India has declined assistance offered by the United Nations of its integrated supply chain for COVID19-related material, saying the country has a "robust system" to deal with the required logistics, a spokesperson for UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said.
Moody's Investors Service on Thursday said the credit downturn arising out of COVID-19 will be short-lived but most economies will not return to pre-pandemic activity levels until 2022. In the year since the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11, 2020, the virus has disrupted the global economy and triggered a credit downturn accompanied by a spike in bond defaults. "The credit challenges arising from COVID-19 have been substantial, but the credit downturn likely will be relatively short-lived. "Risks remain more significant for the sectors most vulnerable to restrictions on their normal activities," Moody's said in a global report in coronavirus. Stating that most economies will not return to pre-pandemic activity levels until 2022, Moody's said it expects a slow and bumpy global recovery and uncertainty around the macroeconomic outlook remains much higher than usual.
In its daily situation report, the WHO said there is no evidence that the BCG vaccine protects people against COVID-19.
While the cause itself is undoubtedly worthy of attention, the method employed raises concerns about the dangers of misinformation and the responsibility of news outlets in our information age.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday appealed to farmers and other stakeholders associated with the cooperative sector to make GCMMF, which owns the 'Amul' brand, the world's number one dairy company from its current eighth position. He was addressing nearly one lakh people, mostly cattle rearers and farmers, gathered at the Narendra Modi stadium in Motera area of Ahmedabad for the golden jubilee celebration of the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF).
'God has given me everything -- wealth, success, a good wife and good friends. I wish He gives me good health.'
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.
Voluntary use of masks must be promoted in the country in view of Covid-19's new XE variant, healthcare experts said, calling it the single-most effective intervention against all variants of the coronavirus.
After reports claimed that filings in patent offices in India, the US, and Europe did not mention ICMR or its scientists, but only BBIL and its scientists, the Hyderabad-based biotechnology (biotech) company clarified that in the "rush" to develop vaccines and file appropriate patents, BBIL had missed adding ICMR's name in the original filings.
The "unknown pneumonia in Kazakhstan caused 1,772 deaths in the first six months of the year, including 628 people in June alone", the Chinese embassy in the central Asian country said in a statement.
"The unsound analysis of the said article is based on the extrapolation of data without any epidemiological evidence," the ministry said, adding the studies used by the magazine to estimate the mortality are not validated tools for determining the death rate of any country or region.
Monkeypox is a viral zoonosis (a virus transmitted to humans from animals) with symptoms similar to those seen in the past in smallpox patients, although it is clinically less severe.
A 'very large' number of Indians are likely to remain protected from Omicron or any other variant of COVID-19 and there is no need to panic, eminent virologist Dr Shahid Jameel has said.
The government on Friday said there is no need to panic on the need for an immediate change in the dosage interval of Covishield vaccine, underlining that reducing the time gap requires proper scientific study in the Indian scenario.
According to the data sourced from the Union health ministry and Worldometers, in the US, coronavirus infection cases increased from 100 to 1,00,000 in 25 days, while it took 30 days for the cases to reach the 1 lakh-mark in Spain.
The new report highlights how different parts of the intelligence community have arrived at disparate judgments about the pandemic's origin.
Test cricket remains the pinnacle of the game, Cricket South Africa (CSA) said after it was criticised for selecting a second-string squad featuring seven debutants for the country's two fixtures in New Zealand next month.
A circular-cum-advisory issued by the state Directorate of Health Services last week said the second wave of the pandemic is likely in January-February, and asked officials concerned to ramp up COVID-19 testing in the state.
Of the 230 samples from Mumbai, 228 samples are of Omicron variant, while one was found to be Kappa variant and another XE variant. The condition of the patients infected with the new strains of the virus was not serious, a BMC official said.
India has voiced hope that Palestine's bid to become a full member of the United Nations, which was blocked by the United States last month, will be reconsidered and its endeavour to become a member of the world organisation will get endorsed.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said India has become the fifth largest economy in the world and this is not an ordinary achievement. "Every Indian is feeling proud of it. We need to maintain this enthusiasm," Modi said. He was virtually addressing beneficiaries of various government schemes and those present at a mega medical camp organised in Olpad area of Surat city in Gujarat, where the Assembly polls are due later this year.
In the first case of Ebola in the country, an Indian national returning from Liberia has tested positive for the deadly virus and has been quarantined at a special facility at Delhi airport.
India registered a 13 per cent decrease in new COVID-19 cases in the past week but the number of fresh infections was still the highest around the world, the World Health Organisation has said.
WhatsApp on Wednesday said it expects to facilitate the purchase of "affordable sachet-sized" health insurance through its platform by the end of the year as part of its efforts to provide users in India with greater access to financial solutions. The Facebook-owned company noted that its 'Payments' feature is now available to users across the country (currently up to 20 million users) with support from banking partners - State Bank of India, HDFC, ICICI and Axis Bank.
The new and highly transmissible Omicron variant of the deadly coronavirus has increased immune escape compared with the Delta variant and appears likely to become the dominant SARS-CoV-2 strain globally in 2022, according to Singapore-based experts.
The study noted that humans are not protected from the G4 virus by the immunity offered by other human influenza vaccine strains, indicating that there is no preexisting population immunity to the virus.
Former captain Kane Williamson, batsman Tom Blundell and quick Kyle Jamieson, who all have hamstring issues, were selected despite doubts over their fitness.
Indian javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra has pulled out of the prestigious Paavo Nurmi Games to be held on June 13 at Turku in Finland.
The visit will take place more than six months after the WHO's country office in China picked up a statement from the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission on cases of 'viral pneumonia'.
The COVID-19 patients at high risk of hospitalisation or those with severe disease should be given a combination of two antibody treatments, according to latest World Health Organization guidelines published in The BMJ on Friday.
They said after examining and analysing the adverse event reports, causal relationship and all related details shared by or to be shared by the WHO, the committee will advise and recommend further course of action to the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI).
The increase in death registration in 2020 compared to 2019 is not entirely due to Covid fatalities, Niti Aayog member VK Paul has said, asserting that "exorbitant" multiples of coronavirus deaths being published by some agencies with respect to India must stop.
In March, the World Health Organisation came out with a report on the origins of the virus but it had failed to meet the expectations of the US and several other leading countries.
Experts said the strain has not propelled a surge in cases like Omicron, but advised strict adherence to COVID-19-appropriate behaviour.
The central government is importing COVID-19 vaccines and is in talks with COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson, Union Minister of State for Home Affairs G Kishan Reddy said.
Zhang Yesui, spokesperson for China's Parliament -- the National People's Congress -- in his media briefing ahead of Friday's annual session also sought to deflect allegations that the virus emerged in Wuhan, saying that the recent reports indicated coronavirus occurred earlier in different parts of the world.
India has sent a team to Kabul to oversee the delivery of India's humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan and hold discussions with the Taliban over the aid provided by New Delhi.
Shekhar Kumar, an HR expert, talent, and client acquisition leader at SEPL offers advice on how to grow professionally.
The global health agency also emphasized that it must evaluate a vaccine thoroughly to make sure it is "safe and effective".
The move has come days after the state government announced to form a special investigation team to probe into the death of Disha Salian, the former manager of late actor Sushant Singh Rajput.
