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Eco/Invest/Demography

Centre allows employees with medical qualification to undertake practice, teleconsultation

“In view of the unprecedented rise in the numbers of COVID-19 cases, and to utilise the in-house capabilities available in the government to contain the spread of COVID-19 virus and to provide relief to the public, it has been decided that the central government employees holding recognised qualifications in any system of medicine requires no permission from the Head of Departments (HoDs) concerned to undertake practice/provide teleconsultation,” it said.

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India records 362,727 new coronavirus cases and 4,120 deaths

The active cases have increased to 37,10,525 comprising 15.65 per cent of the total infections.

The national COVID-19 recovery rate has improved to 83.26 per cent, the data updated at 8 am showed.
Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh are among 10 states that account for 72.42 per cent of the 3,62,727 new cases in the country in a span of 24 hours, the Union Health Ministry said on Thursday.

Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Rajasthan are the other states in the list of 10.

Maharashtra reported the highest daily new cases at 46,781. It is followed by Kerala with 43,529 while Karnataka reported 39,998 new cases.

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World accepts much-maligned China’s Covid-19 vaccine but doubts remain

By January, Sinovac’s vaccine had seen four different efficacy rates — ranging from as high as 91% to as low as 50% — triggering concern among scientists and putting a question mark over its ability to protect against the virus still paralyzing the globe.

Sinovac has already shipped some 380 million doses, more than AstraZeneca Plc and second only to Pfizer Inc. worldwide. But unlike those companies — and even Russia’s Sputnik shot — it still hasn’t published any data in an academic journal, the gold standard experts use to assess a vaccine.

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EU regulator to test insurers for prolonged COVID economic hit

The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) said it will test 44 insurers and reinsurers for their resilience to the economic consequences of the pandemic and a “lower for longer” interest rate landscape.

Insurers are exposed to the economic environment through the returns they can earn from investing insurance premiums, as well as from the level of demand for their products.

“We are still in the middle of the crisis,” EIOPA Executive Director Fausto Parente told a media conference.

“The insurance sector is for sure not immune.”

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Global renewable energy grew at fastest pace in two decades in 2020 – IEA

New renewable energy capacity in 2020 rose by 45% to 280 gigawatts (GW) last year, the largest year-on-year increase since 1999, even though there were supply chain disruptions and construction delays due to the impact of COVID-19.

China accounted for 50% of renewable energy capacity growth last year and will account for 45% this year and 58% in 2022, the report said.

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Alarmed by deaths of teachers, AMU VC writes to ICMR for study of COVID variant

In a letter to the director general of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the VC said 16 serving and 18 retired teachers besides other employees of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) have succumbed to the infection in the past 18 days. There is a possibility that ”a particular variant may be circulating in areas around the AMU campus and surrounding localities, which has led to these deaths”, he said, stressing the need for the study to control the spread of the virus.

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