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<ul><li>Lal and Ram are among the few businessmen in India whose wealth rose in the middle of the coronavirus crisis to $1 billion — adding them to the list of 102 <keyword id="6393637" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Billionaires">billionaires</keyword> in India. </li><li>79-year old <keyword id="300021" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Arun-Bharat-Ram">Arun Bharat Ram</keyword> joined the billionaire club in India after his company Shri Ram Group of Companies witnessed a 63% increase in share price since March 25. According to Forbes, Ram’s net worth clocked $1.1 billion. </li><li><keyword id="248093" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Arvind-Lal">Arvind Lal</keyword>, who heads Dr Lal Path Labs witnessed an 8% boost in share price after it got regulatory approval to conduct the coronavirus test in the last week of March — making him a billionaire. </li></ul>Coronavirus pandemic has led to a lot of bloodbath in the stock markets around the world. Thousands of companies have reported losses while some others are struggling to just survive. However, there are some rare exceptions like Arvind Lal who heads Dr. Lal Path Labs and chemical magnate Arun Bharat Ram, who owns Shri Ram Group of Companies (SRF). ALSO READ: <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="76284421" title="Watch an emotional Darren Sammy call out the casual racism of his IPL teammates — ‘I saw you as brothers,’ says the former West Indies captain" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div> Lal and Ram are among the few businessmen in India whose wealth rose in the middle of the coronavirus crisis to $1 billion. From chemicals to colleges 79-year old Arun Bharat Ram joined the billionaire club in India after his company Shri Ram Group of Companies witnessed a 63% increase in share price since March 25. According to Forbes, Ram’s net worth clocked $1.1 billion. <div type="image" title="snapshot-1591771327997" msid="76297267" hostid="261"></div> Ram is on board of more than 14 companies and heads 6 different companies worldwide including JK Paper Limited. SRF is a $1.1 billion company which was founded in 1970 and promotes chemical raw materials used in pharmaceuticals and pesticides. SRF group is into a range of other products including fabric, real estate among others. It also promotes Delhi’s Lady Shri Ram College and the Shri Ram Schools in India. One of the primary reasons for the increase in Ram’s wealth was a sudden spike in all Indian chemical stocks. A whole lot of businessmen are ditching chinese supply chain and looking for cheaper alternative options in India — leading to a sudden spike in share price. The Indian doctor who became a billionaire Arvind Lal is a doctor who heads the $174 million Dr Lal Path Labs. The share price of Dr. Lal Path Labs jumped by 14% between March 30 and June 10 after the Indian government allowed <keyword id="1349548" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="private-labs">private labs</keyword> to conduct coronavirus tests in March. According to Forbes, Arvind Lal is now worth a billion dollars. <div type="image" title="snapshot-1591770378251" msid="76297140" hostid="261"></div> 70-year-old Lal owns a 57% stake in his publicly listed company which has a market capitalization of ₹131.98 billion. However, despite offering the coronavirus test at large, Lal’s company could end up making only small gains from it. According to Forbes, these COVID-19 tests will not “contribute in a big way” to the revenues of the company as the government has fixed the price of a test at ₹4,500. Dr. Lal Path Labs was founded in 1949 by S.K Lal, Arvind Lal’s father. Lal inherited the diagnostics lab from his family when he was 28 years old. The chain of diagnostics lab made its Initial Public Offering in 2015 and has witnessed a 79% increase in its share price since then. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/india/news/liquor-to-become-cheaper-in-delhi-as-the-state-withdraws-coronavirus-cess/articleshow/76294483.cms">Liquor to become cheaper in Delhi, as government withdraws coronavirus cess</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/news/shopping-malls-are-open-but-retailers-face-the-next-big-challenge-getting-people-to-the-stores/articleshow/76294870.cms">Shopping malls are open but retailers face the next big challenge – getting people to the stores</a>

Arun Bharat Ram and Arvind Lal — the two businessmen who became billionaires during the lockdown

<ul><li>Action will be taken against any private lab that charges more than the fixed rate, as per an order issued by the government. </li><li>The state government on June 29 had capped the rate at Rs 2,400. </li></ul> The <keyword id="6360371" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="jharkhand">Jharkhand</keyword> government on Tuesday slashed the maximum price of RT-PCR tests for COVID-19 to be charged by private laboratories to Rs 1,500, officials said. The state government on June 29 had capped the rate at Rs 2,400. The decision was taken in view of the fall in rates of the kits and related items required to conduct the tests, officials said. Action will be taken against any private lab that charges more than the fixed rate, as per an order issued by the government. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/news/bill-gates-says-the-pandemic-wiped-out-25-years-of-vaccine-progress-in-25-weeks/articleshow/78117898.cms">Bill Gates says the pandemic wiped out 25 years of vaccine progress in 25 weeks</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/education/news/uks-new-visa-rules-make-it-easier-for-international-students-to-study-and-work-now/articleshow/78127748.cms">UK’s new visa rules make it easier for international students to study and work now</a>

