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Fighters, warships moved to forward bases after bloodiest day in Ladakh

The turn of events on Monday night along the Line of Actual Control took the top brass by surprise.

New Delhi: The government has given powers to the armed forces to make emergency procurements to stock up its war reserves in the wake of escalating conflict with China along the Line of Actual Control.
While India has initiated dialogue to contain the conflict in Ladakh, sources said, the government did not want to leave anything to chance at this stage, especially after the violence on Monday night.

ET has learnt that Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat has been asked to coordinate with the three services on prioritising the requirements, where necessary.
Those familiar with the details told ET that the Navy has also been given the go-ahead to deploy its assets near the Malacca Strait and, if needed, anywhere else in the Indo-Pacific to counter Chinese action.

Air Force assets, including fighters, too have been moved up to forward locations. The first signs of discomfort in the Indian camp started when the Chinese side a few days ago began pressing hard for another round of Corps Commander-level meeting to kickstart talks on the Pangong Tso.

The PLA even moved a request for a Corps Commander-level meeting on June 16. The Indian side, however, declined and had conveyed to their Chinese interlocutors that a higher-level meeting would only be possible after complete disengagement from Galwan.

This decision was taken at the highest levels, added sources. The issue on the table from an Indian standpoint were two semi-permanent structures with tents on PP (Patrolling Point) 14 in Galwan.
The Chinese troops had moved back some distance following local commander-level talks but had refused to remove these structures. At PP 17, China had apparently raised objection to some Indian hutments.
In the recent past, sources said, Chinese troops have acted in a pattern where they move up, build tented structures and then move back after talks without demolishing what they had made.
It’s learnt that this was flagged off by the Army as a way to make reoccupation easier at these heights. However, pending resolution of these issues on Galwan, China was keen to start conversation on Finger areas of Pangong Tso.
At that stage, sources said, a high-level meeting took place in Delhi last Friday where it was decided that India will insist on complete resolution of dispute in Galwan before moving on to Pangong Tso
The turn of events on Monday night took the top brass by surprise. South Block was, in fact, gearing up for a more protracted conversation on getting Chinese troops to move back from Finger 4 in Pangong Tso. It was felt that Chinese PLA would be more belligerent there as it had moved into advantageous ground.

With inputs from ET Bureau

June 17, 2020
Another COVID-19 related death in Kashmir, J-K toll rises to 64

Srinagar: A 65 year man from south Kashmir’s Shopian district, died at SKIMS Hospital Srinagar on Wednesday morning taking the disease toll in J&K to 64, officials said.

Dr Farooq Jan medical superintendent at SKIMS confirmed to news agency KINS about the fresh COVID-19 death said one COVID positive 65 year old from Feripora Shopain was admitted on 15 June with complains of fewer, shortness of breathe with a diagnosis of acute exacerbation of copd. The doctor said Patient was on non invasive ventilator and died today morning.

J&K has so far reported 64 Covid-19 deaths comprising 57 in Kashmir and seven in Jammu region.(KINS)

June 17, 2020
China dumping key medicine in India

The medicine is used to treat bacterial infections, including skin, bone, respiratory and urinary tract infections, and certain types of diarrhoea.

The government has found sufficient evidence that China is dumping a key medicine, Ciprofloxacin Hydrochloride, below cost in the Indian market and hurting the domestic pharmaceutical industry, two officials aware of the development said.

The medicine is used to treat bacterial infections, including skin, bone, respiratory and urinary tract infections, and certain types of diarrhoea.

After a thorough investigation, the government has found that the volume of ciprofloxacin hydrochloride imported from China has increased significantly and at a pace that is undercutting prices in the domestic industry, the officials cited above said, requesting anonymity.

China alone accounts for about 98% of the total Indian imports of the medicine.

“Domestic medicine had a price disadvantage of up to $3.3 per kg over Chinese products,” an official of a pharmaceutical association said on condition of anonymity.

Even as domestic manufacturing capacity of the medicine has increased, actual production and sales of local industry have declined and the market share of Chinese ciprofloxacin hydrochloride in India has increased, causing losses to the Indian pharma industry, the officials said.

“DGTR (Directorate General of Trade Remedies) on June 15 provisionally concluded that the domestic industry has suffered material injury and its preliminary findings favoured the imposition of an anti-dumping duty on Chinese import,” one of the officials said.

DGTR may take a final view on the matter after hearing all interested parties again next month, he added.

