📰 Letter #68 - New study shows recovered COVID patients show long term Lung-damage / There's a new tick-borne virus in China / US hits 5 million cases

Hi. Here’s 5 point updates about what’s happening with COVID-19 in India and across the world.

India surpassed 22 lakh coronavirus cases on Monday morning with over 62,000 new patients recorded in the last 24 hours, the government said, adding that more than 44 thousand deaths linked to the highly contagious illness have been recorded since the beginning of the pandemic.

Over 15.3 lakh Covid patients in the country have recovered so far, the Union Health Ministry said, stressing the recovery rate stood at 69.33 per cent this morning.

In the last 24 hours, 1,007 patients died in different parts of the country, the government data shows.

A study conducted by doctors in Wuhan, China, last month found that coronavirus patients who were believed to have recovered from the virus experienced long-term lung damage months after their diagnosis.

According to UK daily The Times, the research conducted by Doctor Peng Zhiyong of the Zhongnan Hospital at Wuhan University was part of a year-long study, which tracked 107 hospital patients who suffered viral pneumonia and needed to be intubated due to COVID-19.

“The results revealed that the patients’ immune systems are still recovering,” Peng said, according to The Times, adding that about 1 in 10 patients lost the antibody crucial to fighting the coronavirus.

On a full 2-hour flight, about 1 in 4,300 passengers will catch Covid-19.  That’s according to Arnold Barnett, a professor from MIT, who has factored in numerous variables such as the odds of sitting next to an infectious person, and the way the air is constantly renewed in airplane cabins. His findings are supported by real-world data. Australia has been using contact tracing to investigate Covid transmission on hundreds of flights. While infected people have got on board, nobody so far has been infected on a plane. 💺The odds get even lower if airlines leave the middle seat empty. 

This newsletter is created by - @salmanmushir, from Bangalore, India. I host a podcast called Salman Needs A Job, and I create content about jobs on my Instagram and YouTube.

Next one on Thursday.