Vaccine Tourism: 24 days in Russia plus 2 Sputnik V shots

There is growing demand for overseas vaccine tourism in India and Moscow is the destination of choice. A Delhi-based travel agency has begun offering 24-day package tours, priced at Rs.1.3 lakh each, which will take vaccine hopefuls to Moscow for two shots of Sputnik-V with a spot of sightseeing thrown in to pass the 21-day interval between jabs.

“The first shot is administered on the very next day after arrival in Moscow,” said an official from the travel agency. “The first batch left on May 15, a group of 30, largely doctors from Gurugram,” he said, adding they have received their first shot. The second batch, on May 29, is all booked too and most are Delhi-based doctors who booked in a group, he said. Then there are batches in June. “The group spends three days in St Petersburg and the remaining days in Moscow. The package includes cost of air tickets on Aeroflot flights from Delhi, breakfast, dinner and a few days of local sight seeing. The visa fee of Rs 10,000 isn’t included,” he added.

Currently, Russia is one of the few countries that allow Indians to fly in for a vaccine vacation as it permits entry with just a negative PCR report and no requirement of quarantine on arrival. Dubai, which was among the first foreign destinations to be associated with the term “vaccine tourism”, is currently shut to Indians and so are a number of other countries.

It was in November last year that the first such package tour to vaccinate abroad was announced by a travel company, a Mumbai-based one. As soon as the Pfizer vaccine was available in the US, the company said it would fly Indians for a four-day US stay at a cost of Rs.1.7 lakh.

Gujarat: Forest department to carry out survey for missing lions

Cyclone Tauktae cast its destructive shadow on wildlife in the state, too. At least 18 lions were reported missing from the coastal districts of Amreli, Gir-Somnath, and Bhavnagar which bore the maximum brunt of the cyclone.

Senior forest officials said that18 lions were reported missing from Rajula and Jafrabad talukas in Amreli, Una and Kodinar talukas in Gir-Somnath and Mahuva taluka in Bhavnagar. The three districts are reportedly home to 40 lions.

While there was apprehension over the fate of the missing animals, many hoped that the big cats had taken refuge in high altitude areas. In fact, considering that Saurashtra — the only abode of Asiatic lions in the world — was severely battered by a severe cyclone, the forest department will undertake a comprehensive survey of all the 674 lions last counted in the 2020 Purnima Avalokan exercise.

“Cyclone Tauktae affected almost all the districts in Saurashtra. Forest beat guards and officials have been directed to report about the well-being of all 674 lions which were counted in the last informal census held in 2020,” said a senior officer.

It needs to be mentioned that of the 674 lions, some 340 reside outside Gir sanctuary in the revenue areas of neighbouring districts namely Amreli, Bhavnagar, Porbandar, Gir-Somnath, and parts of Junagadh.

Experts said that in the past lions are reported to have climbed hillocks and moved to the safety of higher altitudes in a bid to escape flooding. “During the Amreli flash floods in 2015, 20 lions had gone missing. Of these, 14 died while the rest were found sitting on hillocks,” said a senior forest official.

Local experts, however, were apprehensive whether the lions were equipped to sense a major adverse event like an extremely severe cyclone. “Such a natural calamity has seldom occurred on the Saurashtra coast. Hence one is not sure of how the lions may have behaved in its wake,” said a lion expert.

Tauktae : A fallout of warming Arabian Sea region

With climate change triggering extreme weather events in quicker succession than ever before, scientists view the very severe Tauktae (pronounced Tau’ te) cyclonic storm a fallout of ocean warming and also an indication of future calamituous events.

A record eight cyclones - five in the quieter Arabian Sea and three in the usually raging Bay of Bengal - whipped up storms in the sub-continent during 2019. The trend continued in 2020 as five of these devastating wind-driven phenomena ripped through sea and land, driving home the grim reality.

“More and more number of severe cyclonic storms are forming in the Arabian sea due to the unusual warming of the western equatorial Indian Ocean and southern Arabian Sea,” M R Ramesh Kumar, a meteorologist and retired chief scientist of the National Institute of Oceanography said.

