Page 23 - Coronavirus

Boris Johnson rejects notion he wanted to let Covid rip through population

Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, in sometimes angry testimony to Britain's inquiry into the COVID-19 pandemic, on Thursday defended himself against suggestions that his indifference and failure to heed the advice of scientists led to thousands of unnecessary deaths. In a second day of sworn testimony, Johnson rejected claims that he was prepared to let older people die to protect the economy and that he was too slow to order a second national lockdown as infection rates began to rise in the autumn of 2020. Johnson, who left parliament after he was found to have misled lawmakers about lockdown-breaking parties during his premiership, said he learned about the horrors of COVID-19 firsthand when he was hospitalised with the disease in March 2020. In the intensive care unit, Johnson said he was surrounded not by elderly people but by middle-aged men like himself. I knew from that experience what an appalling disease this is. I had absolutely no personal doubt about that from March .

7 test +ve at AIIMS Delhi for pneumonia pathogen, govt denies link to China

'Media reports claiming detection of bacterial cases in AIIMS Delhi linked to the recent surge in Pneumonia cases in China are misleading and inaccurate,' says health ministry

Ex-UK PM Boris Johnson admits mistakes but defends Covid record at inquiry

Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson defended his handling of COVID-19 on Wednesday at a public inquiry into the pandemic, saying the government got some things wrong but did its best. Johnson began two days of being grilled under oath by lawyers for the judge-led inquiry about his initial reluctance to impose a national lockdown in early 2020 and other fateful decisions. Johnson opened his testimony with an apology for the pain and the loss and the suffering of the COVID victims, though not for any of his own actions. Four people stood up in court as he spoke, holding signs saying: The Dead can't hear your apologies," before being escorted out by security staff. Inevitably, in the course of trying to handle a very, very difficult pandemic in which we had to balance appalling harms on either side of the decision, we may have made mistakes, Johnson said. Inevitably, we got some things wrong. I think we were doing our best at the time. Johnson had arrived at the inquiry venue

India seeks 5 yr patent waiver for Covid diagnostics, therapeutics from WTO

India is among eight other developing nations pushing for a patent waiver that has already been authorised for the use of the Covid-19 vaccine

Foreign tourist arrivals in India yet to reach pre-Covid levels: Reddy

Foreign tourist arrivals in India are yet to reach the pre-COVID-19 levels, with 85.9 lakh of them visiting the country in 2022. According to the data of foreign tourist visits (FTVs) during the 2018-2022 period, which was presented in the Lok Sabha on Monday, 2.88 crore foreign tourists visited India in 2018 and the number increased to 3.14 crore in 2019. However, in 2020, the footfall was 71.7 lakh and it further fell to 10.5 lakh in 2021. In 2022, 85.9 lakh foreigners visited the country. The data was presented along with a written reply to a question by Union Tourism and Culture Minister G Kishan Reddy. On whether the tourism ministry is contemplating to launch pilgrim tourism circuits in various parts of the country, Reddy said under its schemes, such as "Swadesh Darshan", "Prashad' (Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spiritual, Heritage Augmentation Drive)" and "Assistance to Central Agencies", the ministry provides financial assistance to the states and Union territories for the ..

Experts warn of Covid spike in Kerala as vaccine-induced immunity wanes

Kerala now has 194 active cases, accounting for 61 per cent of the active cases in India

'Pandemic is still alive; need to extend TRIPS waiver to Covid diagnostics'

Four countries, including India and South Africa, have asked the WTO members to extend patent waiver to Covid-19 diagnostics and therapeutics as the pandemic is still alive and the risk of new variants remains real, an official said. These four member countries of the World Trade Organization (WTO) raised the demand in an informal meeting of TRIPS (Trade-Related aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) Council in Geneva on Wednesday, the official said. In June last year, members of the WTO agreed to grant a temporary patent waiver for the manufacturing of Covid-19 vaccines for five years. It was also agreed to start talks on including therapeutics and diagnostics, as proposed by India and South Africa, under the purview of this waiver. The proponents of the proposal for extension argued that a decision on this was long overdue and should be taken at the General Council (GC) meeting of the WTO in December. This would also complement and support the work of the WHO (World Health ...

