Page 24 - Coronavirus

Covid warriors of India awarded Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace 2022

The Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development, 2022, was Sunday awarded jointly to the Indian Medical Association and the Trained Nurses Association of India as representatives of the Covid warriors in the country. Former Vice President M Hamid Ansari presented the award to Sharad Kumar Agarwal, the president of the Indian Medical Association, and Roy K George, the president of the Trained Nurses Association of India. Addressing the award ceremony, the Chairperson of Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust, Sonia Gandhi, said the award was for every doctor, nurse, paramedic and worker for their selfless service, unflinching dedication and perseverance in the face of adversity. She said the award instituted in the name of Indira Gandhi, one of the most remarkable leaders of the 20th century, aims at honouring women, men and institutions that have done exemplary work in the service of humanity and the planet Earth. "The prize endeavours to promote the causes that Indiraji herse

MNCs, GCCs lead India office space leasing; to reach 62 mn sq ft by 2025

Number of Global Capability Centres likely to reach 3,000 by 2030, employing more than 3 million people

Dubai International Airport on track to beat pre-Covid passenger figures

Passenger numbers at Dubai International Airport this year will eclipse the pre-pandemic passenger figures in 2019, showing the strong rebound in travel after the coronavirus pandemic and lockdowns that grounded aircraft worldwide, a top official said Wednesday. The airport, the world's busiest for international travel and home of the long-haul carrier Emirates, has had 64.5 million passengers pass through its cavernous concourses through the third quarter of this year. That puts it on track to reach 86.8 million passengers for the full year, which would exceed its 2019 figure of 86.3 million passengers. It had 66 million passengers last year. The airport's busiest year was 2018, when it had 89.1 million passengers. We're thrilled but not entirely surprised that DXB is all set to surpass the pre-pandemic milestone well ahead of our initial projections by almost a year," Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports, said in a statement. Through the third quarter, Dubai's main airport handl

Chinese experts sound alert on relapse of Covid-19 during winter season

Chinese experts have sounded an alert about the relapse of COVID-19 infections during the current winter season and asked elderly and vulnerable populations to get vaccinated. The Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (Chinese CDC) shows that a total of 209 new severe COVID-19 cases and 24 deaths caused by COVID-19 were reported across the country in October, with the prevalent strains all being XBB variants, official media reported on Monday. China's top respiratory disease expert Zhong Nanshan warned of a small COVID-19 spike in the winter and reminded the elderly and vulnerable populations to get vaccinated as soon as possible, state-run Global Times reported. The virus is undergoing mutations, while the general population's ability to fight off the disease is declining because their antibody levels are lowering as time passes, Lu Hongzhou, head of the Third People's Hospital of Shenzhen, told the Daily. According to Lu, there may be a rise in COVID-19 cases during t

WHO updates its guidance on treatments for patients with Covid-19

The World Health Organization has updated its guidance on treatments for patients with COVID-19, providing latest, trustworthy advice on the management of the disease to help doctors make better decisions. The new recommendations published by The BMJ are part of a living guideline, developed by the WHO with the methodological support of Norwegian non-profit MAGIC Evidence Ecosystem Foundation. The guidance incorporates the latest clinical trial evidence for existing and new COVID-19 therapies and takes account of evidence relating to safety, prognosis, resources, access, and equity issues, as well as patient values and preferences, the WHO said. The update includes distinct risk categories to help doctors more accurately assess whether an individual is at high, moderate, or low risk of hospital admission and tailor treatment accordingly. WHO in the update recommends the use of antiviral drug nirmatrelvir-ritonavir in patients with non-severe COVID-19 at high and moderate risk of ..

Loss of smell caused by coronavirus takes upto three years to return: Study

More than a quarter of the Covid group still experienced olfactory dysfunction two years after infection, but after three years, the condition wasn't significantly more common than in controls

A grainy picture: Tough to measure Covid's impact on poverty without data

The impact of the pandemic on pov­erty and inequality in India has been a contested issue in the absence of govern­ment data

Byju's in talks to sell US unit Epic for $400 mn to ease financial pressure

Byju's and its creditors are locked in conflict over a missed interest payment on a term loan that the startup had taken out to help finance a global acquisition spree during the pandemic

Covid lockdown delayed to bring down Congress govt in MP: Jairam Ramesh

The Kamal Nath-led government collapsed in March 2020 after several MLAs of his party resigned, paving the way for the return of the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government

Nearly 97000 Indians detained trying to enter US illegally in last one year

These intruders primarily hail from Gujarat and Punjab in India and aspire to settle in America

