Dear Reader:

1) msn. com/ en- us/news/ world/ a frantic search for hospital beds as pandemic rages in India: “The surge in coronavirus cases comes weeks after India began dismantling what as one of the world’s most stingiest lockdowns.. India and two of its neighbors- Pakistan and Bangladesh- concluded that the cost of such lockdowns was too high to bear. With the restrictions withdrawn, cases are rising quickly in all three countries, turning South Asia into a new hot spot for the pandemic… Before the pandemic hit, India had only 0.5 hospital beds per 1.000 people.. compared with 3.2 in Italy and 12.3 in South Korea. It also suffers from a chronic shortage of medical personnel.”

Worldometer regarding India (population close to 1,380 million people, rounded, 1.4 billion), just over 333 thousands coronavirus cases, 9,520 deaths. Of the almost 180 thousands closed cases, 95% recovered/ discharged, and 5% died. Over 12 thousand new cases and 309 new deaths were reported yesterday. In comparison, in the US (population almost 331 millions), over 25 thousand new cases and 702 new deaths were reported yesterday.

2) msn. com/ en- us/ health/medical/ 40 percent of  coronavirus patients have this one symptom for weeks: “according to a new study, which was published by the preprint server medRxiv and is yet to be peer- reviewed, many patients with milder cases of coronavirus have experienced enduring symptoms. Though these patients were able to avoid the hospital and other serious medical intervention, over 40 percent reported one lingering problem three weeks after their first onset of symptoms: they still had a persistent cough.

In addition to this discovery, the study found that other symptoms persisted to a lesser degree after three weeks of  illness… 24 percent struggled with shortness of breath during physical exertion, 23 percent hadn’t seen the return of their sense of smell and taste, and an additional 23 percent were still experiencing sinus congestion. While the majority of known coronavirus patients tend to recover within 14 days, this new data indicates that for some, there may be no easy resolution of the illness- and no clear-cut timeline for recovery…

As the authors of the article note, ‘Post-viral syndromes have been associated with numerous viruses in the past, but until the pandemic, they were considered relatively rare’.  They further explain that researchers remain unclear as to whether extended coronavirus symptoms indicate a long-tail recovery, or if instead they reflect a cyclical recurrence of the illness itself, still thriving in the body. Unfortunately, this latter theory has precedent: three fourths of cases of myalgic encephalomyelitis/ chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) are the result of viral or bacterial infection. It is possible that for some, coronavirus could pose a lifetime threat.

… it’s likely that we’re quarantining at least 40 percent of coronavirus patients for too short a time. Health authorities recommend isolating for 14 days after initial symptoms.. In light of this new information, it seems that 14 days should be treated as the bare minimum.”

– to  be continued…

anita