Jharkhand caps COVID-19 test rate at private labs to ₹1,500

How coronavirus testing actually works at one private lab that can process hundreds of tests a day

<ul class="summary-list"><li>As the coronavirus outbreak spreads across the US, private labs are spending millions to ramp up their testing capabilities.</li><li>We visited one private lab in New York that's been approved to process hundreds of coronavirus tests a day.</li><li>Read on to see exactly how a coronavirus test works.</li><li><a href="https://www.facebook.com/BusinessInsiderToday/">View more episodes of Business Insider Today on Facebook.</a></li></ul>As US states <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-cdc-us-facilities-lack-testing-capacity-to-id-cases-2020-3">struggle to administer tests</a> for the coronavirus, private labs are spending millions to ramp up their testing capabilities.One such lab, <a href="https://www.northwell.edu/northwell-health-labs">Northwell Health Labs </a>in Lake Success, New York, is processing about 75 coronavirus tests a day after receiving federal approval late last week.Executive director Dwayne Breining said Northwell has invested $2.5 millions to develop the testing. On Wednesday, the Food and Drug Administration approved the facility to expand its testing to hundreds a day. And Breining said further FDA approval would allow his team to process as many as 1,000 a day."We ultimately expect it to cost about the same as other molecular viral tests, which is somewhere in $150 range," he told Business Insider Today.<h2>We visited Breining's lab to find out exactly how Northwell's coronavirus test works, step by step.</h2>

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine may yield substantially fewer antibodies against the <keyword id="12616995" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="omicron-variant" source="Orion">Omicron variant</keyword>.</li><li>One study found the vaccine showed a 40-fold reduction in antibody levels in a study awaiting peer review.</li></ul>The Omicron variant substantially reduced antibody levels generated by the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, according to preliminary results from a South African study that's still awaiting peer review.These are the first laboratory results to see how a COVID-19 vaccine holds up to Omicron. A team of researchers led by Africa Health Research Institute's Alex Sigal tested 14 blood samples from 12 people against a live sample of the Omicron variant. All 12 people were vaccinated, and six were previously infected.Overall, the scientists found a roughly 40-fold reduction in the levels of neutralizing antibodies, the virus-fighting proteins that play a key role in our immune response, compared with the original version of the virus.Omicron did not evade vaccine protection completely, Sigal <a href="https://twitter.com/sigallab/status/1468325162860826634">wrote on Twitter,</a> meaning there's still benefit to being vaccinated against this new variant. But the marked reduction in antibodies raises questions of how durable vaccine protection will be against Omicron — namely, whether booster shots will sufficiently ward off disease or if new vaccines may eventually be required. Sigal <a href="https://twitter.com/sigallab/status/1468325162860826634">called it</a> a "very large drop in neutralization of Omicron.""A good booster probably would decrease your chance of infection, especially severe infection leading to more severe disease," Sigal said in an online presentation of his results on Tuesday, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-12-07/omicron-doesn-t-escape-pfizer-vaccine-completely-lab-head-says">according to Bloomberg</a>. "People who haven't had a booster should get one, and people who have been previously infected should be vaccinated."Shortly after Sigal announced his team's results, another group of researchers at Sweden's Karolinska Institutet <a href="https://twitter.com/BenjMurrell/status/1468341490632077317" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">disclosed their own findings</a> that suggested a substantial but less dramatic decline in antibody levels. The Karolinska team found a seven-fold reduction across 17 blood samples.They noted the impact of Omicron varied greatly between samples, and they used a version of Omicron that was artificially made in a lab instead of the live virus. A lead researcher for that group said the findings make Omicron "certainly worse than <keyword id="11894307" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="delta" source="Orion">Delta</keyword>, but, again, not as extreme as we expected."Other variants have also shown the ability to partially evade the vaccine's protection to a lesser degree. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8577347/">Previous lab tests</a> showed the Delta variant led to a 2- to 3-fold reduction in antibodies compared with the original virus, while the Beta variant caused a 7- to 8-fold reduction.The results are not finalized and have not been published in a medical journal. Sigal <a href="https://twitter.com/sigallab/status/1468325166602149893">cautioned on Twitter</a> that the findings "are likely to be adjusted as we do more experiments."<h2>Drugmakers are working on variant-specific boosters</h2><div type="image" title="A New York woman receives a Pfizer COVID-19 vaccination." height="3600" width="5400" msid="88155507" hostid="261"></div>Pfizer Chief Scientific Officer Mikael Dolsten <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/pfizer-chief-scientist-interview-omicrons-threat-to-vaccines-2021-11">previously told Insider</a> he'd be worried to see a 10-fold reduction in antibody levels. A decrease of that magnitude, he said, would make him concerned that current vaccines wouldn't offer sufficient protection and an Omicron-specific shot would be needed."If we exceed a 10-fold drop in neutralization of Omicron, I think we are starting to enter the yellow to red zone, when your immunity is likely lowered and there's limited time after your boost until waning," Dolsten said in a November 29 interview.<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-omicron-will-affect-covid-19-vaccines-and-drugs-2021-11">Several vaccine developers</a>, including Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson &amp; Johnson, are already working on Omicron-specific shots. Dolsten said an updated version could be ready to start mass-producing as soon as March 2022.The South African study only analyzed blood samples from people who got two shots of Pfizer's vaccine, not people who'd received a booster shot. Five of the six blood samples that came from people who were both vaccinated and previously infected showed relatively high levels of neutralizing antibodies against Omicron."Previous infection, followed by vaccination or booster is likely to increase the neutralization level and likely confer protection from severe disease in Omicron infection," the researchers wrote.<h2>Even reduced antibody levels may still protect against severe disease</h2><div type="image" title="south africa omicron testing" height="1000" width="1500" msid="88155509" hostid="261"></div>It's still unclear if Omicron will impact vaccine protection against severe disease.Virologists are cautiously optimistic that the vaccines could still help prevent critical illness, despite significant drops in antibody levels. Vaccines also activate other parts of the immune system, particularly B- and T-cells that often confer protection against variants.Anecdotally, disease experts in South Africa have suggested that vaccines still seem to reduce the risk of serious illness among Omicron cases."We are seeing breakthrough infections of people who have been vaccinated, but the infections we're seeing are very mild to moderate," Richard Friedland, chief executive officer of Netcare, which operates South Africa's largest private <keyword id="11897506" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="healthcare" source="Orion">healthcare</keyword> network, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-12-03/omicron-up-close-south-africa-s-experts-tell-their-stories">told Bloomberg</a> on Friday. He added that "for healthcare workers who have had boosters, it's mostly mild."But Omicron has also shown signs of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fauci-omicron-variant-almost-certainly-not-more-severe-than-delta-2021-12">being</a> highly transmissible compared with other <keyword id="11893194" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="coronavirus" source="Orion">coronavirus</keyword> strains. The variant has spread to more than 40 countries since it was first detected roughly a month ago.

