Month: May 2021

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Dr. Anthony S. Fauci said on Sunday that he was open to relaxing indoor masking rules as more Americans get vaccinated against the virus, just two days after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention belatedly emphasized the danger of airborne transmission. Dr. Fauci, President Biden’s chief medical adviser for the pandemic, said that as vaccinations climb, “we do need to start being more liberal” in terms of rules for wearing masks indoors, though he noted that the nation was still averaging about 43,000 cases of the virus daily. “We’ve got to get it much, much lower than that,” he said. On Friday, the C.D.C. updated its guidance about how the coronavirus spreads, stating explicitly that people can inhale airborne virus even when they are more than six feet away from an infected in...

For 38-year-old Vishwanath (name changed), an autorickshaw driver in the city, surviving Covid-19 should have been cause for celebration. But even before he was discharged, he started to feel an unusual pain in his face and a swelling of his eye. Doctors now say that he has developed a life-threatening fungal infection called mucormycosis (black fungus) which, if untreated, results in blindness followed by death. Diabetics at risk Similar infections had been reported during the first wave last year, But for two weeks now, such cases are being found in larger numbers among Covid-19 survivors with uncontrolled diabetes, they added.  There is concern that the surge of such cases could be the result of the new mutant B.1.617 variant of the novel coronavirus. Dr V Ravi, eminent virologist and ...

NEW DELHI — Doctors in India are concerned about an increasing number of potentially fatal fungal infections affecting either people who have Covid-19 or those who have recently recovered from the disease. The condition, known as mucormycosis, has a high mortality rate and was present in India before the pandemic. It is caused by a mold that thrives in wet environments and can attack through the respiratory tract, potentially eroding facial structures and harming the brain. The condition is relatively rare, but doctors and medical experts say it seems to be infecting some Covid patients whose weakened immune systems and underlying conditions, particularly diabetes, leave them vulnerable. Some experts attribute the fungal infections to an increased use of steroids to treat hospitalized...