
"Should also train teachers on how we can prevent COVID": Odisha Minister Nityananda Gond
Bhubaneswar (Odisha) [India], June 7 (ANI): Odisha Education Minister Nityananda Gond said the government is cautious about COVID-19 and that teachers should be trained to prevent COVID-19 infection when exposure to the virus cannot be avoided.
Speaking to ANI on Friday, Minister Nityananda Gond said, '...We are cautious in this regard, and we will follow the instructions issued by the Government of India and the state government... We should also train teachers on how we can prevent COVID infection at a time when we cannot avoid exposure...'
According to the Union Ministry of Health, there were 23 active COVID-19 cases in Odisha as of 8 AM on June 7. On Sunday, the number of active COVID-19 cases in the state was 12, according to the Director of Public Health, Government of Odisha, Dr Nilakantha Mishra.
'The number of cases is very low, and almost all patients diagnosed with COVID have mild symptoms. They are being treated in isolation in their own homes,' Dr Mishra told ANI.
He further reassured the public, stating that the variants detected in the state are sublineages of Omicron, and there is no cause for concern at this point. 'There is nothing to worry about in Odisha. The variants that have been detected are also Omicron variants,' he added.
As of June 7, 2025, at 8 AM, India reported 5364 active COVID-19 cases. Most cases are mild and managed under home care.
Since January 1, 2025, 55 deaths have been reported, primarily among individuals with pre-existing illnesses. States have been instructed to ensure the availability of oxygen, isolation beds, ventilators, and essential medicines.
In view of the recent increase in COVID-19 cases in India, a series of technical review meetings were held on June 2 and 3 with various representatives under the chairpersonship of Dr Sunita Sharma, Director General of Health Services (DGHS).
According to a press release, the representatives include Disaster Management Cell, Emergency Management Response (EMR) Cell, National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) and Central Government Hospitals in Delhi and with representatives from all States and UTs to evaluate the current COVID-19 situation and preparedness measures. (ANI)
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Time of India
37 minutes ago
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For over four years, she moved between government and private hospitals, enduring cycles of failed came only when she was placed on a salvage regimen—the last option when all other interventions are exhausted—at a Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) clinic in Govandi, Mumbai. The global humanitarian group offered Anushka a cocktail of bedaquiline , delamanid and imipenem injections, a set of very powerful meds often inaccessible to most Indians due to supply restrictions aimed at curbing drug who has now recovered, recounted her ordeal at MSF's TB Day event in Mumbai on May 12, speaking before an audience of doctors, a quiet smile breaking through years of pain. Her journey to recovery is rare, and alien to millions in India, which reflects a public health system still failing its most vulnerable. India now accounts for more than a quarter of all TB cases reported worldwide. In 2023, the country had 26% of the global TB burden, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Bending the curve remains difficult despite multiple national can India improve?In 2018, when India pledged to eliminate TB by 2025, five years ahead of the set global target, the objective was clear. And progress has been made, too. Between 2015 and 2023, TB incidence (new and relapsed cases per 1 lakh population every year) fell by 18% and deaths by 24%, per is a sign in the right direction, but the number of cases are still astounding, especially when it comes to drug-resistant variants. 'India bears the highest burden of XDR-TB globally, with an estimated 110,000 new cases annually,' says Professor Anil Koul of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. A key figure in TB drug research, Koul was part of a Johnson & Johnson team that developed bedaquiline, one of the most effective drugs against resistant TB notes that Covid-19 deepened the crisis, and underfunded research has stalled progress. Of the 27 drugs in clinical trials, none have reached Phase III. Bedaquiline remains the mainstay.A 100-day TB Elimination Challenge was launched by the government in December 2024 to amplify efforts to diagnose and treat TB at the village level, but experts aren't satisfied.'We are not on track,' says Dr Animesh Sinha, chronic care and infectious disease advisor, MSF. 'To meet the 2025 milestones of WHO's End TB strategy, India should achieve a 50% reduction in TB incidence rate and a 75% reduction in the total number of TB deaths compared with 2015.' Although numbers have fallen, the quantum has been woefully short of the target, as WHO numbers suggest.A PIB release dated March 24, 2025, says India's TB elimination targets for 2025 are an 80% reduction in incidence and a 90% reduction in deaths, compared with 2015.A key problem is underreporting emanating from under-diagnosis. 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'But it did galvanise government machinery, leading to faster approvals for newer regimens like bedaquiline, speedier rollout across TB centres and more budgetary support, including for nutritional aid.'That said, TB continues to receive only a sliver of public health funding. But even so, he notes, there certainly is a positive trend in fighting back, considering the complexity of the disease and the socioeconomic factors shaping in an ET Morning Brief podcast in January, Dr Urvashi Singh, deputy director-general (TB), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, said, 'The domestic budget for the national TB programme has increased over five times in the last 10 years.' India, she added, is the only high-burden country where 91% of the programme is backed by domestic detection is often the difference between quick recovery and years of suffering. Goa-based diagnostic device maker Molbio Diagnostics' Truenat, a portable molecular-testing platform, introduced in 2017, expanded diagnostic access, particularly in low-access regions. 'We supplied over 90 lakh testing kits last year and expect to provide 1.25 crore this year,' says Sriram Natarajan, CEO of Molbio, which is working with government and statelevel partners to rollout molecular testing.A Truenat test costs just Rs 640, a fraction of what imported diagnostics demand, says Natarajan. In public health, he argues, the real measure isn't price, but cost-effectiveness, especially when early detection can avert far greater globally approved diagnostics protocols remain out of reach in India. The WHO-recommended urine TBLAM test, used to diagnose TB in HIVpositive patients, is still unavailable in the country, despite successful validation studies in Mumbai in 2022. Registration barriers and lack of supply from manufacturers have led to lack of access, says Leena Menghaney, a public health lawyer based in Delhi. Supplyrelated issues could be because trials in India have yet to conclude, according to industry delays cost precious lives. Late detection risks high transmission rates and complications for patients. Dr Jennifer Furin, infectious diseases clinician, Harvard Medical School, says while Truenat is helpful and the diagnostic pipeline is robust, the outdated and slow systems for approving novel tools in India have a detrimental impact. Furin points to a critical gap: the lack of household-level prevention. Studies, including a 2023 trial published in TheLancet, show that modest nutritional support for families of TB patients can sharply reduce transmission. 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