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Alcohol policies need sharper focus on gender, WHO says
After broad successes in tackling the public health impact of other...
SC seeks Centre’s response on PIL seeking palliative care as part of national health programme
Terming the plea "genuine", the bench sought the Centre's response...
Air passenger volumes remain weak in contrast to robust cargo demand: AAPA
More than a year into the pandemic, strict border restrictions and quarantine measures continue to have a devastating impact on international air travel, said Subhas Menon, AAPA Director General.
“By contrast, air cargo remains the single bright spot for the region’s airlines, with strong external demand boosting cargo revenue. However, this remains largely insufficient in mitigating the drastic fall in passenger volumes.” Menon said progress in vaccination rollouts across the region remains slow as many countries still face challenges in procuring supplies and suffer from resource constraints.
Vaccine inequity causes ‘dangerous divergence’ in COVID survival rates – UN agency heads
“These countries, the majority of which are in Africa, simply cannot access sufficient vaccine to meet even the global goals of 10 per cent coverage in all countries by September and 40 per cent by end 2021, let alone the African Union’s goal of 70 per cent in 2022”, the UN officials said.
The hybrid work revolution after Covid-19 is already transforming economies
While a more permanent transformation of working life will have painful consequences for many inner-city businesses, economists see a recalibration underway that can revitalize smaller towns and suburbs. New digital tools mean that retail and hospitality — as well as knowledge-intensive industries — are already undergoing far-reaching change.
Working from home around one day a week will boost productivity by 4.8% as the post-Covid economy takes shape, according to a recent study of more than 30,000 U.S. employees co-authored by José María Barrero of Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México and others. Much of that one-off increase is projected to come from reduced commuting time, a factor not usually captured by economists.
Contaminant in Moderna vaccines suspected to be metallic particles -NHK
Japan on Thursday suspended the use of 1.63 million doses shipped to 863 vaccination centres nationwide, more than a week after the domestic distributor, Takeda Pharmaceutical (4502.T), received reports of contaminants in some vials.
The NHK report, published late on Thursday, cited ministry sources as saying the particle reacted to magnets and was therefore suspected to be a metal. Moderna has described it as “particulate matter” that did not pose a safety or efficacy issue.
‘Vax protection against Covid-19 wanes in 6 mths’
Under a worst-case future scenario, protection could fall below 50% for older people and health workers by the winter, Tim Spector, ZOE co-founder and principal investigator, said.
High blood pressure driven by obesity, poverty – WHO study
Hypertension can be easily diagnosed by monitoring blood pressure, and treated with low-cost drugs, but half of affected people are unaware of their condition which is left untreated, the WHO and Imperial College London said in a joint study published in The Lancet.
While hypertension rates have changed little in 30 years, the caseload has shifted to lower-income countries as wealthy nations have brought it largely under control, the study said.
The world economy’s supply chain problem keeps getting worse
The cost of sending a container from Asia to Europe is about 10 times higher than in May 2020, while the cost from Shanghai to Los Angeles has grown more than sixfold, according to the Drewry World Container Index. The global supply chain has become so fragile that a single, small accident “could easily have its effects compounded,” HSBC Holdings PLC. said in a note.
Indian aviation watchdog plans tough new drug abuse rules
Wednesday’s draft rules require random drug tests of flight crew and air traffic controllers, to ensure testing of at least 5% of the total employees of airlines and others in a year. Positive tests will lead to an employee being “immediately removed from the safety-sensitive duty till a confirmatory report is received”, the draft showed.
Celebrate festivals with caution, second Covid wave not yet over: Centre
The government said 41 districts in India were reporting a COVID-19 weekly positivity rate of more than 10 per cent.
According to the government, 58.4 per cent of the total COVID-19 cases last week were reported from Kerala.
”Kerala is the only state reporting over 1 lakh active COVID-19 cases, while four states have 10,000 to 1 lakh active cases and 31 states have less than 10,000 active cases,” it said.
India’s wearable mkt logs over 118% growth to 11.2 mn units in Q2: IDC
The second wave of COVID-19 had a marginal impact as the overall wearable (which includes smartwatches, wrist bands and earwear) shipments declined by 1.3 per cent sequentially in the June quarter. Partial lockdowns, weekend curfews, and disrupted supply chains resulted in a skewed slump in the early-quarter shipments, IDC said.