A recent study by NIO scientists has clearly indicated that this region will heat up in the near future, as indicated by predictions of several ocean atmospheric-coupled models.

The study published in the journal Climate Dynamics indicated that Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5) models project an ‘inhomogeneous anthropogenic’ (meaning, uncharesteristic environmental pollution originating from human activity) surface warming of the Indian Ocean by 2099 with “strongest warming in the Arabian Sea and Western equatorial Indian Ocean”.

Previous studies have warned that this “Indian Ocean Dipole-like” warming pattern could yield more cyclones in the Arabian Sea. The study further showed that the warming of the Arabian Sea warming will be more than the Bay of Bengal in 80% of the model.

Last year, in what was categorised as the very severe cyclonic storm, Nisarga wreaked havoc in Goa and other places and had formed in late May. It reached its peak in June boosting the onset of southwest monsoon. Tauktae this year sprung up even earlier.

During the past 130 years there were 91 cyclones which formed during May - 63 in the Bay of Bengal and 28 in the Arabian Sea, Kumar said. “The last super cyclone in May 2020 was Amphan, but it had formed in Bay of Bengal on May 1 and dissipated on May 21.”

The last two cyclones in the Arabian Sea were in May 2018, one was headed for the Gulf of Aden and Cycone Mekunu made landfall near Oman which was the strongest storm since 1959. The oceanic region nearer to the Indian subcontinent is already the warmer one. “In the global ocean scenario this region will be the warmest in future too, giving rise to more and more cyclonic storms,” Kumar said.

Pandemic: India 2nd country after US to cross 25m cases

Even as the number of fresh infections per day continue to fall, India became only the second country after the US to cross 25 million Covid infections since the beginning of the pandemic. Brazil, the world’s third worst-hit country, has reported about 15.6 million cases so far.

Comparison with previous data shows that India added the recent 5 million cases in a record 14 days. While the previous 5 million cases, when India crossed 20 million benchmark, were added in 15 days, it took 121 days to add the preceding 5 million cases that took India’s cumulative tally from 10 million to 15 million.

Despite the grim landmark, Monday brought some respite as it was the second day in a row when cases didn’t breach the 3 lakh mark.

The day’s death toll was also below 4,000. As of 11pm, 2.6 lakh cases and 3,719 deaths had been reported for the day. Apart from reporting a lower number of cases Monday also reported the steepest decline in active cases, which fell by about 1.5 lakh. However, active cases continue to remain above 3 million.

State-wise analysis of the data shows that Karnataka leads the list with about 38,000 cases and is followed by Tamil Nadu which reported over 33,000 cases on Monday. The case count was 26,616 for Maharashtra and 21,402 for Kerala. Four other states reported between10,000 to 20,000 cases and this included West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Odisha. Uttar Pradesh’s case count fell below 10,000 mark while Delhi which was another epicenter of this wave of outbreak reported below 5,000 cases.

Deaths have not witnessed that steep fall as cases as there are 12 states that reported over a hundred deaths on Monday. Maharashtra is leading the list with 516 deaths while Karnataka reported 476 fatalities. The national capital and Tamil Nadu both reported over 300 deaths and the toll was 285 for Uttar Pradesh. Other states to report over a hundred deaths were Punjab, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Bengal, UP, Haryana and Andhra Pradesh.

Cyclone Tauktae Hits Gujarat

Cyclone Tauktae, which intensified into an extremely severe cyclonic storm on Monday morning, caused widespread damage to the Konkan coast throughout the day before making landfall in Saurashtra, Gujarat, on Monday night.

Tauktae (pronounced tau-tae) made landfall at speeds in excess of 150 km per hour at 8:30 pm as opposed to an earlier forecast of Tuesday morning due to its rapid intensification, the India Meteorological Department said.

The landfall lasted for roughly two hours, and concluded by 11 pm, it said.

