A team at the Indian Institute of Technology of Bombay (IIT-B) has developed a “digital stethoscope” that can listen to heart beats from a distance and record them, minimising the risk of healthcare professionals contracting the novel coronavirus from patients. The data or the auscultated sound from a patient’s chest is wirelessly sent to the doctor using Bluetooth, doing away with the need to go near to take readings, according to members of the team. The IIT-B team has received a patent for the device that records the auscultated sound and stores it as part of a patient’s health record. This can be shared with other doctors for analysis as well as follow ups. Operating a start-up called “AyuDevice” from the IIT’s technology business incubator, the team has sent 1,000 stethoscopes to different hospitals and healthcare centres across the country. The product has been developed with clinical inputs from doctors at Reliance Hospital and PD Hinduja Hospital. “Patients diagnosed with coronavirus often experience shortness of breath, leading to acute respiratory distress syndrome. Doctors use (traditional) stethoscope to listen to chest sounds such as wheezing and crackles that appear with the progress of the disease,” one of the developers Adarhsa K said.
The Union Health Ministry has asked all states to prohibit the use and spitting of smokeless tobacco in public places to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. “Chewing smokeless tobacco products, paan masala and areca nut (supari) increases the production of saliva followed by a very strong urge to spit. Spitting in public places could enhance the spread of the COVID-19 virus,” the ministry said in a letter to chief secretaries of all states and union territories. In view of the increasing danger of the coronavirus pandemic, the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) has also appealed to people to refrain from consuming smokeless tobacco products and spitting in public places.
The global coronavirus death toll topped 100,000 Friday as Easter celebrations around the world kicked off in near-empty churches with billions of people stuck indoors to halt the pandemic’s deadly worldwide march. The grim milestone came as the World Health Organization issued a dire warning that prematurely lifting lockdown restrictions — which have kept more than half the world’s population in lockdown — could spark a “deadly resurgence” of the disease. The extraordinary measures from New York to New Delhi to Naples have seen businesses and schools closed in a desperate bid to halt the virus’s relentless spread and the International Monetary Fund said the world now faces the worst downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s. More than 1.6 million people have been infected around the world and the death toll hit 100,661 on Friday — nearly 70 percent in hard-hit Europe. The United States, which has quickly emerged as a virus hotspot, clocked more than 1,700 new deaths on Thursday — bringing its toll to second highest after Italy — with more than 500,000 infections, by far the most of any country. But even as deaths and infections continued their upward climb, officials in the United States and Europe expressed some hope the curve could be starting to flatten. Weekend Easter celebrations that would normally see churches around the world packed with parishioners were replaced by an eerie emptiness Friday as lockdown orders kept millions from leaving their homes. Even such hallowed traditions as the pope’s Easter message are being revamped — Pope Francis will live-stream from the seclusion of his private library. “We have to respond to our confinement with all our creativity,” the pontiff said. “We can either get depressed and alienated… or we can get creative.” Worshippers in Germany embraced social distancing orders to celebrate Good Friday — at a drive-in service held in the western city of Duesseldorf.
“With this car service we’re trying to create a little bit of community,” he added. More than four billion people are confined to their homes across swathes of the globe as governments imposed never-before-seen measures to halt the virus’s deadly global march. This week, China started to ease months-old lockdown orders in Wuhan, where the virus first emerged in December. Governments in Europe are facing pressure to strike a balancing act between keeping their populations safe without battering economies already bruised by widespread shutdowns. The World Health Organization on Friday issued a stern warning about lifting lockdown measures. “I know that some countries are already planning the transition out of stay-at-home restrictions. WHO wants to see restrictions lifted as much as anyone,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