DGTR, previously known as the Directorate General of Anti-dumping and Allied Duties, is an arm of the ministry of commerce and industry and acts as a single-window agency providing a level playing field to domestic industry against unfair trade practices.

The finance ministry will consider imposing an anti-dumping duty on the Chinese medicine if DGTR recommends such a step, the second official cited above said. DGTR had initiated the investigation against the dumping of ciprofloxacin hydrochloride from Chine in January after domestic manufacturers accused the neighbouring country of engaging in an unfair trade practice.

Dumping is an unfair trade practice that entails the export of a product at a price lower than its value and is countered by a punitive duty, which is an acceptable measure under multilateral trade agreements, the second official said.

Complaints have been received by domestic industry that China was dumping several products . All such complaints are being investigated, he said.

HT reported on May 11 that India could extend anti-dumping duties and safeguards on more than two dozen Chinese goods ranging from calculators and USB drives to steel, solar cells and Vitamin E amid concern that a flood of imports would kill domestic manufacturers who will lose duty protection soon against such products. Anti-dumping duties on these products were imposed five years ago and are expiring this year.

India has taken a tough position against unfair Chinese trade practices as it is committed to protecting domestic industry under the government’s Make in India campaign, the officials said.

India-China bilateral trade is heavily tilted in favour of China. According to trade figures released by the General Administration of Customs of China (GACC) in mid-January 2020, India’s trade deficit with China was $56.77 billion in 2019; bilateral trade amounted to about $92.68 billion last year, a 1.6% annual increase.

“Dumping of goods below their actual cost harms the domestic industry, and anti-dumping duty is one of the means to protect local manufacturing from such unfair trade practices,” Indian Drug Manufacturers’ Association (IDMA) executive director Ashok Madan said.

With inputs from HT

June 17, 2020
UN chief asks India to protect children of Kashmir

New report urges Indian government to end torture and arbitrary arrests of minors

Srinagar: UN chief Antonio Guterres has expressed concern over the child casualties taking place in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir region in military operations.

In a report released on Monday, he called upon the Indian government to take preventive measures to protect the children by ending the usage of pellet guns, while also showing concern over the detention of children including their arrest during night raids, internment at army camps, torture in detention and detention without charge or due process.

The UN chief urged the Indian government to immediately end this practice showing concern that 68 children in the region have been detained by Indian security forces on national security charges.

The report, Children and Armed Conflict, said that the UN has verified over 25,000 grave violations against children globally from January to December 2019, stressing the children face continued unabated ‘tragedy’ throughout the year.

With respect to Jammu and Kashmir region, the report said that the UN verified the killing of eight children and maiming of seven, by or during joint operations of the Central Reserve Police Force, the Indian Army (Rashtriya Rifles) and the Special Operations Group of the Jammu and Kashmir Police, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, unidentified armed elements, or during shelling across the Line of Control.

The UN also verified attacks on nine schools in Jammu and Kashmir by “unidentified elements”, the report said.

In the report, UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict Virginia Gamba also said that boys and girls used and abused in armed conflict in the world have had their childhoods replaced by “pain, brutality and fear while the world watches.”

Violence has to be halted

Many children’s rights activists in the region have welcomed the UN report but called for an immediate halt of violence in the region which is affecting the children.

Musavir Manzoor, a children’s rights activist and a research scholar in the region, told Anadolu Agency that there has been a spike in violence against children since 2008 when civil agitation began in the region.

“The exposure to detention centers, police lock-ups, courts and in particular to the ongoing situational changes has made these children suffer in isolation and in trauma,” Manzoor said.

Earlier in March, the UN had also called for a global cease-fire in view of the current pandemic crisis but the Indian-administered Kashmir has seen a high number of casualties because of violence rather than the pandemic.

With inputs from AA News

June 17, 2020
Argument | India Has Handed China a Way to Interfere in Kashmir

The revocation of Article 370 unwittingly gave Beijing a new weapon.

By: Anik Joshi

The Kashmir Valley and its surrounding territory have been at the heart of nearly every conflict between India and Pakistan—including three wars in 1947, 1965, and 1999. Colonialism created the problem, but the great powers have had little interest in it, with Britain washing its hands of the issue as soon as it could. But last year’s abolition of Article 370, the guarantee of Kashmir’s quasi-autonomy, has allowed an old player to take a stronger role: China.

