Page 12 - Corona

Demand for call center jobs see sharp uptick since pre-pandemic: Report

Businesses are recognising the rising importance of improving customer experience as there has been an exponential surge in demand from jobseekers for call centre and remote customer service jobs since pre-pandemic, says a survey. According to data from leading job site Indeed, there was an elevated demand for call centre and remote customer service jobs in the period from January 2020 - January 2021, with a sharp increase of 498.40 per cent in job postings and a tremendous increase in jobseeker interest. The uptick was largely owing to the pandemic necessitating more virtual customer service representatives, an exponentially rising demand for quick-commerce platforms and the growth of the app economy. Gig work also grew during this time frame owing to the emergence of work-from-home as a predominant model of work. However, job trends over the past year reveal a moderate drop in both job postings (by 73.50 per cent) and jobseeker interest (by 64.50 per cent clicks per million) as t

India's handling of Covid example before world: VP Jagdeep Dhankhar

India's handling of COVID-19 was an example to the world as regards how the country utilised its digital resources to roll out vaccines for such a large population and successfully controlled the disease at home while extending a helping hand to other nations, Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar said on Friday. Dhankhar, who inaugurated the "International Symposium on Health Technology Assessment: ISHTA 2023" here, lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi's proactive and timely decision of calling for a people's curfew and the citizens following it so that "what was advised to contain Covid could be translated into action". He further said the prime minister cheered and motivated the Covid warriors and the country was quick to come up with a legislation that accorded them protection. "India's handling of Covid exemplifies the best practices beyond doubt now. In that perspective, when I have gone abroad on two visits, how satisfying it was for me to note that when India was facing Covid, it .

Study by AIIMS-Gorakhpur reveals relation of smoke, severity of Covid-19

A study led by the AIIMS-Gorakhpur has showed a link between secondhand smoke and the severity of COVID-19 in non-smokers. According to the first-of-its-kind study conducted across six states, reported exposure to second-hand smoke at home and the workplace significantly increased the chances of developing severe COVID-19 compared to those not exposed to it. "The health risks due to exposure to SHS is in infringement to basic human right to life," said Dr Surekha Kishore, executive director of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh. "Findings of our multi-centre study demonstrate that exposure to secondhand smoke increases vulnerability to COVID-19 severity in non-smokers. "I congratulate the government for initiating the amendment of COTPA (Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act) 2003 and urge it to expedite this process so that non-smokers can be protected from being exposed directly and indirectly to tobacco products," she said. While .

H3N2 spreads like Covid; masks necessary at crowded places: Ex AIIMS chief

The common symptoms of the H3N2 virus include a runny nose, body aches, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhoea

Stellar healthcare professionals helped India defeat Covid-19: Mandaviya

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's faith in the Indian scientific community and stellar healthcare professionals across the country helped India conquer "unsurmountable challenges" during the pandemic, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said on Saturday. He said India set an exemplary pro-vaccination Covid management model when other countries were struggling with vaccine hesitancy. Mandaviya was speaking at the release of a book -- titled 'India's Vaccine Growth Story-From Cowpox to Vaccine Maitri' -- authored by Sajjan Singh Yadav, Additional Secretary, Department of Expenditure in the Finance Ministry, at Pragati Maidan here. "The combination of Narendra Modi's faith in the Indian scientific community and the stellar healthcare professionals across country led India to conquer unsurmountable challenges to achieve a feat no country has before, catering not just to its own nation, but supplying life-saving vaccines worldwide, all in due time," the health minister said. Lauding t

Before economy regains pre-Covid trend line, slowdown may be setting in

Domestically, consumption momentum is clearly fading, and capex could follow suit amid slowing prices, rising cost of capital and slowing consumption and exports, it added

Social workers experienced depression during Covid pandemic: Study

The study also found that the social workers most affected by mental health problems tended to be younger, less experienced and less established in their profession

Health Ministry awards Porter Prize 2023 for successfully managing Covid-19

The Union Health Ministry has been awarded the Porter Prize 2023 for successfully combating the COVID-19 crisis. The prize was announced at The India Dialog, organized by Institute for Competitiveness (IFC) and US Asia Technology Management Center (USATMC) at Stanford University on February 23-24, a health ministry statement said on Thursday. The award was presented to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) in the virtual presence of Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya and Secretary, MoHFW, Rajesh Bhushan, it said. The theme of the two-day conference was The Indian Economy 2023: Innovation, Competitiveness and Social Progress. The prize recognizes the strategy followed by the government of India in managing COVID-19, the approach and involvement of various stakeholders, especially the involvement of ASHA workers in the industry to create PPE kits, the statement said. The idea of vaccine development and vaccine manufacturing and the scale that India achieved was ...

