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Natural disasters surge in past 20 years, likely to continue to wreak havoc: U.N.
China (577) and the United States (467) recorded the highest number of disaster events from 2000 to 2019, followed by India (321), the Philippines (304) and Indonesia (278), the U.N. said in a report issued the day before the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction. Eight of the top 10 countries are in Asia.
Global leaders at UN meet: If virus does not kill us, climate change will
With Siberia seeing its warmest temperature on record this year and enormous chunks of ice caps in Greenland and Canada sliding into the sea, countries are acutely aware there’s no vaccine for global warming.
“We are already seeing a version of environmental Armageddon,” Fiji’s Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama said, citing wildfires in the western US and noting that the Greenland ice chunk was larger than a number of island nations.
Global COVID-19 death toll could hit 2 million before vaccine in wide use, WHO says
The number of deaths about nine months since the novel coronavirus was discovered in China is nearing 1 million.
“We are not out of the woods anywhere, we are not out of the woods in Africa,” said Ryan.
He said young people should not be blamed for a recent increase in infections despite growing concerns that they are driving its spread after restrictions and lockdowns were eased around the world.
The WHO is continuing talks with China about its possible involvement in the COVAX financing scheme designed to guarantee fast and equitable access globally to COVID-19 vaccines, a week after the deadline for committing passed.
Nearly seven crore tests conducted in India for detection of COVID-19
“Evidence has revealed that higher numbers of testing subsequently leads to lowered positivity rate. States that are testing the highest numbers are also reporting a gradual decline in the positivity rate,” the ministry said.
Steady rise in heavy rainfall events during 3 last years: Harsh Vardhan
Earth Sciences Minister Harsh Vardhan said studies show that the frequency of severe cyclones in the Arabian Sea has increased in recent years.
The data shows that there is a steady increase in the number of heavy rainfall events during the last three years, Vardhan said.
The frequency of cyclones too has seen a rise, he noted.
A fifth of countries worldwide at risk from ecosystem collapse as biodiversity declines, reveals pioneering Swiss Re index
39 countries have ecosystems in a fragile state on more than a
third of their land – Malta, Israel, Cyprus, Bahrain and Kazakhstan
have the lowest Biodiversity and Ecosystems Services (BES) ranking
• 55% of global GDP depends on high-functioning BES
• Major economies in Southeast Asia, Europe and the US exposed to
BES decline
Christian Mumenthaler, Swiss Re’s Group Chief Executive Officer, said: “There is a clear need to assess the state of ecosystems so that the global community can minimise further negative impact on economies across the world. This important piece of work provides a data-driven foundation for understanding the economic risks of deteriorating biodiversity and ecosystems. In turn, we can inform governmental decision-making to help improve ecosystem restoration and preservation. We can also support corporations and investors as they fortify themselves against environmental shocks. Armed with this information, we can also ensure the provision of stronger sustainable insurance services.“
India needs to invest ₹3K-5K crore to give all Indians Covid vaccine: Zydus Cadila chairman
The requirement of the vaccine doses is going to be very high. Given the fact almost all vaccines are going to work at least two doses, if we look at India’s population and decide to immunise 50 per cent of the population, we would require over 130 crore doses and that’s not the capacity anybody has.
Even if people have the capacity to produce, it cannot happen in one day. It can only happen over a long period,
said Zydus Cadila Chairman Pankaj R Patel.
Another challenge we would have is “how long the immunity will last with this vaccine? If the vaccine is going to give a long-term immunity, it will be wonderful, but if it provides short-term immunity then we will have to keep on immunising people again and again,” he added.
More than 150 nations join global vaccine plan,U.S.,but China absent
With some wealthier nations reticent over COVAX, the plan has highlighted the challenge of distributing vaccines equitably around a world of haves and have-nots.
The vaccine alliance said it expected another 38 wealthy countries to join the initiative in coming days.
It said it had received commitments for $1.4 billion towards vaccine research and development, but a further $700 million-$800 million was urgently needed.
AIR Worldwide Releases updated Multiple Peril Crop Insurance Model for China
An outbreak of African swine fever—a highly infectious and deadly disease—started impacting pigs in China in 2018, resulting in a loss of half of China’s 400 million pigs, or 40% of the world’s total agricultural pig population, as of the first half of 2020.
“China is a leading global producer of wood and paper products; the country’s forests can be insured under the national crop insurance scheme and incur large losses not only from extreme weather but also fire, pests, and disease,In addition, livestock (including poultry) policies now make up about a quarter of agricultural premiums in the country and have a large potential for losses. To get a comprehensive view of agricultural risk in China, companies must consider the risk to crops, forests, and livestock,”said Yizhong Qu, assistant vice president, AIR Worldwide China.
U.S. nears grim milestone of 200,000 COVID-19 deaths
The University of Washington’s health institute is forecasting coronavirus fatalities reaching 378,000 by the end of 2020, with the daily death toll skyrocketing to 3,000 per day in December.
Over 70% of those in the United States who have lost their lives to the virus were over the age of 65, according to CDC data.
The southern states of Texas and Florida contributed the most deaths in the United States in the past two weeks and were closely followed by California.
California, Texas and Florida – the three most populous U.S. states – have recorded the most coronavirus infections and have long surpassed the state of New York, which was the epicenter of the outbreak in early 2020. The country as a whole is reporting over 40,000 new infections on average each day and saw cases last week rise on a weekly basis after falling for eight weeks in a row.