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One in 20 people suffer long-term effects of COVID-19: Study
The research, published recently in the journal Nature...
Indian women prefer savings plans among life insurance products: Tata AIA survey
72% of women believe life insurance is integral to their financial...
Almost all COVID-19 patients develop antibodies: WHO
“What we understand is 90 to 100 per cent of people who are infected with the virus do develop an antibody response, whether you have mild infection or asymptomatic infection all the way to severe infection. And we’re still learning how long that antibody response lasts, how strong it is, how it relates to immunity from another infection, and how long that lasts,” Van Kerkhove, an expert on epidemiology, said at a virtual press briefing.
They don’t need me now’: COVID impact forcing Britons to food banks
“If you look at what’s happened over the last seven months, the queues have got significantly longer, the nature of the guests who are queuing up … it’s changed to families as well as those who were living on the streets,” said Alexander Shahid Khan, a banker who volunteers at a food bank in London.
“So you can definitely see that the effects of COVID has meant there’s a lot of people suffering from income and food poverty at the moment.”
On World AIDS Day, South Africa finds hope in new treatment
In her World AIDS Day message, UNAIDS executive director Winnie Byanyima lamented the fact that more than 12 million people are still waiting to get on HIV treatment, while 1.7 million people were infected with HIV in 2019 because of lack of access.
She called on companies to “openly share their technology and know-how and to waive their intellectual property rights” so that the world can produce vaccines, including for Covid-19, at the scale required. There is no vaccine for HIV.
World food price index jumps in November to almost six-year high – FAO
The Food and Agriculture Organization’s food price index, which measures monthly changes for a basket of cereals, oilseeds, dairy products, meat and sugar, averaged 105.0 points last month, versus a slightly revised 101.0 in October.
Swiss central bank says wholesale digital currency trial a success
The Swiss National Bank has been sceptical about digital currencies like Facebook’s Diem project, formerly known as Libra, saying they could undermine its ability to conduct monetary policy and achieve its goal of price stability
Facebook bans false claims about COVID-19 vaccines
“This could include false claims about the safety, efficacy, ingredients or side effects of the vaccines. For example, we will remove false claims that COVID-19 vaccines contain microchips,” the company said in a blog post. It said it would update the claims it removes based on evolving guidance from public health authorities.
Odisha launches single emergency helpline ‘112’
The ‘112’ integrates emergency services such as police, ambulance, fire department and women’s helpline under a Centre-sponsored scheme that is already functional in several states, officials said.
Battery costs fall, make electric vehicles cheaper – BMI
BMI estimates that between 2014 and 2017 the price of battery cells fell 16.5% per annum, but between 2017 and 2020 the drop was only 5.8% per annum.
“We may have seen the last of the big easy wins for lithium-ion battery producers in reducing cost.It is now about reducing and stabilising the cost of your biggest input raw materials such as lithium, nickel, graphite, cobalt and manganese,”,”BMI Managing Director Simon Moores said.
Japan residents to get free Covid-19 vaccine
The country has secured Covid-19 vaccines for 60 million people from pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, and for a further 25 million people from biotech firm Moderna.
COVID-19 worsens Europe’s inequalities in yet another way – the fertility gap
Evidence suggests the coronavirus is deterring would-be parents from conceiving in most of Europe, but especially in the southern countries – from Italy to Greece – where safety nets are weakest and the birth rate was already in strong decline.