India on Sunday recorded 311,170 fresh Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, according to Union health ministry dashboard. As many as 4,077 new deaths were also registered. The country has so far reported a total of 24.68 million cases and 270,284 deaths. India is currently reeling under a second Covid-19 wave. The global Covid-19 disease caseload has climbed to 163,697,584 of which 3,392,646 people have died and 142,146,432 have recovered, according to worldometers.info. The United States continues to remain the worst-hit country from the pandemic with 33,713,078 cases and 600,139 deaths respectively. Several states in the country are under lockdown again to curb the spread of this deadly infection. Nation’s capital Delhi is in complete lockdown till 24th May. West Bengal government declared a lockdown of 15 days from 16th-30th May. Meanwhile, Karnataka government is about to extend their lockdown beyond 24th. The Tamil Nadu government as well imposed a complete lockdown in the state from May 10 to May 24. Whereas, Maharashtra government has put the state under strict lockdown till 1st June, to get a grip of the insanely increasing COVID-19 cases.
Meanwhile, a drug, called 2-deoxy-D-glucose or 2-DG, was developed by a DRDO lab in collaboration with the Hyderabad-based pharma giant, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories. Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI), the country’s top drug regulator, has approved the medicine for emergency use. Earlier, the DCGI had granted permission for emergency use of the 2-DG drug as adjunct therapy in moderate-to-severe Covid patients.
This anti-coronavirus drug developed by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) will be launched on 17th May, 2021, with Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh distributing around 10,000 doses to some hospitals in the national capital. This 2-DG drug developed by DRDO is a big breakthrough and could be a game-changer in the battle against the pandemic as it helps in faster recovery of the hospitalised patients and reduces oxygen dependence. The drug comes in powder form in sachet, which is taken orally by dissolving it in water. It accumulates in the virus-infected cells and prevents virus growth by stopping viral synthesis and energy production.
The results of clinical trials, which were conducted in several states, showed that this 2-DG molecule helps in faster recovery of hospitalised patients and also reduces oxygen dependence. An official said, “Its selective accumulation in virally infected cells makes this drug unique.”
The DCGI stated that in Phase 2A trials conducted from May to October 2020 in 6 hospitals and Phase 2B in 11 hospitals across the country, the drug was found to be safe in treating Covid patients and its efficacy was shown in their faster recovery. In the Phase 3 trials held from December 2020 to March 2021 at 27 hospitals in 10 states on 220 patients, results showed they improved symptomatically faster, with reduced dependency on oxygen supply. The Centre on Sunday said that more than 1.84 crore doses of coronavirus vaccines were available with states and they will receive nearly 51 lakh more over the next three days.
According to Johns Hopkins University, globally, the coronavirus has now infected 16.22 crore people and killed over 33.65 lakh since the pandemic broke out in December 2019.
