how well <keyword id="79555" type="TECHNOLOGY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Vaccines">vaccines</keyword> perform against Delta Plus</h2><div type="image" title="A pharmacy student giving another student a vaccine in Miami." height="2659" width="3989" msid="85056518" hostid="261"></div>For Delta Plus to be a serious concern, scientists would need evidence it's more transmissible than Delta, causes more severe disease, or resists protection from vaccines to a greater degree."I could imagine that, because the mutation is in the spike [protein], it might have some advantages in terms of immune evasion and some disadvantages in terms of binding to the ACE2 receptor," Read said. That receptor serves as the port of entry for the coronavirus.But Public Health England <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/delta-plus-variant-india-ay1-covid-coronavirus-experts-not-worried-2021-6">told Insider in June</a> that there was no evidence Delta Plus' extra mutation made the virus any more severe or reduced vaccine effectiveness relative to Delta.While Delta seems to have challenged how well vaccines prevent infection and transmission, recent CDC data indicates coronavirus shots still reduce the risk of getting COVID-19 eightfold, and the risk of hospitalization or death twenty-fivefold.A <a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2108891?query=featured_home">study</a> in the New England Journal of Medicine found the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/pfizer-vaccine-works-against-delta-covid-but-both-shots-needed-2021-7">two-dose Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine</a> reduced the risk of a symptomatic Delta infection by 88%. <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.08.21259776v1">Another study</a> that hasn't been peer reviewed found the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna mRNA vaccines reduced the risk of hospitalization by 91% for people who weren't immunocompromised.When it comes to Delta Plus, a <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.30.454511v1.full.pdf">study</a> from Indian researchers that's still awaiting peer review found that Covaxin - one of India's two main coronavirus vaccines - still neutralized the variant. Covaxin is similar to China's Sinovac shot.

You Searched For "coronavirus peak in india" and got 11 results

India's population to peak in early 2060s to 1.7 billion before declining: UN

PTI

In India, COVID-19 recoveries are surpassing new cases for six days now

PTI

India’s COVID-19 infections seem to have peaked — but it is not the time to lower the guard

BI India Bureau

Delta cases may finally be reaching a peak in the US. Future surges are likely to be weaker.

Aria Bendix

Has the coronavirus reached 'peak fitness'? Experts wonder if the Delta variant is the worst we'll see.

Aria Bendix

India is about to get hit by a super cyclone at the same time as its coronavirus outbreak is peaking

Mia Jankowicz

Eros Now offers 2-month free subscription after its unique users peak to a new high

Preeti Soni

Scientists are closely watching an Omicron subtype spreading in Denmark, the UK, Singapore and India

Dr. Catherine Schuster-Bruce

These are the projected dates for peak COVID-19 infections in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Bhopal, Jaipur

BI India Bureau

Pressure is building on Biden to send vaccine doses to India, as the country breaks global records with COVID-19 outbreak

Andrew Dunn

The 'Delta Plus' variant has spread to nearly 30 countries, but low case numbers are a sign it won't overtake Delta

Aria Bendix

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