THREAD: On Saturday morning, Dr @akshaygn, a Mumbai-based eye surgeon, was waiting to operate on a 25-year-old woman who had recovered from a bout of Covid-19 three weeks ago. 1/8 #COVID19India Inside the surgery, an ear, nose and throat specialist was already at work on the patient, a diabetic. He had inserted a tube in her nose and was removing tissues infected with mucormycosis, a rare but dangerous fungal infection. 2/8 #COVID19India

THREAD: In 1894, Waldemar Haffkine, a Russian Jew trained in Paris, travelled to Calcutta armed with a cholera vaccine. The slums were battling an outbreak of the disease. The 33-year-old man began his vaccination drive,
'sitting by an oil lamp in the slum'. 1/11 #vaccine #India The results were encouraging enough for Calcutta authorities to fund a wider trial, but convincing people to be vaccinated was easier said than done. Haffkine's solution was to work with a team of Indian doctors and assistants in Calcutta's villages (below) 2/11 #vaccine #India

THREAD: Delhi is seeing an intense Covid-19 winter surge, driving the total number of cases to more than 540,000 and fatalities to over 8,600. Doctors fear the capital may well become the epicentre of India's first wave of winter infections 1/10
#COVID19 #DelhiFightsCorona Hospitals are flooded with patients and intensive care beds are filling up fast. People are struggling for beds. Even I cannot get a bed for my friends or family, it is so bad," @DrHarjitBhatti, a private hospital doctor, said. 2/10
#Covid19 #DelhiFightsCorona

THREAD on why the Pfizer vaccine might not work for India:
The vaccine has to be kept in ultra-cold temperature at below -80C. bbc.in/3pfso2a .This could pose major logistical challenges for countries like India.
1/5 #COVID19 #Pfizer The WHO says Covid-19 vaccines under development can be categorised in three storage temperature requirements: 2-8C, -20C and -70C. Many will require an "ultra cold chain" at temperatures which will "definitely prove a challenge to many countries." 2/5 #COVID19 #Pfizer

THREAD on my interview with Dr Manmohan Singh who said India was looking at a “deep and prolonged economic slowdown” #Manmohansingh #India #economy 1/16 Dr Singh suggested 3 steps to fix the economy: significant direct cash transfers to protect livelihoods and boost spending power; government-backed credit guarantees for businesses; and cleaning up financial sector through institutional autonomy & processes. #Manmohansingh 2/16

THREAD: India has the world’s third largest caseload and the true scale of infection in the population is still unclear. 1/9
#COVID19 #India India’s official caseload is high in absolute numbers, but relatively low in per capita terms. 2/9
#COVID19 #India