Page 15 - Corona

School learning after Covid-19: Students, teachers try to move on

Marginalised people lost out during online classes; education quality suffered for all: NCERT survey

Long Covid costing Australia's economy $3.6 bn annually, says report

Australia has announced a parliamentary inquiry into long Covid, with the aim of developing a clear definition of the illness and gauging the scale of its impact on the country's 26 million people

Zenara Pharma launches nirmatrelvir, ritonavir tablets for Covid patients

Zenara Pharma on Friday announced the launch of nirmatrelvir and ritonavir tablets in a combination pack to be used as a treatment option for patients with mild-to-moderate symptoms of COVID-19. The company received approval from the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) to manufacture and market this product last month, Zenara Pharma said in a statement. The drug will be sold under the brand name 'Paxzen' and is priced at Rs 5,200 per pack containing 20 tablets of nirmatrelvir 150 mg and 10 tablets of ritonavir 100 mg, which is equivalent to one full course of treatment for a patient, it added. It will be manufactured at Zenara's USFDA and EU-approved facility in Hyderabad, the company said. "Our product Paxzen has been proven equivalent to Paxlovid through a bioequivalence study, based on which we have received the approval from the regulatory authorities," Zenara Pharma co-founder and Managing Director, Jagadeesh Babu Rangisetty said. The USFDA had approved Paxlov

Maharashtra logs 1,076 new Covid-19 cases, 6 deaths; active tally at 7,082

Maharashtra on Thursday registered 1,076 fresh cases of COVID-19 and six new deaths linked to the infection, taking the overall tally to 81,08,442 and the toll to 1,48,280, said a state health department official. The state on Wednesday had reported 1,094 cases and five deaths related to the viral infection. As many as 1,031 patients recovered from the infection in the last 24 hours, pushing up their cumulative count to 79,53,080 and leaving the state with an active caseload of 7,082, he said. The state's coronavirus recovery rate was 98.08 per cent, while the fatality rate stood at 1.82 per cent, the official said. Of the six coronavirus fatalities reported in the last 24 hours, two each were from the Mumbai administrative circle and Pune district (rural parts) and one each from municipal corporation areas of Pimpri-Chinchwad and Nagpur, he said. The Mumbai administrative circle added 626 cases, followed by 265 in Pune, 50 in Nagpur, 42 in Kolhapur, 38 in Nashik, 30 in Latur, 13

Covid cases drops by 12% in the world, but pandemic not over: WHO

The number of new coronavirus cases fell everywhere in the world last week by about 12 per cent, according to the World Health Organisation's latest weekly review of the pandemic issued on Wednesday. The UN health agency reported that there were just under 4.2 million new infections last week and about 13,700 deaths -- a 5 per cent drop. This is very encouraging, but there is no guarantee these trends will persist, said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at a press briefing. The most dangerous thing is to assume (that) they will, he said. He added that even though the number of weekly reported deaths have plummeted more than 80 per cent since February, one person still dies with COVID-19 every 44 seconds and that most of those deaths are avoidable. In its pandemic report, WHO said COVID-19 deaths dropped in Southeast Asia, Europe and the Middle East, but increased in Africa, the Americas and the Western Pacific. Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO's technical lead on COVID-19, no

Maharashtra logs 1,094 new Covid-19 cases, 5 deaths; active tally at 7,043

Maharashtra on Wednesday added 1,094 fresh cases of COVID-19 and five more deaths due to the infection, taking the overall tally to 81,07,366 and the toll to 1,48,274, said a state health department official. The state on Tuesday had reported 869 cases and two deaths linked to the viral infection. Also, 1,747 patients recovered in the last 24 hours, taking their cumulative count to 79,52,049 and leaving the state with 7,043 active cases, he said. The state's coronavirus recovery rate was 98.08 per cent, while the fatality rate stood at 1.82 per cent, the official said. Of the five new coronavirus-related fatalities, four were reported from the Mumbai administrative circle and one from Kolhapur district, he said. The Mumbai administrative circle added 598 cases, followed by 266 in Pune, 46 in Nashik, 53 in Kolhapure, 14 in Aurangabad, 23 in Latur, 16 in Akola and 78 in the Nagpur circle, the official said. An administrative circle consists of multiple districts. A total of ...

Mumbai logs 285 new Covid cases, but no death for 1st time since Aug 22

Mumbai on Tuesday reported 285 new coronavirus cases, but no fresh death linked to the infection for the first time since August 22, while 516 more patients recovered in the metropolis, said the local civic body. With this, the tally of COVID-19 cases rose to 11,46,725, while the death toll remained unchanged at 19,711, said the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) in a bulletin. The financial capital has reported zero death linked to the viral infection for the first time since August 22. The daily COVID-19 case count has crossed the 200-mark after two days. The metropolis had reported 176 and 173 cases on Sunday and Monday, respectively. As per the bulletin, the new COVID-19 cases were detected after 5,046 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours, taking their cumulative count to 1,81,34,908. A day ago, 5,352 COVID-19 tests were conducted in the city. Mumbai's overall tally of recuperated patients rose to 11,24,474 after 516 more people recovered from the respiratory ...