China’s Himalayan ambitions have become the subject of global concern after this week’s bloody clash with the Indian Army, but its involvement in Indian territory goes beyond its own borders. Generations of Indian politicians have declared Kashmir a purely domestic issue. The roots of the problem go back to the state’s origins, a Muslim-majority population with a Hindu ruler who, during the retreat of empire, initially tried to strike out on his own rather than being forced to pick sides between Indian and Pakistan. But for Pakistan, a nation founded on the idea that it was a homeland for Muslims, losing a Muslim-majority state would be catastrophic. To India, the idea of a Muslim state with a Hindu leader would be an ideal feather in the cap—a nation founded on pluralism with a state perfectly exemplifying it. The resulting war left the state in India’s control—but with a permanently unhappy population and an angry neighbor.

Indian paramilitary soldiers secure an area near the site of a gun battle between suspected militants and government forces in downtown Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, on May 19.
TAUSEEF MUSTAFA/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

Despite India’s victory, the issue was far from resolved. Despite the laments of Indian politicians, Kashmir has been an international issue almost since 1947. Around 10 years after the first war was fought, in 1957, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s right-hand man, V.K. Krishna Menon, gave the longest speech in United Nations history on India’s position on Kashmir. He argued that India had a legal claim to complete sovereignty of Kashmir and that international institutions like the International Court of Justice had no place adjudicating the question. Menon’s speech, and the underlying ideals, were supported by much of India, and he was dubbed the Hero of Kashmir.

Issues, once internationalized, rarely return to being solely domestic or even bilateral concerns. The idea that Kashmir could be purely an Indian question was always a fantasy. Yet Indian leaders were always keen to avoid the state turning into another Palestine. Though they did not fully succeed in the sense that Kashmir is occasionally invoked at the U.N., they did partially succeed in the sense that the issue was never as big as Palestine in much of the public and political conscience.

Issues, once internationalised, rarely return to being solely domestic or even bilateral concerns.

Pakistan, however, felt very differently—and was keen to internationalize the issue. The obvious ally was China, with which Pakistan has a long-standing friendly relationship. In 1963, the Sino-Pakistan Agreement, which was meant to address border issues between the two nations, successfully quelled certain disagreements between Islamabad and Beijing—but also drew China even further into the Kashmir question. The agreement resulted in the two nations exchanging territory, and within the parcels given up by Pakistan was the Trans-Karakoram Tract. The tract is famously inhospitable but is also disputed territory, and India argued that Pakistan had no right to give it up to the Chinese because India itself still claims it.

It was no surprise that Pakistan solidified relationships with China in 1963. India fought an ill-fated war with China the previous year that permanently damaged the idea of Sino-Indian brotherhood, and Pakistan saw an opportunity to make common cause with an Asian ally. Turning a bilateral dispute into a trilateral one, with two of the sides strongly allied, was an obvious move.

That decision has borne fruit, not least because of India’s own actions. Ending Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, on the autonomy of Jammu and Kashmir, has been a longtime goal for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in India, and the party won two successive landslide victories in 2014 and 2019 partially based on its stance on this issue. In August 2019, the Indian parliament voted to abrogate Article 370. That autonomy had always been somewhat illusory, but it was powerfully regarded within Kashmir—and India accompanied the change with a mass crackdown in the region, including cutting off the internet and arresting local politicians. The bill didn’t stop there. It also bifurcated the territory into two states—Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh—further cementing India’s control.

Pakistan erupted in anger. Prime Minister Imran Khan denounced the action as an attack on minorities despite his and Pakistan’s own questionable record on this issue. The Pakistani public has long been highly sympathetic to the oppression of Kashmiris, which receives massive coverage in the Pakistani press. But integrating the Kashmir region further into India also presents issues from a military perspective—Kashmir existed as a buffer zone of sorts in a way that the two new union states might not.

That gave China a strong interest in the issue, too. China agreed with its ally both for diplomatic reasons and for domestic ones. Part of the new territory of Ladakh contains land that Pakistan gave to China in the agreement in 1963. China sees both the abrogation of the article and the formation of the new state as a kind of aggressiveness, which is one reason for its own assertive moves on the Chinese-Indian border in the last few weeks.

In recent days, China has demanded in foreign-policy talks with India the revocation of the new legislation creating Ladakh. This is a different way of objecting to the revocation of Article 370 as a whole, and the move benefits China on multiple fronts. It allows it to strengthen its alliance with Pakistan at very little personal cost. But, perhaps more importantly, it allows Beijing to seek a protective cover of sorts for its actions in Xinjiang.

