President Xi, who attended a meeting in Beijing to double efforts in coordinating the prevention and control of the COVID-19 outbreak, said the epidemic 'has the fastest transmission, widest range of infection and has been the most difficult to prevent and control'.
Vardhan stated the government is taking full precautions in human trials of vaccines and the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19 under the chairmanship of Dr V K Paul, member-health, NITI Aayog, is drawing up a detailed strategy on how to immunize the majority of the population.
Focused implementation of 'test, track, treat' strategy by the Union and state and Union Territory governments, ramped up hospital infrastructure and testing facilities, and emphasis on treatment of the hospitalised patients through the standard of care protocol advised by the Centre have effectively ensured that mortality of COVID-19 patients is contained, the ministry said.
The real battle for NEET abolition can take much more time and energy, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Sorabjee had been honoured with Padma Vibhushan in 2002 for his defence of the freedom of expression and the protection of human rights.
Forced out of grounds, tracks and courts by the coronavirus pandemic, sports events may help in the long run, but medical experts on Wednesday warned that resuming anything this year could mean putting lives at risk. When sporting events do eventually make a comeback, which some of the region's top doctors believe is not going to happen until at least the next six months or may be nine, it may not be the same initially.
The country's top carmaker Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) on Wednesday said it has decided to advance maintenance shutdown at its two Haryana-based manufacturing plants by a month amid a surge in the COVID-19 cases across the country. The auto major was supposed to take the shutdown at its two plants in Gurugram and Manesar in June, but due to the tsunami of COVID-19 cases, it decided to take it one month earlier to save oxygen for medical needs. MSI noted that as part of the car manufacturing process, it uses a small amount of oxygen in its factories, while relatively much larger quantities are used by the manufacturers of components.
Roger Federer has joined the list of sports stars helping out the needy during the coronavirus pandemic, with the former world number one and his wife donating one million Swiss Francs ($1.02 million) to vulnerable families in his native Switzerland. Barcelona forward Lionel Messi and Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola had each donated one million euros ($1.08 million) to help clinics and medical centres fight the outbreak.
Only half India's population has received the first shot of Covishield and Covaxin and the government's immediate task is to first vaccinate its adult population before placing its focus on children.
Monday also saw the new confirmed infections of COVID-19 outside Hubei reduced to a number lower than 100 for the first time, Mi told the media..
'The COVID-19 pandemic must push the military into a long-term reconsideration of its primary challenges.' 'There must be greater emphasis on humanitarian aid and disaster relief including the management of contagious illnesses and impending crises caused by climate change,' notes Ajai Shukla.
Two kinds of diagnostic tests are being currently used in India -- RT-PCR test and rapid antibodies test -- as per the global health norms.
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd's plans for investing Rs 75,000 crore in solar, batteries, fuel cells and hydrogen could create valuation of $36 billion (Rs 2.6 lakh crore) for the new energy business, Wall Street brokerage Bernstein Research said in a report. Reliance currently has three verticals -- oil-to-chemical (O2C) business that houses its oil refineries, petrochemical plants and fuel retailing business; digital services that comprises telecom arm Jio; and retail including e-commerce. New Energy will be the fourth vertical. At the company's annual general meeting of shareholders last month, Ambani announced a plan to invest Rs 75,000 crore in a new energy business over the next 3 years in the next stage in its transformation.
Rediff Labs analysed the number of people coming to India under medical visa from different countries.
The Chinese Super League (CSL) looks set to start its new season at the end of June or in early July and will not have to shorten the campaign, Guangzhou R&F CEO Huang Shenghua said. The CSL was originally scheduled to kick off on February 22 but was pushed back due to the coronavirus pandemic, which has infected more than 2.33 million and killed about 160,000 people globally.
The results of the study, being published on the website of top academic journal Nature on May 20, implied the Huanan Seafood Market in Hubei's capital Wuhan may not be the birthplace of COVID-19, although the virus outbreak emerged in Wuhan had a strong link to contacts with the market.
