In the last five years, imports from HK have more than tripled -- from $5.6 billion in FY15 to $17.1 billion in FY20. In the same period, exports declined by 20 per cent -- from $13.6 billion in FY15 to $10.8 billion (annualised) in FY20.
Providing data, it said UK's Public Health England has reported high vaccine effectiveness (87.9 per cent) against the B.1.617.2 variant, most reported in India, in an observational study (concluded on May 22, 2021).
The Union health ministry on Friday said while there is no evidence to suggest that existing vaccines do not work on the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, some of the mutations reported may decrease the efficacy of the jabs.
The Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium is closely tracking the new variant of COVID-19 called B.1.1.529 and its presence has not been detected in the country yet, officials said on Friday.
The arrival of summer in India may have raised hopes that hot and humid weather could slow the COVID-19 progression but virologist Naga Suresh Veerapu believes that outbreak and pandemic occurrences often do not follow seasonality.
'This virus may have more immune evasion capability and therefore, it may make you more sick.'
The presence of the new UK variant of the coronavirus has been reported by several countries, including Denmark, the Netherlands, Australia, Italy, Sweden, France, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Canada, Japan, Lebanon and Singapore.
Noting that various mathematical models meant for predicting coronavirus waves have repeatedly failed to give reliable results due to a small sample size, the Centre on Tuesday said it is closely following the virus trajectory globally, given the emergence of its new variants.
Infosys Technologies Ltd said that its plan to enter China may have hit a roadblock due to the current outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.
The driver, whose name has not be disclosed owing to social stigma, had been admitted to Kasturba hospital a couple of days ago and is under treatment.
'There will be ups and downs, and we have to plan how we live with it now.'
He returned from New York and complained of high fever, fatigue and body ache.
The Reserve Bank has restricted American Express Banking Corp and Diners Club International Ltd from on-boarding new domestic customers onto their card networks from May 1 for violating data storage norms. The order will not impact the existing customers of these two entities, the central bank said in a statement on Friday.
The alert has been sounded following reports that the killer pneumonia virus has claimed several lives and infected many others in the countries neighbouring India.
'The key purpose of vaccination is to prevent hospitalisation, severe disease, and death.' 'All vaccines work equally, although mild disease cannot be prevented.'
An expert panel of India's central drug authority on Wednesday recommended granting regular market approval to COVID vaccines Covishield and Covaxin for use in adult population subject to certain conditions, official sources said.
Omicron is a 'deviant' from the COVID-19 pandemic progression script and so it must be postulated that two pandemics are going on side by side, one by the Delta and close relatives and the other by the latest variant of concern, said noted virologist Dr T Jacob John.
As worries over India's COVID-19 spike mount -- the country added 75,809 cases on Tuesday to take its tally to 42,80,422 -- scientists are grappling with the pivotal issue of antibodies and trying to understand how they impact on the progression of the disease.
These include the 25 cases which were announced till Thursday. "All the 29 persons are in physical isolation in health facilities," an official said.
Centre has sent an advisory to states on HFMD (Hand Foot and Mouth Disease), commonly known as Tomato Flu, stating that it's a self-limiting illness targeting mostly young children aged 1-10 years and immune-compromised adults and no specific drug exists to treat it.
'...signatures.' 'But such signatures are missing in this virus.'
Noting that the third wave of Covid-19 has ended in India, eminent virologist Dr T Jacob John said he is "fairly confident" that no fourth wave will occur in the country unless an unexpected variant that behaves differently comes up.
'All actions for COVID-19 should be the same as for other routine health conditions.' 'There is no need to report the matter in the media all the time; not on front page please.'
The next wave is likely to be far smaller than the second wave that peaked at a record 400,000-plus daily cases on May 7 and declined sharply thereafter.
The Covid-19 vaccine demonstrated an overall 90.4 per cent efficacy in phase 3 clinical trials, reports Sohini Das
The most important finding of the study was that the Spike-protein neutralising antibodies found in the mixed vaccine groups were significantly higher than the same-vaccine groups, D Nageshwar Reddy, Chairman of AIG Hospitals said.
All these people have been kept in single room isolation in designated healthcare facilities by respective state governments, the ministry had said earlier.
Till January 11, the number of people affected by this strain of the coronavirus was 96.
The test kit has the advantage of testing 90 samples together in a single run of 2.5 hours, so that healthcare professionals can proceed quickly with necessary next steps.
Passengers should undergo RT-PCR test and be isolated in a separate unit of an institutional facility if found positive
Chebrolu said she was inspired to find potential cures to viruses after learning about the 1918 flu pandemic and finding out how many people die every year in the US despite annual vaccinations and anti-influenza drugs on the market.
Their close contacts have also been put under quarantine. Comprehensive contact tracing has been initiated for co-travellers, family contacts and others. Genome sequencing on other specimens is going on, the ministry said.
All these persons have been kept in single room isolation in designated health care facilities by respective state governments.
Adjuvants may be added to a vaccine to produce more antibodies and longer lasting immunity thus minimising the dose of antigen needed.
The Gam-COVID-Vac, called Sputnik V, is a two-part vaccine that includes two adenovirus vectors -- recombinant human adenovirus type 26 (rAd26-S) and recombinant human adenovirus type 5 (rAd5-S).
The countrywide vaccination drive was rolled out on January 16 with healthcare workers getting inoculated and vaccination of the frontline workers started from February 2.
The ministry said the mutated UK strain was detected in eight samples at the National Centre for Disease Control, one at the National Institute of Biomedical Genomics, Kalyani (near Kolkata), one at the National Institute of Virology Pune, seven at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro-Sciences Hospital Bengaluru, two at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad and one at the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, Delhi.
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