Omicron may challenge vaccine protection more than other variants, early lab data suggests, but the shots could still protect against severe disease

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The <keyword id="6383835" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="delta">Delta</keyword> variant appears to be the most common <keyword id="1754604" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="coronavirus">coronavirus</keyword> strain for new US infections, according to testing data.</li><li>The data comes from Helix, a private testing firm that is partnered with the CDC.</li><li>The data suggests the highly infectious Delta variant is more common than Alpha, which was previously dominant.</li></ul>The highly infectious <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fauci-delta-variant-doubled-2-weeks-2021-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Delta coronavirus variant</a> that's spread to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/delta-variant-who-fully-vaccinated-wear-masks-2021-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener">more than 96 countries</a> may now be dominant in the US, according to a private testing firm partnered with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).Alexandre Bolze, senior scientist at Helix, said <a href="https://twitter.com/ScottGottliebMD/status/1409677958256619535" target="_blank" rel="noopener">on Twitter on Tuesday</a> that the number of Americans newly infected with the Alpha variant, which was previously the dominant strain, was falling, accounting for less than 20% of positive tests <a href="https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/helix6052/viz/HelixSARS-CoV-2LineagesofInterest/Lineages" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sequenced by the company</a> on June 25. Meanwhile, the number of people infected with Delta was rising - "10 days ago, Delta represented 30% of sequences," he said.Helix is CDC-backed to help track the emergence of new coronavirus variants, and has funding from the National Institutes of <keyword id="6354750" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="health">Health</keyword> (NIH) to process up to 100,000 daily tests across the majority of American states, <a href="https://www.helix.com/pages/about" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according to the company. </a> It's one of several labs sequencing tests in the US, and Bolze's figures don't account for tests sequenced elsewhere.Bolze said on <a href="https://twitter.com/alexbolze?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Twitter on June 21</a> that both <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/delta-variant-less-deadly-vaccinated-countries-mild-approach-lockdown-covid-2021-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the Delta variant</a>, first identified in India, and the Gamma variant, first identified in Brazil, have become more common in the US than Alpha, according to Helix's data. But Delta was increasing at a faster rate than Gamma in most states, he said. Both are more infectious than the original coronavirus variant and have mutations that can help them avoid the immune response. Data from <a href="https://covariants.org/per-variant" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Global Initiative on Sharing Avian Influenza Data (GISAID)</a>, the world's central sequencing database, backs this up, showing that throughout June, the proportion of sequences with the Delta variant increased at a higher rate than Gamma in the US, although both were rising. Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/vaccine-mrna-covid-drug-treatment-future-of-medicine-2021-5" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Experts explain why the mRNA tech that revolutionized COVID-19 vaccines could be the answer to incurable diseases, heart attacks, and even snake bites: 'The possibilities are endless'</a>The findings haven't been officially endorsed by the CDC. Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/biden-delta-coronavirus-variant-particularly-dangerous-young-people-2021-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener">predicted on June 19</a> that the Delta variant would become the primary strain in the US within months.The data - which may not be exact due to the relatively low number of cases in the US, and therefore low numbers of tests sequenced - are likely to be submitted to GISAID and Genbank by the CDC. The <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/delta-variant-who-fully-vaccinated-wear-masks-2021-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener">World Health Organization (WHO)</a> said in a report released on Wednesday that it expected Delta to rapidly outcompete other variants worldwide.

