India states urged to consider night curfew amid Covid spike

India has asked the states of Kerala and Maharashtra to consider night curfews in areas with high Covid-19 case numbers as the country reported more than 40,000 new infections for two days in a row yesterday.Cases fell to a five-month-low of 25,166 in the middle of the month but have risen sharply in the last three days, mainly in Kerala that recently celebrated a big festival during which families typically come together.India reported 44,658 new Covid-19 infections yesterday, taking the total to 32.6mn, the most in the world after the US. Deaths rose by 496 to 436,861.Kerala, on India’s southern tip, has accounted for nearly 60% of the new cases in the past week and more than half of the total active cases, followed by 16% in the western state of Maharashtra.Kerala contributed 30,077 cases in the past 24 hours, followed by Maharashtra with 5,108 cases, Tamil Nadu with 1,559 cases, Andhra Pradesh with 1,539 cases and Karnataka with 1,213 casesThese five states account for 88.45% of the new cases. “More efforts would be required to arrest the increase in infections,” the ministry of home affairs said in a statement on Thursday evening after its secretary held a meeting with the two states.“This would require adequate intervention in geographical areas having higher infection, through measures such as contact tracing, vaccination drives and Covid-appropriate behaviour.”The ministry also said that the states had been asked to “explore the possibility of placing night curfew in areas of high positivity” and assured additional supplies of vaccines.India has so far administered more than 611mn vaccine doses, giving at least one dose to more than half of its 944mn adults and the required two doses to about 15%. The county administered 79,48,439 doses in the last 24 hours. Meanwhile Reliance Life Sciences (RLS), part of India’s largest conglomerate, is expected to start phase I clinical studies of its indigenous Covid-19 vaccine soon.The Subject Expert Committee (SEC), which advises the drug drug regulator on vaccines and new drugs, reviewed the company’s application and is learnt to have recommended it for approval on Thursday.The vaccine under development is a recombinant protein-based Covid-19 vaccine, and is expected to be launched by the first quarter 2022. The company started the development process last year, with the vaccine entering the pre-clinical stage in October.Phase I testing marks the first time the vaccine is tested is tested in a small group of adults, usually between 20 to 80 people, to evaluate its safety and measure the immune response it generates.