Fight against Covid-19: Here is a list of vaccines approved in India

Besides Bharat Biotech's nasal vaccine, India has 13 vaccines to fight against Covid-19. Two have been approved for manufacturing, while 11 have been approved for emergency use

China's Chengdu enforces strict lockdown despite strong earthquake

Authorities in southwestern China's Chengdu have maintained strict COVID-19 lockdown measures on the city's population of 21 million despite a major earthquake that killed at least 65 people in outlying areas. Footage circulating online Tuesday showed workers wearing top-to-bottom protective gear preventing residents of apartment buildings from exiting through locked lobby doors following Monday's 6.8 magnitude quake centered in the surrounding province of Sichuan. Buildings in Chengdu and other parts of western China were shaken by the quake. No damage was reported in the city. The quake struck a mountainous area in Luding county, which sits on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau roughly 200 kilometers (125 miles) from Chengdu, where tectonic plates grind up against each other. Despite only recording a handful of cases, Chengdu's lockdown is the most severe since China's largest city of Shanghai was placed in isolation over the summer, prompting rare protests in person and ...

Chinese President Xi to visit Kazakhstan in first foreign trip since Covid

Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit Kazakhstan on September 14, his first tour abroad in over two and half years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and may attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit scheduled to be held in neighbouring Uzbekistan the next day. At the invitation of Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, a state visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to the Republic of Kazakhstan is planned for September 14 this year, Kazakh Foreign Ministry spokesman Aibek Smadiyarov told a media briefing. During the visit, the two countries planned to sign a number of cooperation agreements, Russian news agency Sputnik quoted him as saying. There is no confirmation in Beijing about Xi's plans to fly out of China for the first time since January 2020. Myanmar was the last country Xi visited on January 17-18, 2020. Just days after his return, China announced the massive outbreak of the coronavirus in Wuhan, which later spiralled into a massive global ...

China locks down 65 mn citizens as national holiday travel peak looms

China has locked down 65 million of its citizens under tough COVID-19 restrictions and is discouraging domestic travel during upcoming national holidays. Most of the 21 million people in the southwestern city of Chengdu are confined to their apartments or residential complexes, while in the eastern port city of Tianjin, classes have ben moved online after 14 new cases were reported, all but two showing no symptoms. China reported a total of 1,552 new cases on Monday across the nation of 1.4 billion people, the National Health Commission reported. Despite the relatively low number of infections, authorities have adhered to a zero-COVID policy requiring lockdowns, quarantines and the confining of people suspected of being in close contact with any confirmed case. Sept 10-12 is China's mid-autumn festival, the country's second-most important holiday after the Lunar New Year. The anti-virus measures have taken a major toll on the economy, travel and society in general, but China's ruli

Japan to raise daily arrivals' entry cap to 50,000 from Sept 7: Report

The Japanese government has been steadily easing its strict border controls, which for a long time were the most rigid among the G7 major developed nations

Oil prices slump again, hit by demand concerns over Covid-19 restrictions

Some OPEC+ members have called for cuts. The group is next due to meet on Sept. 5 amid weakening demand in Asia that spurred Saudi Arabia to lower its official selling prices to that region

North Korea sees suspected COVID-19 cases after victory claim by leader

North Korea on Thursday said it found four new fever cases in its border region with China that may have been caused by coronavirus infections, two weeks after leader Kim Jong Un declared a widely disputed victory over COVID-19. North Korea's state-run Korean Central News Agency said health workers were conducting genetic tests on the samples taken from four people in the Ryanggang Province who exhibited fevers to confirm whether they were caused by the "malignant epidemic." The North often uses that term, along with "malignant virus," to describe COVID-19 and the coronavirus. Authorities immediately locked down the areas where the fever cases emerged and plan to maintain tight restrictions and quarantines until health workers determine the cause of the illness. "(Health authorities) pay attention to the fact that those with fever had not been infected by the malignant epidemic," KCNA said. The country's emergency anti-virus headquarters dispatched "talented epidemiological, virolo

High unemployment rates in lower, mid income countries after Covid: Study

In contrast, during the global economic crisis of 2008-2009, higher-income nations suffered more from the recession than did lower-income nations

After Covid, now a mammoth vaccination drive for lumpy skin disease

Cattle are being vaccinated swiftly as the disease breaks out of its initial holds of Rajasthan and Gujarat and starts infecting buffaloes too

Covid patients show new symptoms; impact on brain post infection: Report

While the common symptoms of Covid, include headache, fever, cough, cold, throat irritation and body ache, experts have now warned of newer symptoms

Bharat Biotech says Phase 3 trial over, intranasal vaccine 'safe'

The Hyderabad-based company claimed that BBV154 is proven to be safe, well-tolerated and immunogenic in the subjects under controlled clinical trials

India likely to get Omicron-specific vaccine by year-end, says SII chief

SII is working with Novavax to bring the Omicron-specific vaccine, as the nation continues to record a surge in the number of Covid-19 cases

Independence Day: Centre issues advisory to states over Covid protocols

Ministry of Home Affairs advisory comes at a time when India is reporting over 15,000 Covid-19 cases each day