Cheap and commonly available corticosteroid dexamethasone, used to treat arthritis, immune system disorders, and allergic reactions, cuts the risk of death by a third for patients on ventilators, according to an Oxford University team. For those on oxygen, it cuts deaths by a fifth. It helps save seriously-ill Covid patients, but isn’t effective for mildly ill patients.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says more than 100,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus have been reported worldwide each day over the past two weeks—mostly in the Americas and South Asia. It took over two months to reach 100,000 reported cases—now that is a daily norm.
The Andhra Pradesh assembly—for the second time this year—passed two bills for establishing Amaravati as the legislative capital, Visakhapatnam the executive capital, and Kurnool the judicial capital. The TDP, which wants Amaravati as sole capital, had halted these bills in the council.
