Page 31 - Coronavirus

Rail freight sees first YoY decline since Covid in June; sea cargo flat

For the Railways, the reduced loading was primarily on account of thermal coal, the mainstay of its freight operations

China to end Ant Group's regulatory revamp with fine of $1.1 bn: Report

The People's Bank of China (PBOC), which has been driving the revamp at Ant after its $37 billion IPO was scuttled in late 2020, is expected to disclose the fine in the coming days

Ignoring NRI economists helped India recover post-Covid: Bibek Debroy

Ignoring suggestions from non-resident Indian economists helped Indian economy to recover after the Covid pandemic, Bibek Debroy, chairman of Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) said on Thursday. Delivering the D R Gadgil Memorial Lecture here, Debroy said India did not open up the "fiscal tap" in response to the crisis and is relatively better than some of the developed economies which indulged in "fiscal profligacy". "Evidence also shows that there were a lot of people from the West, including non resident Indian economists who lectured us on the economic policies that India should follow. The government of India did not pay any attention," he said. "And it is no exaggeration to say that we are in this comfortable position today relative to what is happening in the rest of the world because the fiscal tap was not thrown open. It is no exaggeration to say that many of the developed countries are in trouble because of the fiscal profligacy," he added. Debroy di

Labour court asks Lufthansa to reinstate 17 terminated during pandemic

A labour court has directed Deutsche Lufthansa AG to reinstate 17 cabin crew members whose services were terminated during the coronavirus pandemic. The services of these people were terminated in February 2021 and they were members of the Lufthansa Cabin Crew Association. In an order passed on July 3, the Central Government Industrial Tribunal-Cum-Labour Court in the national capital said that 17 cabin crew members should be reinstated with "full back wages and continuity of service from the date of termination of service". Further, the tribunal has directed the airline group to pay them their last drawn salary and the arrears within two months from the date of publication of the award without interest. In case of failure to do so, the amount accrued would carry an annual interest of six per cent from the date of the challenged dismissal and till the amount is finally paid, it added. When contacted, a Lufthansa spokesperson late on Wednesday said, "we have taken note of the court

UK govt loses legal bid to keep Boris Johnson's messages from Covid inquiry

A UK court on Thursday rejected the British government's request to keep former Prime Minister Boris Johnson's unredacted WhatsApp messages and diaries from being made public at an official COVID-19 inquiry. The Cabinet Office took the unusual step of bringing a legal challenge after the retired judge chairing the inquiry into Britain's handling of the coronavirus pandemic ordered the Conservative government to release full copies of Johnson's documents. Government officials argued the inquiry did not have the legal power to force them to release documents and messages that they said were unambiguously irrelevant to how the government handled COVID-19. But lawyers for the inquiry said the idea that civil servants could decide what material was relevant would undermine public confidence in the process. The judges who ruled in the Cabinet Office's case said Johnson's diaries and notebooks were very likely to contain information about decision-making relating to the pandemic. A ...

Immune response against 'bystander' virus may cause long Covid: Research

Immune inflammatory reaction not against COVID-19, but against a common, harmless, dormant "bystander" virus present in the body, driving a cytokine storm, may be behind long Covid, a new research has found. Analysing Covid-patients' blood samples, researchers found that 3 months after being hospitalised for severe infection, there was no rapid increase in the immune cells targeting SARS-CoV-2, but an increase in those targeting the dormant Cytomegalovirus (CMV). CMV is usually harmless but can stay in your body for life once infected with it. The finding indicated that the prolonged inflammation at 3 months in severe patients may not be driven by SARS-CoV-2 but instead may be "bystander driven". "Long Covid occurs in one out of ten COVID-19 cases, but we still don't understand what causes it. "Several theories proposed include whether it might be triggered by an inflammatory immune response towards the virus that is still persisting in our body, sending our immune system into ...

Covid-19, Ukraine war led to data gaps in 2022: RBI dy governor Patra

Analysis of forecast errors show there is no systematic bias in system, he says

How Singapore leaped ahead of competitors after the Covid-19 pandemic

The other cities in the study according to rank are New York in fourth, followed by London, Tokyo, Sydney, Johannesburg, Paris and San Francisco

Covid-related worrying impacts daydreams' more than night-dreams: Research

On days when people when worried more about COVID-19, they experienced more negative emotions while daydreaming. However, people who generally tended to worry more about Covid, also tended to have more negative dreams, a new research examining how Covid-related concerns and worries affected the emotional quality of daydreaming and nighttime dreaming in these times found. More than a hundred participants were asked how worried, anxious, and concerned they were during the COVID-19 pandemic, in this study from the University of Turku, Finland, UK and Australia. They reported their daydreams every evening and their nighttime dreams every morning upon waking up. The researchers analysed more than 3000 reports of daydreams and night-dreams to come out with their findings, published in the journal Emotion, about how the pandemic has shaped people's inner experiences, having profoundly impacted the mental health of people worldwide. They said that the emotional quality of night-dreams or .