China has faced criticism from around the world over its treatment of Uighur minorities in the Muslim-majority region of Xinjiang, and several countries, including the United States, have passed legislation addressing this critical issue. Xinjiang threatens to become a permanent stain on China’s image in the Muslim world. Adopting Pakistan’s stance on Kashmir and Article 370 is a cynical way to address these anti-Muslim claims, allowing China to, to an extent, deflect from its domestic misdeeds. By pointing to issues within India and New Delhi’s mistreatment of Muslims, China is able to divert scrutiny from its own crackdown on religion, separation of children from their parents, forced labor, and mass internment of minorities. Its foothold in Kashmir issues has served as a useful distraction.

China’s outrage over Article 370 has nothing to do with Muslim rights and everything to do with an aggressive attempt to expand its influence and territory. Pakistan and China both have horrific human rights records of their own, which suggests any criticism might be less than sincere. That being said, the Indian government should be cautious of handing grenades to enemies who will be more than happy to pull the pin and throw them.

Anik Joshi is a public policy professional in Washington D.C.

With inputs from FP

June 17, 2020
COVID-19 may trigger new diabetes, experts say

The scientists believe it is possible that the novel coronavirus may alter glucose metabolism that could complicate the condition of preexisting diabetes or lead to new mechanisms of disease.

PTI

COVID-19 may trigger the onset of diabetes in healthy people, and also cause severe complications in diabetic patients, according to an international group of 17 leading experts.

Based on clinical observations made so far, the scientists, including Stephanie A. Amiel from King’s College London in the U.K., said there is a bi-directional relationship between COVID-19 and diabetes.

In a letter published in the New England Journal of Medicine, they explained that diabetes, on the one hand, is associated with increased risk of COVID-19 severity and mortality with 20 to 30% of patients who died with the infectious disease reported to have diabetes.

On the other hand, the researchers said new-onset diabetes and atypical metabolic complications of pre-existing diabetes — including life-threatening ones — have been observed in people with COVID-19.

However, they said it is still unclear how SARS-Cov-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, impacts diabetes.

Earlier studies had shown that the protein ACE-2 which binds to SARS-Cov-2 and allows the virus to enter human cells is not only located in the lungs, but also in organs and tissues involved in glucose metabolism such as the pancreas, the small intestine, the fat tissue, the liver and the kidney.

According to the researchers, by entering these tissues, the virus may cause multiple and complex dysfunctions of glucose metabolism.

The scientists believe it is possible that the novel coronavirus may alter glucose metabolism that could complicate the condition of preexisting diabetes or lead to new mechanisms of disease.

Based on previous research, they said virus infections can also precipitate type 1 diabetes – a chronic condition in which the pancreas produces little or no insulin.

“Diabetes is one of the most prevalent chronic diseases and we are now realising the consequences of the inevitable clash between two pandemics,” said Francesco Rubino, Professor of Metabolic Surgery at King’s College London.

However, given the short period of human contact with this new coronavirus, the exact mechanism by which the virus influences glucose metabolism is still unclear, the scientists said.

“We don’t know whether the acute manifestation of diabetes in these patients represent classic type 1, type 2 or possibly a new form of diabetes,” Mr. Rubino added.

“We don’t yet know the magnitude of the new onset diabetes in COVID-19 and if it will persist or resolve after the infection, and if so, whether or not or COVID-19 increases risk of future diabetes,” said Paul Zimmet, Professor of Diabetes at Monash University in Melbourne.

According to the researchers, assessing routinely collected clinical data can help examine insulin secretory capacity, insulin resistance, and autoimmune antibody status to understand how COVID-19 related diabetes develops, its natural history, and best management.

“We are calling on the international medical community to rapidly share relevant clinical observations that can help answer these questions,” Zimmet said.

June 17, 2020
At least 20 Army personnel killed in Ladakh face-off

PTI

New Delhi: A total of 20 Indian Army personnel were killed during a violent clash with Chinese troops in eastern Ladakh’s Galwan Valley on Monday night, escalating the already volatile border standoff between the two sides, an army statement said Tuesday.

Initially, the army said one officer and two soldiers were killed. Later in the night, an army statement said 17 more soldiers who “were were critically injured in the line of duty at the stand off location and exposed to sub-zero temperatures in the high altitude terrain have succumbed to their injuries, taking the total that were killed in action to 20.”

