new delhi every wave of the covid19 pandemic has had its share of star drugs promising a potential remedy while the first wave had everything from malaria medicines to antivirals the second had remdesivir in the middle of the third wave there is the monoclonal antibodies and antiviral drug called molnupiravirthis drug is in high demand even though its benefits are limited a monoclonal antibody is a molecule developed in a laboratory that is designed to mimic or enhance the bodys natural immune system response against an invader such as cancer or infectionread alsoits official omicron variant fuelling january covid surge in delhithe latest report of covidpositive samples analysed in genome sequencing labs of delhi proves what medical experts have been saying for some time the massive surge in new cases is fuelled by the omicron variant of the novel coronavirusdelhi government will give free online yoga lessons to covid patients says cm arvind kejriwalchief minister arvind kejriwal on tuesday announced that delhi government will provide free online yoga and pranayama lessons to covid19 patients recuperating in home isolation kejriwal said the classes will be held in batches of 15 with enough instructors to look after 40000 patientscovid19 35 lakh students vaccinated in delhi focus now on outofschool teensa total of 35 lakh teens have received their first dose of covaxin tuesday was the ninth day since the vaccination of beneficiaries in the 1517 years age group begansars cov2 the virus that causes covid has a spike protein on its surface that helps the virus attach to human cells monoclonal antibodies have been developed to bind to the virus spike protein and prevent it from invading human cellsdr sumit ray head of critical care holy family hospitals said monoclonal antibodies available in india were not effective against the omicron variant of the coronavirus we have used it in six or seven patients mostly those suffering from covid caused by the delta variant he revealedto this dr rajesh malhotra chief of aiims trauma centre added that the monoclonal antibodies proved effective in initial treatment of delta infection by preventing serious complications and death especially in elderly patients or patients with comorbidities however since omicron has shown immune escape capability meaning resistance to vaccines and antibodies the monoclonal antibodies arent effective there is no rationale for using these in the current wave malhotra said the only combination antibody treatments for omicron are evusheld and sotrovimabmolnupiravir is a new molecule that acts by getting incorporated into the viral genetic material of the virus and stopping its replication by causing mutations explained dr neeraj nischal additional professor of medicine aiims the subset of population on which the trial was conducted during the delta wave showed only minor risk reduction in hospitalisation translating therefore to a modest benefit in the real world scenario today omicron wave against potential toxicity it can cause to the patient he saidalongside the possibility of causing mutations in the virus and producing new unpredictable variants molnupiravir also carries serious