Coronavirus SARS-Cov2 (COVID-19)

[jayakris]

WHO has included the Indian vaccines in their latest release. NYT Article

Which vaccines, Prasen? Covaxin? Covishield was already approved. It's a pay link. There is no way in hell that I will pay for that India-bashing fish-wrap from New York. I don't see anything anywhere else.

[Atithee]

Urgent: does anyone know if a RT-qPCR test from Curative in USA is an acceptable test to enter India? Or does it have to say RT-PCR only? I’m traveling on Friday and the logistical arrangements are very taxing. Thanks.

Is it an oral swab tests (saliva)? I think Curative's RT-qCPR is that variety. Questionable if that would be accepted (though RT-qCPR is supposed to be more accurate!). I am checking.

I see several RT-qCPR test kits approved by ICMR at this page for use in India but it is not specific to travel - https://www.icmr.gov.in/pdf/covid/kits/ ... 072021.pdf

It is not a saliva. It’s regular nasal swab.

[jayakris]

^^^ Then I won't worry. It looks like it will work, if it is a nasal swab. Just don't act like it is some special test. Don't point out the "q" part of RT-qPCR. Just say to the guy at the airport here and in India that it is a regular RT-PCR nasal swab test. That's it. Just to be sure, keep the print out of ICMR's approved test kits that show lots of RT-qPCR tests, and say that it is accepted by ICMR. There are many web-pages that say that RT-qPCR is much more accurate that regular Rt-PCR too, so keep some printed info on that. I will try to find where the official source is, behind that link I gave above that says that India has included RT-qPCR for travel. Keep that print out too, and act like that is some some official site ... They will let you in, so pull out the extra info only if in trouble. Look normal and confident. You know the drill

[prasen9]

Here is the quote from the NYT article:

Severely or moderately immunocompromised people who have been vaccinated should be offered an additional dose of the seven coronavirus vaccines the World Health Organization has authorized, an advisory committee recommended on Monday.

People whose immune systems are diminished should get another shot if they initially received vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca, the Serum Institute of India, Johnson & Johnson, Sinopharm and Sinovac, members of the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization told reporters on a call on Monday.

You don't need to pay. You have access to it for free: UCI access to NYT for free. That way you will be using their resources and not giving them any ad-clicks. You can set it up once and then it works seamlessly.

[Kumar]

Urgent: does anyone know if a RT-qPCR test from Curative in USA is an acceptable test to enter India? Or does it have to say RT-PCR only? I’m traveling on Friday and the logistical arrangements are very taxing. Thanks.

Atithe , you should be fine. I know many people who used curative test and went to India early this year.

Typically every Indian city requires RT-PCR and suvidha self declaration form. And most pot of them require On arrival rt-pcr.

Some states like TN mandate epass while others don’t. Quick checklist if u are flying by Emirates.
https://www.emirates.com/br/english/hel ... ion/#81344

This paperwork makes travel a little tedious , but it is not so bad if u get used to it.

They primarily check your RT-PCR before boarding flight (airline staff). This time, I don’t even remembering the checking it in India. They are just looking at date/ time and somewhere it should say rt-pcr. Airline staff is not really going to go tooth comb over your paper work

One another thing to consider is to wait till Wednesday evening or even Thursday morning to take your test (if the testing site can guarantee results with in 24 hours) . Always keep one place as backup which can guarantee results in 10 hours. Lot of urgent cares will do that. One of my friend missed his connecting flight in Dubai and they were starting to calculate 72 hours from Dubai flight for validity of rt-pcr.

[suresh]

RT-PCR has two swabs (throat and nasal). It is preferable that you do this instead of the single swab one if you are coming to India.

@kumar E-pass is no longer needed in TN.

[Kumar]

RT-PCR has two swabs (throat and nasal). It is preferable that you do this instead of the single swab one if you are coming to India.

@kumar E-pass is no longer needed in TN.

At least the website indicates it is required. And I remember airlines asked for it. My guess is that it is required for international passengers to Chennai.

I have done nose only swab and had no issues. My friend did the throat swab only (curative), where they want to cough deeply multiple times before taking the swab and that has been okay too(curative was doing that, but no longer appear to be doing it).

[jayakris]

You don't need to pay. You have access to it for free: UCI access to NYT for free. That way you will be using their resources and not giving them any ad-clicks. You can set it up once and then it works seamlessly.

I knew there must've been something I was missing because everything else shows up when I have VPN (well, mostly everything). I guess I had to set some things up to read NYT's junk ( ) without paying for it... Thanks, Prasen. You had patience to figure it out, that I should have had!

Actually I think WHO has had Astra-Zeneca Covishield from SII in their approved list for a little while. It was Covaxin on which they were dragging their feet (probably also because Bharat Biotech didn't go about it diligently enough, giving them the right data on time)

[suresh]

At least the website indicates it is required. And I remember airlines asked for it. My guess is that it is required for international passengers to Chennai.

During the first half of the year, E-pass was needed to get to your home from the airport. This was true for any trip within the city during higher level of lock down. Now that is no longer needed even to go from one district to another. All you need to do is to upload something on a website and that is the same for any part of India. Two of my sisters have traveled to Chennai in the past few months and there was no need for e-pass. Like you said, some airlines ask for it but that is not necessary and incorrect.

[Atithee]

The dread I have is that I know what is required but the upload sites are too clunky and you just don’t know who you’ll end up dealing with in India or here. Anyway, thanks for all the input. Fingers crossed.

[jayakris]

Kerala had only +7,823 today, from 86,031 tests at 9.09% TPR... As last Tuesday had an unusually low total, I expected it not to drop much today, but it was still 1,027 less. So Kerala contributed a -147 to today's weekly average in India.

[suresh]

Big States 12/10/2021 Tuesday


KL - 7823 (I would like them too test a little bit more. TPR is improving though.)
MH - 2069
MZ - 1430
TN - 1289
WB - 768
OR - 529
AP - 503
KA - 332

Total - 14743

We are going to have 16-17K cases today. We had 19044 cases last Tuesday. So the seven day average will drop by around 300 and go under 19K.

[jayakris]

^^^ We made it just past +16K to 16,024 on Tuesday... From about 1293K tests at 1.24%... The daily average fell by -431 to 18,587... The steady drop continues. 229 deaths today.

Vaccinations are going pathetically slowly now. Only 5.4M jabs done on Tuesday. Only 17.3M in the first three days of the week. Will we even cross 40M this week? The states have 84M doses with them, as per the Wednesday morning Govt update (not including what is in the 3 day pipeline). Can we get a few 10M jab days, please?

-------------
ICMR Update: 586,363,442 total tests... Tuesday tests: 1,325,399... Lab count: 2998

[jayakris]

Kerala had a +11,079 today from 89,995 tests at 12.31%... Wednesdays give the peak numbers in Kerala, as the delayed results of RT-PCRs from Monday are all added. It is 1537 less than on last Wednesday, with a 0.4% improvement in TPR too. So KER will add a -220 to India's seven-day average today.

[jayakris]

Vaccinations are literally grinding to a halt. It is only at 3.5M as of 8:30 pm, so we may not even hit 4M jabs today [Update: It was 3.8M added today, in the end]. Just about 21M done in 4 days this week. We may not hit 40M this week. This won't do. I guess we are done with everybody who is going to come and get vaccinated. What do we do with the remaining 25-30% of eligible adults??