Low breastfeeding rates in infants born to mothers with Covid-19: Research

An international investigation found that during the height of the pandemic, breastfeeding and skin-to-skin contact rates were low

Controlling aerosolisation of mucus, jab prevent outcomes of Covid-19

Controlling aerosolization of mucus and vaccination can help prevent serious outcomes of COVID-19 infection say researchers at IIT Madras, Jadavpur University and Northwestern University, US. The researchers used mathematical models to show how viruses infecting mucous lining of the respiratory tract spread as droplets into the lungs, thereby causing serious illnesses and recommend ways to prevent the spread. "The researchers have shown a plausible mechanism for how COVID infection could become lethal. They performed simulation studies to understand the mechanism of transmission of the COVID-19 virus from the nose and throat to the lower respiratory tract," a release from the institute said on Monday. Researchers all over the world have been trying to understand how COVID-19 virus spreads from the nose and throat to the lungs. An idea has been proposed that the virus might move through mucous in the respiratory system but this would take too long. Another idea is that the virus mig

Covid-19 pandemic made 1.6 mn youth idle in Pakistan: World Bank report

A study finds that preschool enrolment in Pakistan dropped by over 15 percentage points by end of 2021 in the post-pandemic era, reported The News International

Researchers reveal Covid-19 infection increases diabetes, disease risk

This research, Kwan says, is one piece of the puzzle that will help researchers understand how to prevent metabolic as well as cardiovascular disease risk in the future

Covid's omicron variant, thought to be milder, can increase diabetes risk

Omicron has been seen as a milder version of Covid compared with earlier strains, leading to lower rates of hospitalization and death than delta and the strain that first emerged from China

Covid vaccines do not increase risk of adverse events, claims Study

COVID-19 vaccines did not cause an increased risk of adverse events such as heart attack, stroke, cardiac arrest, myocarditis, pericarditis, and deep vein thrombosis, according to a study. The research, published in the journal Vaccines, monitored the entire population of the Italian province of Pescara for 18 months, from January 2021 to July 2022. The team led by researchers from the University of Bologna in Italy collected inhabitants' health data and analysed the frequency of a number of serious diseases such as cardiovascular disease, pulmonary embolism and thrombosis. Pulmonary embolism is a blood clot that blocks and stops blood flow to an artery in the lung while thrombosis occurs when blood clots block veins or arteries. The study showed that none of the diseases examined were found to be more frequent among the vaccinated than among the non-vaccinated. "The results obtained clearly show that there was no increased risk of serious diseases among the vaccinated," said ...

Analysis: Shock of war hits world economy at the crossroads post-Covid

"The shock of war on demand and prices has cascaded through the global economy and, in conjunction with COVID and other policy decisions, has created these headwinds to growth," said Robert Kahn

India logs single-day rise of 99 fresh Covid cases, no deaths: Data

India saw a single-day rise of 99 coronavirus infections and no deaths, according to Union health ministry data updated on Friday. The total tally of Covid cases was recorded at 4.46 crore (4,46,83,122) and the death toll stands at 5,30,741, the data updated at 8 am stated. The daily positivity rate has been recorded at 0.06 per cent while the weekly positivity rate was 0.07 per cent, it stated. The active cases have increased from 1,763 to 1,764 on Thursday, according to the health ministry's website. The active cases comprise 0.01 per cent of the total infections while the national recovery rate has increased to 98.81 per cent. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease has increased to 4,41,50,617. The case fatality rate has been recorded at 1.19 per cent, the data stated. According to the ministry's website, 220.54 crore doses of Covid vaccine have been administered in the country so far.

Long Covid cripples millions, best protection is vaccination, say experts

At least 65 million people are thought to have long Covid, according to a latest review of 200 Covid-19 studies

Oil mixed amid weak China economic data, sustained hopes for 2023

Oil prices were mixed on Tuesday after China posted its weakest economic growth in nearly half a century, while its late-22 U-turn in Covid policy

COVID-19 pandemic strongly impacted manufacturing in India: Study

COVID-19 strongly impacted the manufacturing sector in India, according to a study which provides new insight into how countries respond to systemic shocks such as the pandemic. Previous attempts to quantify the impact of COVID-19 mostly looked only at the pandemic in a single dimension, such as gross domestic product or a country's unemployment rate. The latest study, published in PLOS One, explored resilience across a variety of social, economic and political domains in several countries, including the US, Brazil, India, Sweden, New Zealand and Israel. "We found significant discrepancies between what experts had predicted would be the most resilient countries if struck with a pandemic," said Sara Del Valle, from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in the US. The researchers found that the most pandemic-impacted sectors also differed across countries. The study shows that human health, public administration and defense were strongly impacted in the US and Sweden, while manufacturi

India reports 197 fresh Covid-19 infections; active cases decline

India saw a single-day rise of 197 new coronavirus infections with active cases declining to 2,309, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Thursday. The total tally of Covid cases was recorded at 4.46 crore (4,46,80,583). The overall death toll stands at 5,30,723 with one death reconciled by Kerala, the data updated at 8 am stated. The daily positivity was recorded at 0.10 per cent while the Weekly positivity rate was pegged at 0.11 per cent. Active cases comprise 0.01 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has increased to 98.80 per cent, according to the health ministry website. A decrease of 33 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours. The number of people who have recuperated from the infection surged to 4,41,47,551, while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.19 per cent. According to the ministry's website, 220.15 crore doses of Covid vaccine have been administered in the country s