“Indian and Chinese troops have disengaged at the Galwan area where they had earlier clashed on the night of 15/16 June 2020,” it said, adding that the “Indian Army is firmly committed to protect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the nation.

Multiple sources in government and military establishments told PTI that the fierce clashes continued for several hours.

The sources said the Chinese side also suffered “proportionate casualties” but chose not to speculate on the numbers.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh briefed Prime Minister Narendra Modi about last night’s clash as well the overall situation in eastern Ladakh after he held a high-level meeting with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Chief of Defence Staff Gen Bipin Rawat and the three service chiefs.

According to a senior military officer, it is the first incident involving the casualty of an Indian soldier in a violent clash with the Chinese Army after 1975 when four Indian soldiers were killed in an ambush at Tulung La in Arunachal Pradesh.

Military sources said the two armies held major general-level talks at the site of the clash.

“During the de-escalation process underway in the Galwan Valley, a violent face-off took place on Monday night with casualties. The loss of lives on the Indian side includes an officer and two soldiers,” the Army said in a brief statement.

“Senior military officials of the two sides are currently meeting at the venue to defuse the situation,” it said.

June 16, 2020
J&K govt official chargesheeted in graft case

PTI

Jammu: The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Tuesday filed a charge sheet against a government official in a case of corruption in Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir.

An ACB spokesman said the charge sheet was filed in the court of special judge against Mohammad Rashid Khan, the then Senior Compiler posted in the office of Chief Accounts Officer, General Provident (GP) Fund, Rajouri.

He said Khan was arrested in 2017 after he was caught red-handed while allegedly taking a bribe of Rs 10,000 from Hari Singh, the complainant in the case for finalizing and clearing his GP Fund case.

The next hearing in the case has been fixed for August 17, the spokesman said.

June 16, 2020
Opposition asks Modi government explain actual situation on Ladakh border

Congress, Left parties ask how Centre proposes to meet the challenge.

Opposition parties on Tuesday asked the Narendra Modi government to tell the nation what the “actual situation” along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) was, and how it proposed to meet the challenging situation after Indian soldiers were killed on Tuesday in a violent face-off with Chinese troops on the Ladakh border.

Describing the incident as “deeply shocking, horrifying and unacceptable”, the Congress questioned the government’s silence on it.

The Left parties said the government must explain what had happened on the border even as it advocated talks and de-escalation of the conflict.

“The nation is waiting for an official statement from the Ministry of Defence or Army HQ. Will it come tonight? The PM has maintained a worrying silence since May 5. Can you imagine any other Head of Government not saying a word for 7 weeks since the intrusion of foreign troops into a country?” asked former Union minister P. Chidambaram in a series of tweets.

China slammed

Slamming China for border violations, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh said Indian soldiers and officers cannot be killed for defending the borders.

“It is time now for the Govt of India to take some stringent measures. Each sign of weakness on our part makes the Chinese reaction more belligerent,” he said on Twitter while expressing his condolences.

“Words cannot describe the pain I feel for the officers and men who sacrificed their lives for our country. My condolences to all their loved ones. We stand with you in this difficult time,” former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi tweeted.

‘Break silence’

In a statement, Congress’ chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh should break their silence on the issue. “In the last five decades, not a single casualty or martyrdom of our soldiers has occurred or happened on Indo-China Border, that is the LAC…Will the PM and Raksha Mantri take the Nation into confidence as to how could our officer and soldiers be killed as the Chinese were reportedly withdrawing from our territory in the Galwan Valley?” Mr. Surjewala asked.

“Will the Prime Minister tell the Nation as to how the government proposes to meet this challenging situation which has serious ramifications for India’s ‘National Security and Territorial Integrity’?” Mr. Surjewala added.null

Former Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister and National Conference leader Omar Abdullah wondered that if such deaths took place during a de-escalation process, how escalated the situation must be in the first place. “This is what happens when the media propagates the government line that asking questions is anti-national,” Mr. Abdullah tweeted.

‘Talks imperative’

“The Government of India should come out with an authoritative statement as to what actually happened. It is imperative that both the Governments immediately initiate high level talks to defuse the situation and advance the process of disengagement on the basis of the agreed understanding on maintaining peace and tranquility on the border,” the Communist Party of India-Marxist Politburo said in a statement.

