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Eco/Invest/Demography

Global COVID-19 death toll exceeds 4 mln

The top five countries by total number of deaths – the United States, Brazil, India, Russia and Mexico – represent about 50% of all deaths in the world, while Peru, Hungary, Bosnia, the Czech Republic and Gibraltar have the highest death rates when adjusted for population. Countries in Latin America are facing their worst outbreak since March, with 43 of every 100 infections in the world being reported in the region, according to a Reuters analysis

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COVID-19 cases surge in Africa, less than 0.8% of fully vaccinated, say officials

New cases are up nearly 30% in the past week and deaths are up by 15%, she said, with five countries — South Africa, Tunisia, Zambia, Uganda and Namibia — accounting for 76% of the new cases. The continent of 1.3 billion people has not yet been battered with an emergency during the pandemic on the scale of that recently facing India, but officials including Moeti continue to warn that such a catastrophe could hit.
“Africa is in the midst of a full blown third wave…We’ve seen in India and elsewhere how quickly COVID-19 can rebound and overwhelm health systems,” Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa, told a news conference.

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Amid pandemic, number of people forced to flee homes has risen, says U.N.

“In the year of COVID, in a year in which movement was practically impossible for most of us… 3 million more people have been forcibly displaced,” U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi told Reuters. Nearly 70% of those affected are from just five countries – Syria, Venezuela, Afghanistan, South Sudan and Myanmar – according to the annual report on forced displacement by the U.N. Refugee Agency UNHCR.

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MHA operationalises national helpline, reporting platform for preventing cyber fraud

The helpline was soft launched on April 1, 2021. The helpline 155260 and its reporting platform has been made operational by the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) under the home ministry, with active support and cooperation from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), all major banks, payment banks, wallets and online merchants.

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India maintains 43rd rank on IMD’s World Competitiveness Index; Switzerland tops chart

”India’s improvements in the government efficiency factor are mostly due to relatively stable public finances (despite difficulties brought by the pandemic, in 2020 the government deficit stayed at 7 per cent) and to the positive feedbacks we registered among Indian business executives with respect to the support and subsidies provided by the government to the private companies,” IMD said.

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Possible third Covid wave unlikely to affect children, WHO-AIIMS survey reveals

The SARS-CoV-2 sero-positivity rate among children was high and were comparable to the adult population in the survey, which was conducted in five selected states with a total sample size of 10,000. Data of 4,500 participants were taken for the results of the time of midterm analysis from four states of India and more results are likely to come in the next two to three months.

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Committee on energy efficiency, low carbon technologies to be set up: Power Minister

“A Committee/Group to be set up having members from all relevant Ministries for implementation of the Roadmap on Energy Efficiency and low carbon technologies,” he said.

The minister said a concerted push for renewables is already underway and a detailed action plan will be developed to identify potential areas. Singh directed to keep the focus on sectors with the highest emissions intensity such as Transport, MSMEs and Power plants.

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