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US govt to invest $3.2bn to develop pills to treat Covid

The new programme, coming on top of the $18 billion success story that resulted in effective vaccines in record time, will create platforms that will initially target coronaviruses, and then could be expanded to other viruses with pandemic potential – helping to better prepare the nation for future viral threats, the US department of health and human services announced on Thursday.

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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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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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Global life insurance outlook revised to stable amid brightening growth prospects:Moody’s

“Strong solvency capital ratios globally underpin our view of the outlook,” Moody’s Vice President Manoj Jethani says.

“Although pandemic mortality continues to weaken profitability, the overall impact on the credit profile of life insurers has been less severe than originally expected due to differences in demographics of the general versus the insured population, as well the benefits of diversification from longevity-type insurance products, ” he adds.

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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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