Covid-19 centres scam: IAS officer Sanjeev Jaiswal appears before ED

IAS officer Sanjeev Jaiswal on Friday appeared before the Enforcement Directorate in connection with a money laundering case related to alleged irregularities over jumbo COVID centres set up by Mumbai civic body BMC during the pandemic, an official said. The Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer was seen entering the ED office at Ballard Estate in South Mumbai around 11.30 am. The agency, which investigates offences of money laundering and violations of foreign exchange laws, had on June 21 raided 15 places linked to some people, including the IAS officer. Jaiswal had served as an additional commissioner in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). ED had recovered jewellery worth nearly Rs 2.4 crore, Rs 68 lakh cash and property-related documents during those raids, said the official. Jaiswal had been asked to appear before the ED to record his statement on Friday in connection with the case, he said. Jaiswal was summoned by the agency earlier too, but he had not appea

China Deliberately Engineered Coronavirus As "Bioweapon": Wuhan Researcher

A researcher at Wuhan Institute of Virology in China has made astonishing claims about the coronavirus, saying the virus was engineered by China as a "bioweapon". Watch the video to know more. >

Karnataka HC imposes a fine of Rs 50 lakh on Twitter for non-compliance

The court has also refused Twitter's request to stay the Centre's orders to block some accounts on its platform with tweets related to coronavirus and farmers' protests

Over $200 bn may have been stolen from Covid-19 aid: Federal watchdog

More than USD 200 billion may have been stolen from two large COVID-19 relief initiatives, according to new estimates from a federal watchdog investigating federally funded programmes that helped small businesses survive the worst public health crisis in more than a hundred years. The numbers issued on Tuesday by the US Small Business Administration inspector general are much greater than the office's previous projections and underscore how vulnerable the Paycheck Protection and COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan programmes were to fraudsters, particularly during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic. The inspector general's report said at least 17 percent of all COVID-EIDL and PPP funds were disbursed to potentially fraudulent actors. The fraud estimate for the COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan programme is more than USD 136 billion, which represents 33 per cent of the total money spent on that programme, according to the report. The Paycheck Protection fraud estimat

Hajj pilgrimage starts in Saudi Arabia, with 2 mn expected after Covid

Some 2 million Muslim pilgrims officially began the annual Hajj pilgrimage on Monday, making their way out of Mecca after circling Islam's holiest site, the Kaaba, and converging on a vast tent camp in the nearby desert for a day and night of prayer. One of the largest religious gatherings in the world has returned to full capacity this year for the first time since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic three years ago. The pilgrimage is one of the five pillars of Islam, and all Muslims are required to make the five-day Hajj at least once in their lives if they are physically and financially able to do it. For pilgrims, it is a deeply moving spiritual experience that absolves sins, brings them closer to God and unites the world's more than 1.8 billion Muslims. Some spend years saving up money and waiting for a permit to embark on the journey. The rituals during Hajj largely commemorate the Quran's accounts of Ibrahim, his son Ismail and Ismail's mother Hajar. Pilgrims have been do

Investigate PM CARES Fund: Uddhav amid ED action in Covid facility 'scam'

Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday hit back at Enforcement Directorate action against some persons close to his party in an alleged jumbo COVID facility scam by seeking a probe into the PM CARES Fund. He also sought probe into the functioning of civic bodies of Nagpur, Pimpri-Chinchwad and Pune, as well as governments in Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat, all of which were or are led by the Bharatiya Janata Party, and Thane, which was controlled by the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena. The Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund was set up in 2020 as a public charitable trust with the aim of having a dedicated national fund to deal with distress related primarily to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Prime Minister is the chairperson and members include Defence Minister, Home Minister and Finance Minister. Addressing party workers, Thackeray dared the government to probe the working of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation during the pandemic, adding

India logs 55 new Covid-19 cases, active infections decrease to 1,653

India's COVID-19 infection tally rose by 55 in a day while active cases declined to 1,653 from 1,712 a day earlier, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Saturday. The death toll was recorded at 5,31,903 with one fatality reported in Maharashtra, the data updated at 8 am stated. The tally of Covid cases was recorded at 4.49 crore. The national COVID-19 recovery rate was 98.81 per cent, according to the health ministry website. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 4,44,60,316, while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.18 per cent. According to the ministry's website, 220.66 crore doses of Covid vaccine have been administered in the country so far under the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive.

US unable to solve mystery of Covid-19 origin, shows declassified report

"When President Biden signed the Covid-19 Origin Act, he directed the intelligence community to use every tool at its disposal to investigate the origin of Covid-19," White House NSC spokesperson

Two, including a juvenile, held over involvement in CoWIN data 'leak'

A man was arrested and a juvenile were apprehended from Bihar in connection with their involvement in the alleged data leak from CoWIN portal, officials said on Thursday. The man is alleged to have used a Telegram app to leak the data, they said. There have been claims about a breach of data of citizens registered on the CoWIN platform, and opposition parties have asked the government to take deterrent action. The government has termed such reports "mischievous" and "without any basis" while asserting that the CoWIN portal is completely safe with adequate safeguards for data privacy. The matter was sent for a review by the country's nodal cyber security agency CERT-In, which said in its initial report, that the backend database for the Telegram bot, which is at the centre of the alleged leak, was not directly accessing the APIs of the CoWIN database. In a statement, the Union Health Ministry also said that an internal exercise has been initiated to review the existing security ...

India records 95 Covid-19 cases in a day, active infections dip to 1,784

India recorded 95 coronavirus cases in a day while the number of active cases in the country has been recorded at 1,784, according to Union Health Ministry data on Thursday. The death toll was recorded at 5,31,900, the data updated at 8 am stated. India has so far logged 4.49 crore Covid cases. The national COVID-19 recovery rate has been recorded at 98.81 per cent, according to the health ministry website. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 4,44,60,082, while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.18 per cent. According to the ministry's website, 220.66 crore vaccine doses have been administered in the country so far under the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive.

Covid centre scam: What it is and why ED is conducting raids across Mumbai?

BJP leader Kirit Somaiya had registered a money laundering case in August 2022, claiming that contracts awarded to multiple field hospitals in Mumbai lacked healthcare experience