Coastlines of Karnataka, Goa, Maharashtra, and Gujarat experienced heavy rainfall and strong winds that uprooted several trees, resulting in widespread destruction to property and electricity cuts in these areas.

With the Arabian Sea turning rough midway through the day, high waves caused large swathes of water and floods in some areas.

While rainfall remained heavy to moderate in these regions, strong winds caused most of the damage. In Mumbai, Colaba recorded winds of up to 115 kilometres per hour on Monday afternoon. At that point, the eye of the cyclone was just 142 kilometres from the heart of the city.

At the time of going to press, many coastal regions in Maharashtra, including Mumbai, Thane, and Navi Mumbai continued to see heavy rainfall and wind speeds reaching as high as 80 kilometres per hour.

IMD's two main observatories in Mumbai recorded a highly unusual amount of rainfall with Colaba receiving 179 mm of rainfall in 24 hours and Santacruz 169 mm. On average, Mumbai receives only 11.3 mm rainfall in the whole of May.

Meanwhile, Panjim in Goa recorded 227.7 mm of rainfall in 24 hours.

The met department said Tauktae might travel as far as pockets of north India such as Rajasthan and cause moderate rainfall.

Covaxin neutralises new strains: Biotech

Indigenous Covid-19 vaccine Covaxin is effective in fighting all key emerging variants, including the double mutant B.1.617 and B.1.1.7, which was first identified in India and the UK, its developer Bharat Biotech said while citing a study published in an Oxford journal.

Pointing out that Covaxin was successful in retaining neutralising activity against emerging variants, a top official of the company said that no difference in neutralisation was observed between B.1.1.7 (first isolated in the UK) and the vaccine strain (D614G) that was used to develop Covaxin.

Citing a study published in peer-reviewed medical journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, Bharat Biotech joint managing director Suchitra Ella tweeted: “A modest reduction in neutralisation by a factor of 1.95 was observed against B.1.617 variant compared to the vaccine variant (D614G). Despite this reduction, neutralising titre (concentration of neutralising antibodies) levels with B.1.617 remain above levels expected to be protective.”

Neutralising antibodies are part of the body’s immune system and helps defend from viruses and bacteria by neutralising their effects on the body. These antibodies are produced when one gets infected or vaccinated.

The study, ‘Neutralisation of variant under investigation B.1.617 with sera of BBV152 vaccinees’, was covered in the May 7 issue of the journal that is published by the Oxford University Press.

The study found that the sera drawn from those vaccinated with Covaxin performed better against the B.1.617 variant as compared to the sera taken from patients who had recovered from Covid.

“B.1.617 variant performance with vaccine sera was better than recovered cases. The result of B.1.1.7 variant neutralization with BBV152 vaccine sera and findings of B.1.617 emphasize that this vaccine is robust against emerging mutation and maintains the efficacy of the vaccine,” the research paper said.

Floating corpses may infect dolphins, gharials: Scientists

Scientists at the Dehradun-based Wildlife Institute of India have expressed fear that Gangetic river dolphins (Platanistagangetica) and gharials (Gavaialis gangeticus) in the Ganga could get infected by floating corpses in the river, presumed by many to be of those who died from the virus.

The alarm is compounded by the fact that Bihar and UP – where hundreds of corpses were found recently – is a major stretch of the Ganga where Gangetic dolphins and gharials and various other aquatic mammals are found. The 2,525-km-long Ganga is the only habitat of these two mammals. There are over 1,000 gharials and around 2,500-3,000 Gangetic dolphins in the river.

According to scientists, gharials and Gangetic dolphins are both vulnerable as they breathe through lungs unlike other smaller fishes which breathe through gills. Also, they are categorised as ‘critically endangered’ and ‘endangered’ respectively by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

K Sivakumar, senior scientist, WII, said, “Since lions are mammals and they were found infected, aquatic mammals like Gangetic dolphins and ghariyals are susceptible too. We are really worried.”

On whether the virus transmission can happen through water, he said, “We really don’t know enough about how the virus spreads, but since it is believed that it spreads through droplets, it cannot be ruled out that it may spread through water too.”