US life expectancy rose in 2022, but remains below its pre-pandemic level

US life expectancy rose last year by more than a year but still isn't close to what it was before the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2022 rise was mainly due to the waning pandemic, Centres for Disease Control and Prevention researchers said on Wednesday. But even with the large increase, US life expectancy is only back to 77 years, 6 months about what it was two decades ago. Life expectancy is an estimate of the average number of years a baby born in a given year might expect to live, assuming the death rates at that time hold constant. The snapshot statistic is considered one of the most important measures of the health of the US population. The 2022 calculations released Wednesday are provisional, and could change a little as the math is finalized. For decades, US life expectancy rose a little nearly every year. But about a decade ago, the trend flattened and even declined some years a stall blamed largely on overdose deaths and suicides. Then came the coronavirus, which has killed

China pneumonia outbreak: No spike in respiratory diseases in India yet

With winters usually signalling the onset of the flu season in India, there has been an increase in people taking vaccinations for flu and pneumonia

China warns of surge in respiratory illness after mystery disease hits kids

The steady rise in pneumonia among children in kindergartens and primary schools flooded hospitals this month and prompted the World Health Organization to make an inquiry with Beijing

Mystery of 40,000 manufacturers disappearing from tax data amid Covid-19

Companies' share in overall corporate profit has declined as India tries to boost sector

Luxury homes the new realty in India: Sales surge 97% in nine months

The trend is expected to continue especially among the non-resident Indians (NRIs) and certain category of millennials with high disposable income

China health ministry for more fever clinics to combat mystery illness

Both SARS and Covid-19 were first reported as unusual types of pneumonia

Suvendu Adhikari alleges scam in purchase of PPE kits; demand probe

The Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, on Saturday wrote to the Enforcement Directorate (ED), alleging a scam in the purchase of PPE kits and other medical equipment during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021.Taking to his official handle on social media platform X, Adhikari shared a detailed post informing that he had written to the director, ED, principal director general of the Income Tax Department and secretary, Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, seeking an inquiry into the alleged irregularities in the purchase of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) kits."A huge financial scam was executed in WB during the Covid Pandemic period, with regard to the purchase of PPE kits and other medical equipment by the WB Health Department. Huge funds were provided by the Central Govt at that time to bolster the efforts to fight against the virus collectively," Adhikari posted from his official X handle."I have written a letter to the Director; .

Ex-health official booked for misappropriating Covid testing kits in Pune

The Pune police have registered an offence against a former chief health officer and two others for allegedly misappropriating COVID-19 testing kits, medicines, and sanitisers intended for a civic-run hospital during the pandemic in 2021 and selling them to private laboratories for personal gains, an official said on Friday. The Warje Malwadi police on Thursday registered a case against Dr Ashish Bharti, the former chief health officer of the Pune Municipal Corporation, Dr Aruna Tarde and Dr Rushikesh Gardi under sections 420 (cheating), 406 (criminal breach of trust), 465 (forgery) and other relevant provisions of the Indian Penal Code, the official said. The case was registered based on a complaint lodged by Dr Satish Kolsure, who took the matter to court, following which a local court directed the police to register a case, he said. According to the police, the accused allegedly created fake records at Arvind Bartakke Hospital in the Warje Malwadi area between January and Decembe

India records 36 new Covid-19 cases in one day; active cases stands at 215

India saw a single-day rise of 36 fresh COVID-19 infections while the active cases have been recorded at 215, according to Union Health Ministry data updated on Wednesday. The country's COVID-19 case tally stands at 4.50 crore (4,50,01,691) and the death toll at 5,33,295, the data updated at 8 am stated. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease has increased to 4,44,68,179 and the national recovery rate stands at 98.81 per cent, it stated. The case fatality rate stands at 1.19 per cent. According to the ministry's website, 220.67 crore doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in the country so far.

Mysterious pneumonia outbreak in China: Here is what we know so far

The World Health Organisation asked China for detailed information on the increase in the cases of respiratory illnesses and reported clusters of pneumonia in children

ICAO Secretary-General hails remarkable resilience of UAE airports

Juan Carlos Salazar, Secretary-General of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), underscored the remarkable resilience of UAE airports have rebounded strongly despite Covid 19

Indian researchers find no link between sudden death and Covid-19 shots

"We found no evidence of a positive association of Covid-19 vaccination with unexplained sudden death among young adults," the research group said in a study published

Ex-UK PM Boris Johnson 'bamboozled' by science, ex-adviser tells inquiry

Boris Johnson, the former British prime minister, struggled to come to grips with much of the science during the coronavirus pandemic, his chief scientific advisor said Monday. In keenly awaited testimony to the country's public inquiry into the COVID-19 pandemic, Patrick Vallance said he and others faced repeated problems getting Johnson to understand the science. I think I'm right in saying that the prime minister gave up science at 15," he said. I think he'd be the first to admit it wasn't his forte and that he struggled with the concepts and we did need to repeat them often. In extracts from his diary that were relayed to the inquiry, Vallance said Johnson was bamboozled by the graphs and data and that watching him get his head round stats is awful." Vallance said Johnson's struggles were not unique and said many leaders around Europe had problems in understanding the scientific evidence and advice, especially in the first stages of the pandemic in early 2020. I would also sa