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.
All the 27 deaths occurred in the virus-hit central Hubei province, China's National Health Commission (NHC) said. The confirmed cases for the first time fell below 50 since COVID-19 surfaced in Hubei province in January.
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.
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).
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 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.
The Indian crew onboard a crippled container vessel that collided against a key bridge in Baltimore last week is healthy , according to a nonprofit organisation that has been in touch with the personnel.
In its daily situation report, the WHO said there is no evidence that the BCG vaccine protects people against COVID-19.
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.
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 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.
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.
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 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.
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.
Experts said the strain has not propelled a surge in cases like Omicron, but advised strict adherence to COVID-19-appropriate behaviour.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
Sub-divisional police officer Chingtham Anand, a resident of Imphal's Haobam Marak locality, was killed in a sniper attack while he was on duty overseeing the cleaning of the grounds of Eastern Shine School for construction of a helipad jointly by the police and BSF, officials said.
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.
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.
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 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.
"The intelligence community and the rest of the government are still looking at this. There's not been a definitive conclusion, so it's difficult for me to say, nor should I feel like I should have to defend press reporting about a possible preliminary indication here," National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby told reporters at a daily White House news conference.
The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) has officially confirmed that 2023 is the hottest year on record by a huge margin, smashing global temperature records.
With Omicron, the new variant of SARS-CoV2, the third wave of coronavirus could hit the peak by February with cases likely to be reaching up to 1-1.5 lakh a day in the country, but it will be milder than the second wave, Manindra Agarwal, IIT scientist involved in the mathematical projection of trajectory of COVID-19, said.
The global health agency also emphasized that it must evaluate a vaccine thoroughly to make sure it is "safe and effective".
Severe heatwaves, responsible for thousands of deaths across India over the last few decades, are increasing with alarming frequency and soon the country could become one of the first places in the world to experience heatwaves that break the human survivability limit, according to a new report.
Franz Beckenbauer was for decades synonymous with Germany's success on the pitch, as player and then coach.
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.
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.
What tastes better with dahi-rice, dal-chawal or puris than the season's newly-made home pickle?
'And here I was, walking as a showstopper. I couldn't have imagined a more beautiful gift.'
There is mounting evidence that suggests that Omicron subvariants -BA.4 and BA.5 - are infecting people who have been vaccinated.
Formula One race in Melbourne will proceed as planned this week and there is 'no chance' fans will be excluded because of coronavirus fears
The COVID-19 vaccines can be "tweaked" to provide protection against new variants of the virus, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi, Director Dr Randeep Guleria said.
The Omicron variant was first detected in India in Bengaluru with two people testing positive for it comprising a South African national of Indian origin and a doctor.
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