Page 31 - Coronavirus

Global spending on Covid predicted to touch $500 bn by 2027: Dr Reddy's

Though the World Health Organisation lifted the emergency tag on COVID-19, global spending on the disease, including research to improve the understanding of long-term complications and the presence of post-acute sequels of the killer virus, is expected to touch USD 500 billion by 2027, pharma major Dr Reddy's Laboratories has said in its latest annual report. The report, released on Monday, further said the health systems have responded well by developing vaccines with significant efficacy, safety, and speed. However, with the inconsistent use of vaccines and therapeutics, the next few years are not without uncertainties, especially with the periodic emergence of infections and viral variants. "At the same time, research has been ongoing to improve the understanding of the long-term complications and the presence of post-acute sequels of COVID-19. Considering this, it is believed that COVID-19 will still be a major driver for global medicine spending in the coming years. Global ...

Covid cases in India lowest since Feb 2020 as active cases dip to 1,431

India has recorded 24 new coronavirus infections, the lowest since February 2020, while the count of active cases has dipped to 1,431, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Monday. The first case of coronavirus infection in the country was recorded on January 30, 2020 from Kerala and the first death was reported on March 10, 2020 from Karnataka. The health ministry started issuing daily Covid data from March end onwards. According to the data updated at 8 am on Monday, the death toll was recorded as 5,31,913. The Covid case tally has been recorded at 4.49 crore (4,49,94,599) while the national recovery rate has been recorded at 98.81 per cent, the ministry said. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 4,44,61,255 and 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 vaccination drive.

Azerbaijan's Covid curbs turn into moneyspinner despite it being over

The self-isolation from its neighbors that include Russia and Iran is the last remaining safety measure imposed by Azerbaijan during the pandemic

'Districts' performance in school education sees notable drop during Covid'

The performance of districts in school education saw a significant drop during the Covid pandemic, with none of the districts figuring in the top two categories in the Ministry of Education's Performance Grading Index for Districts (PGI-D) for 2020-21 and 2021-22 released on Sunday. Punjab with 18 districts in "Ati-Uttam" category (the third grade out of total 10), in 2021-22 has outperformed Rajasthan whose number of districts in this category came down to five from 26 in 2020-21. Punjab too has one less district in this category compared to 2020-21. The report on PGI-D assesses the performance of school education system at the district level by creating an index for comprehensive analysis. It graded 742 districts during 2020-21 and 748 districts during 2021-22 across the states and Union territories. PGI-D grades the districts into 10 grades with the highest achievable grade being "Daksh", which is for districts scoring more than 90 per cent of the total points in that category or

Top headlines: Rail freight's 1st dip after Covid, Kharif sowing falls 9%

Business Standard brings you the top headlines at this hour

Several Indian-Americans among 14 charged in $52 mn Covid relief fund fraud

Around 14 people, including several Indian-origin business owners and employees have been charged in a USD 53 million fraud scheme involving a COVID-19 pandemic relief programme in the US state of Texas. This case is the largest investigated by the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC) Fraud Task Force to date, US Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Leigha Simonton said in a press release. The defendants were arrested on Tuesday and Wednesday in Texas, California, and Oklahoma, the release said. Simonton said the 14 people allegedly bilked the Paycheck Protection Program, a COVID-era financial program, and numerous financial institutions out of more than USD 53 million in loan proceeds. Defrauding the government is an affront to American taxpayers. Defrauding the government during a pandemic at a time when millions of hardworking entrepreneurs struggled to make payroll and rent is pouring salt in a wound, Simonton said. These defendants allegedly conspired to

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