Moderna tempers 2023 Covid vaccine sales forecast on weaker demand

Analysts estimate over $100 million in sales for each of Moderna's new vaccines against RSV and flu, which also has yet to be approved, in 2024, according to LSEG data

Global slowdown may take sheen off gems & jewellery industry in Rajasthan

The overseas demand has also shifted to light-weight stone-studded jewellery, of both precious and non-precious stones

Covid vaccination didn't increase risk of deaths among young adults: Study

COVID-19 vaccination did not increase the risk of sudden deaths among young adults in India, according to a study conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). Factors that did increase such chances included being in the hospital for Covid in the past and certain behaviours like binge drinking and intense physical activity shortly before death, the study said. The study, titled "Factors associated with sudden deaths among adults aged 18-45 years in India -- a multicentric matched case-control study", is under peer review and yet to be published. It was completed earlier this month, official sources said on Monday. Citing the ICMR study, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said at Gujarat's Bhavnagar on Sunday that those who had earlier suffered a severe bout of Covid must not overexert themselves for a year or two to avoid heart attacks and cardiac arrests. Anecdotal reports of sudden deaths among healthy young adults in India led the researchers to conduct the ..

Dues from wilful defaulters rose by Rs 100 cr per day since Covid-19 struck

Wilful defaulter dues up by Rs 1.2 trillion since the Covid-19 pandemic began. Some states have seen a larger rise than others

Festival season to bring some cheer to economy, say economists: Poll

Battered during the pandemic, consumption, which makes up for about 60 of Asia's third-largest economy has been slow to reach its pre-Covid levels

Food insecurity shot up last year with inflation, end of Covid aid: Report

An estimated 17 million households reported problems finding enough food in 2022 a sharp jump from 2021 when boosted government aid helped ease the pandemic-induced economic shutdown. A new Department of Agriculture report, released Wednesday, paints a sobering picture of post-pandemic hardship with statistically significant increases in food insecurity across multiple categories. Using a representative survey sample of roughly 32,000 American households the report said 12.8% (17 million households) reported occasional problems affording enough food in 2022 up from 10.2% (13.5 million households) in 2021 and 10.5% (13.8 million households) in 2020. Analysts and food security professionals point to the dual impact last year of high inflation and the gradual expiration of multiple pandemic-era government assistance measures. This underscores how the unwinding of the pandemic interventions and the rising costs of food has taken hold, said Geri Henchy, director of nutrition policy for

Without whole-genome sequencing, a treatable TB epidemic is a challenge

HaystackAnalytics, an IIT Bombay-incubated company working in the area of genomics using big data has created a comprehensive drug resistance test for tuberculosis (TB)

Children infected with Omicron variant remain infectious for 3 days: Study

Children infected with the Omicron variant remain infectious for three days on average after testing positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus, according to a study. Researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) and Stanford University in the US noted that school policies that require students with COVID-19 to stay out of the classroom for five days are more than sufficient. "We are basically saying five days is more than sufficient; public health and education leaders may consider shorter durations, said study co-author Neeraj Sood, Director of the COVID-19 Initiative and a senior fellow at the USC Schaeffer Center. The study, published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, found that the median time of infectivity was three days, with 18.4 per cent and 3.9 per cent of children still infectious on day five and day 10, respectively. The researchers also found no association between how long children were infectious and whether they were vaccinated, suggesting return-to-school polici

Pfizer cuts full-year outlook due to declining sales of Covid-19 products

Shares of Pfizer are in retreat on the first day of trading after the drug company said sales of its COVID-19 vaccine and its coronavirus treatment are in less than expected and cut revenue expectations for the year by USD 9 billion. Falling sales of both clipped sales in the second quarter, but Pfizer said in August that it expected a rebound in the second half of 2023. Shares of Pfizer slid nearly 3 per cent before the opening bell Monday and Moderna, which makes a competing vaccine, slid as well. The company said Friday that global usage of Paxlovid is trending slightly above last year, but that it's still below expectations. The fall vaccination period just began and the New York City drugmaker said that it's too soon to get a handle on vaccination rates for the year. Full-year revenue for Paxlovid and Comirnaty is expected to be approximately USD 12.5 billion, short USD 9 billion of what it had expected. Pfizer is lowering its full-year revenue expectations for Paxlovid by .

Output of a third of manufacturing segments in August less than base year

All indices in the IIP were at 100 in 2011-12 because it was the base year of the new series