Communist Party of India general secretary D. Raja said any military confrontation between the two major Asian countries not only impacted the cooperation and friendship between the two countries but could also jeopardise peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region. “We feel that both the sides have to intensify their efforts keeping in mind their core interest in achieving a mutually acceptable solution to the India-China boundary question as soon as possible,” Mr. Raja said.null

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Twitter said that his father and former defence minister Mulayam Singh Yadav had on many occasions warned the government of the “dangers and challenges from the Chinese side but it was met with indifference”. “When will the government respond to this [Ladakh incident]?” Mr. Yadav asked.

Border tension more serious than in the past, say former Generals

Bahujan Samaj Party MP Kunwar Danish Ali tweeted: “Shocked and anguished over killing of our brave officer and 2 soldiers in Galwan Valley. There are more disturbing reports emerging about the clash at LAC even as Govt talks of de-escalation. Govt. should come clean on LAC situation and act swiftly to defend borders.”

June 16, 2020
Coronavirus | Dexamethasone proves first life-saving drug
A cheap and widely available drug can help save the lives of patients seriously ill with coronavirus.

The low-dose steroid treatment dexamethasone is a major breakthrough in the fight against the deadly virus, UK experts say.

The drug is part of the world’s biggest trial testing existing treatments to see if they also work for coronavirus.

Photo Credit: Getty Images

It cut the risk of death by a third for patients on ventilators. For those on oxygen, it cut deaths by a fifth.

Had the drug had been used to treat patients in the UK from the start of the pandemic, up to 5,000 lives could have been saved, researchers say.

And it could be of huge benefit in poorer countries with high numbers of Covid-19 patients.

The UK government has 200,000 courses of the drug in its stockpile and says the NHS will make dexamethasone available to patients.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said there was a genuine case to celebrate “a remarkable British scientific achievement”, adding: “We have taken steps to ensure we have enough supplies, even in the event of a second peak.”

Chief Medical Officer for England Prof Chris Whitty said it would save lives around the world.

About 19 out of 20 patients with coronavirus recover without being admitted to hospital.

Of those who are admitted, most also recover but some may need oxygen or mechanical ventilation.

And these are the high-risk patients dexamethasone appears to help.

The drug is already used to reduce inflammation in a range of other conditions, including arthritis, asthma and skin some conditions.

And it appears to help stop some of the damage that can happen when the body’s immune system goes into overdrive as it tries to fight off coronavirus.

This over-reaction, a cytokine storm, can be deadly.

In the trial, led by a team from Oxford University, about 2,000 hospital patients were given dexamethasone and compared with more than 4,000 who were not.

For patients on ventilators, it cut the risk of death from 40% to 28%.

For patients needing oxygen, it cut the risk of death from 25% to 20%.

Chief investigator Prof Peter Horby said: “This is the only drug so far that has been shown to reduce mortality – and it reduces it significantly. It’s a major breakthrough.”

Lead researcher Prof Martin Landray said the findings suggested one life could be saved for:
- every eight patients on a ventilator
- every 20-25 treated with oxygen
“There is a clear, clear benefit,” he said.

“The treatment is up to 10 days of dexamethasone and it costs about £5 per patient.

“So essentially it costs £35 to save a life.

“This is a drug that is globally available.”

When appropriate, hospital patients should now be given it without delay, Prof Landray said.

But people should not go out and buy it to take at home.

Dexamethasone does not appear to help people with milder symptoms of coronavirus who do not need help with their breathing.

Image Copyright @CMO_England@CMO_ENGLAND Report

The Recovery Trial, running since March, also looked at the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, which has subsequently been ditched amid concerns it increases fatalities and heart problems.

The antiviral drug remdesivir, meanwhile, which appears to shorten recovery time for people with coronavirus, is already being made available on the NHS.

The first drug proven to cut deaths from Covid-19 is not some new, expensive medicine but an old, cheap-as-chips steroid.

That is something to celebrate because it means patients across the world could benefit immediately.

And that is why the top-line results of this trial have been rushed out – because the implications are so huge globally.

Dexamethasone has been used since the early 1960s to treat a wide range of conditions, such as rheumatoid arthritis and asthma.

Half of all Covid patients who require a ventilator do not survive, so cutting that risk by a third would have a huge impact.

The drug is given intravenously in intensive care and in tablet form for less seriously ill patients.

So far, the only other drug proven to benefit Covid patients is remdesivir, which has been used for Ebola.

That has been shown to reduce the duration of coronavirus symptoms from 15 days to 11.

But the evidence was not strong enough to show whether it reduced mortality.

Unlike dexamethasone, remdesivir is a new drug with limited supplies and a price has yet to be announced.
June 16, 2020