The highly infectious Delta variant may already be dominant in the US, says leading coronavirus test lab

<ul class="summary-list"><li>COVID-19 testing at the Immensa <keyword id="11894571" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="health" source="Orion">Health</keyword> Clinic lab in central <keyword id="11903129" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="england" source="Orion">England</keyword> has been suspended.</li><li>About 43,000 people may have received a false negative <keyword id="12165772" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="test" source="Orion">test</keyword> result because of an error at the lab.</li></ul>About 43,000 people in England may have got a false-negative COVID-19 test result because of an error at a private laboratory, a government agency said.The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) <a href="https://ukhsa-newsroom.prgloo.com/news/testing-at-private-lab-suspended-following-nhs-test-and-trace-investigation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said on Monday</a> that testing at the lab in Wolverhampton, central England, had been immediately suspended, pending an investigation.The potential error was found while the UKHSA was investigating a rising number of people who were testing positive on quick lateral flow tests (LFTs) but negative on lab tests, the UKHSA said.The lab, run by Immensa Health Clinic Ltd, had processed around 400,000 samples, the UKHSA said. An estimated 43,000 people may have been given an incorrect negative test result between September 12 and October 8, mostly in the south-west of England, it said.It was investigating the precise cause, it said, adding that it was an "isolated incident.""The number of tests carried out at the Immensa laboratory are small in the context of the wider network and testing availability is unaffected around the country," it said.The National Health Service (NHS) was contacting the people who may have COVID-19 to tell them to take another test, the UKHSA said.Dr. Will Welfare, public health incident director at UKHSA, said in a statement that the UKHSA was working with Immensa and the UK central testing body, NHS Test and Trace, to determine the "laboratory technical issues" that led to the possible error.There was "no evidence" of any fault with the quicker lateral flow tests or lab tests more generally, Welfare said. "The public should remain confident in using them and in other laboratory services currently provided," he added.Andrea Riposati, chief executive director at Immensa Health Clinic Ltd, said in a statement that the company was "fully collaborating" with the UKHSA. "We do not wish this matter or anything else to tarnish the amazing work done by the UK in this pandemic," she said.Alexander Edwards, associate professor in Biomedical Technology at the University of Reading, <a href="https://www.sciencemediacentre.org/expert-reaction-to-news-from-uksha-that-covid-19-testing-at-a-private-lab-has-been-suspended-after-nhs-test-and-trace-investigation/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said in a statement</a> that we shouldn't assume all problems or failures mean that testing is bad."Let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater. The majority of test results are correct, and it's worth remembering that our testing system has been built up from almost nothing at the start of the pandemic," Edwards said.

You Searched For "coronavirus private labs" and got 7 results

Arun Bharat Ram and Arvind Lal — the two businessmen who became billionaires during the lockdown

Preeti Soni

Jharkhand caps COVID-19 test rate at private labs to ₹1,500

PTI

How coronavirus testing actually works at one private lab that can process hundreds of tests a day

How coronavirus testing actually works at one private lab that can process hundreds of tests a day

Mark Abadi,Katie Nixdorf,Amel…

Omicron may challenge vaccine protection more than other variants, early lab data suggests, but the shots could still protect against severe disease

Aria Bendix,Andrew Dunn

The highly infectious Delta variant may already be dominant in the US, says leading coronavirus test lab

Dr. Catherine Schuster-Bruce

43,000 people may have been wrongly told their COVID-19 test was negative because of a lab error in England

Dr. Catherine Schuster-Bruce

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