Page 9 - Covid 26 July 2021

The Employees’ State Insurance Corporation is a pioneer social security organisation providing comprehensive social security benefits like reasonable medical care and a range of cash benefits in times of need such as employment injury, sickness, death, etc. It covers about 3.4 crore of family units of workers and provides matchless cash benefits and reasonable medical care to its 13.24 crore beneficiaries. Today, its infrastructure has increased manifold with 1502 dispensaries (including mobile dispensaries) / 308 ISM units and 159 ESI hospitals, 744 branch/pay offices and 64 regional and sub-regional offices. The ESI scheme today stands implemented in 566 districts in 34 states and union territories of the country.
Website link:
https://pib.gov.in/PressReleseDetailm.aspx?PRID=1735901
DBT-BIRAC supports setting up of a viral BSL-3 facility and
COVID-19 vaccine testing centre at IISc
The Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council under the Department of Biotechnology (DBT-BIRAC) has funded the establishment of a COVID-19 vaccine testing centre at the viral bio safety level-3 (BSL-3) facility in the Centre for Infectious Diseases Research (CIDR) at the IISc.
At this centre, solutions to tackle COVID-19 – vaccines, antivirals, materials and equipment – from academic and industry partners will be tested via a fee-for-service model.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the Division of Biological Sciences at IISc headed by Umesh Varshney, Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology (MCB) had commissioned the establishment of a dedicated viral BSL-3 facility at CIDR with funding from DBT-IISc partnership, to support research on highly pathogenic human viruses. The construction of the facility was completed in October 2020. It became operational in January 2021 with all the necessary standard operating procedures (SOPs), under the guidance of Usha Vijayraghavan, Dean, Division of Biological Sciences. Shashank Tripathi, Assistant Professor in MCB, was designated the nodal person in charge of the facility. It was made available to academic labs (within and outside IISc) and industry, for training personnel and carrying out antiviral research.
By February 2021, Tripathi’s lab – which studies emerging viral pathogens – began working on establishing cell culture and animal models to study SARS-CoV-2 in the viral BSL-3 facility on priority. This included isolation, growth and characterisation of SARS-CoV-2 viruses from COVID-19 patient samples, and the establishment of a Syrian hamster model for evaluating COVID-19 vaccines and antivirals.
VOL. IV ISSUE 7
VIGYAN PRASAR 5
COVID-19 SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EFFORTS IN INDIA