A 55-year-old from Hubei province could have been the first person to have contracted the viral infection on November 17 last year and cases rapidly began piling up since then, it said, without revealing the gender of the individual.
The year 2020 could see the worst global economic fallout since the Great Depression in the 1930s, with over 170 countries likely to experience negative per capita income growth due to the raging coronavirus pandemic, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said on Thursday. Georgieva made the remarks during her address on 'Confronting the Crisis: Priorities for the Global Economy' in Washington, DC, ahead of next week's annual spring meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
SEWA International, a leading Indian-American non-profit organisation, has so far raised more than $250,000 for its COVID-19 relief efforts. It is using the money to buy personal protective equipment's, in particular facial masks and surgical masks, to donate free to the local law enforcement officials and hospitals in some of the hot spot areas like New York, who have run out of these essential items.
Among the 36 new faces in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's council of ministers, eight are lawyers, four are doctors, two former IAS officers and four MBA degree holders, besides several engineers, making it an eclectic mix of professionals.
HR Guru Mayank Rautela offers practical advice.
The three Indian companies are Alpha Design Technologies Pvt Ltd, Bharat Forge Ltd and Medha Servo Drives Pvt Ltd, the space organisation said in a statement on Friday.
HR Guru Mayank Rautela offers practical advice.
As states grapple with a shortage of coronavirus vaccines, the Centre on Thursday said that over two billion doses will be made available in the country in five months between August and December, enough to vaccinate the entire population.
Union Health Secretary said that priority groups have been decided who are vulnerable to mortality.
A person who has Covid but also has another disease can be classified as a Covid death or not. It serves the immediate purpose of the government to pretend that the official number is low because it makes it appear less incompetent and helpless than it is, points out Aakar Patel.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed grief at the passing away of the Argentine legend.
'We are not yet out of the woods.' 'If India sees the South African or Brazilian type of mutations, our numbers will rapidly rise.'
As India suffers and the ruling party is on the defensive, the truth is that the only way that this wave will pass is if exponential growth of the virus stops on its own, asserts Aakar Patel.
Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Monday said 28,252 cases of mucormycosis have so far been reported from 28 states/UTs in the country, of which 86 per cent cases have a history of COVID-19 and 62.3 per cent with a history of diabetes.
IOC chief said he believed more than 80 per cent of residents of the Olympic Village would be vaccinated or booked for vaccination ahead of the Games
HR Guru Mayank Rautela offers practical advice.
Concerned about the rise of antibiotic resistance and the time it takes for drugs developed abroad to reach Indians, the government is considering holding its own clinical trials. Clinical trials for new drugs have so far primarily been conducted only by private Indian or foreign drug firms. But given the stringent nature of India's regulatory environment for clinical trials, several pharmaceutical companies have moved their trials out of India. As a result, only 1.2 per cent of global clinical trials take place in India.
Describing the surge of COVID-19 infections and deaths in India as 'nothing short of heartbreaking', Vice President Kamala Harris said on Friday that India's welfare is critically important to the US.
The sector will see a minimum of 3-5 per cent of the weight being shed in almost every IT company - particularly the big 20 - because of Covid and not performance-related issues.
Hetero has priced the injectable drug at Rs 5,400 per 100 mg vial. With More drugmakers in line to launch the drug soon, the prices may see a further erosion.
The outbreak of COVID-19 has adversely impacted the occupancy levels at hotels across 11 major cities, resulting in a decline of up to 29 per cent in revenue per available room (RevPAR) during January-March this year, according to JLL India. While occupancy level fell in a range of 5-17 percentage points, the RevPAR was down 13-29 per cent across 11 cities -- Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Goa, Gurugram, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Mumbai, Pune and Kolkata.
'The most intriguing thing (about COVID-19) is the range of the illness -- from asymptomatic or less symptoms to death and quite severe manifestations.' 'The vaccine will be at least another year away from having any effect.'
Here are some areas where costs have grown, and where income that had been expected will not materialise.
It is our only chance of avoiding a repeat of our catastrophic second wave, asserts Naushad Forbes.