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Health

1 in 4 global Covid-19 deaths occurred in Americas: Pan American Health Organization

“One in four Covid deaths reported worldwide last week took place right here, in the Americas. Nearly every country in Central America is reporting a rise in infections,” said Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Director Carissa Etienne..

For the first time, Canada’s infection rates have surpassed the US Covid-19 infection rates, the PAHO director informed.

The surge of infections is being led by new Covid-19 variants, which slow vaccination rollouts, due to lack of vaccine availability, are also providing major setbacks for a number of countries in the Americas.

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India will need 5 lakh ICU beds, 3.5 lakh medical staff in next few weeks, says Dr Devi Shetty

While most of the newspaper headlines and prime time television coverage has been over the lack of oxygen for the patients in ICUs, “I am having sleepless nights for the next headline, which is going to be that patients are dying in ICUs because there are no nurses and doctors to take care of the patients. And this is going to happen. I do not doubt it now,” said Dr Devi Prasad Shetty, the chairman and founder of Narayana Health, a chain of 21 medical centres in India, in his online address at the Symbiosis Golden Jubilee Lecture Series in Pune recently.
At present, India has only 75,000 to 90,000 ICU beds and almost all are already occupied – when the second wave of the pandemic hasn’t even reached its peak yet, he said. India is reporting about 3.5 lakh cases a day, and some experts say the number could go up to 5 lakh cases daily at its peak.

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US advises its citizens in India to leave as soon as it is safe to do so amid sharp rise in COVID-19 cases

In a health alert, the US Embassy in New Delhi said: ”Access to all types of medical care is becoming severely limited in India due to the surge in Covid-19 cases.” ”We urge US citizens to enrol in STEP (Smart Traveler Enrollment Programme) at step.state.gov in order to receive critical information from the Embassy related to health and safety in India,” it said.

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India’s GDP to grow at 11% this fiscal, surge in COVID cases may put economic recovery at risk: ADB

For FY2022, India’s GDP is expected to expand at 7 per cent, it added.
China’s gross domestic product (GDP) is forecast to expand 8.1 per cent in 2021 and 5.5 per cent in 2022. East Asia’s GDP is expected to grow 7.4 per cent in 2021 and 5.1 per cent in 2022, it said.

Further, it said the gross domestic product (GDP) of South Asia is expected to rebound to 9.5 per cent this year, following a contraction of 6 per cent in 2020, before moderating to 6.6 per cent next year (2022), it said.

ADB said the economic growth in developing Asia is set to rebound to 7.3 per cent this year, supported by a healthy global recovery and an early progress on COVID-19 vaccines. The projected resurgence follows a 0.2 per cent contraction last year.

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UN offered its integrated supply chain to help India fight Covid: Spokesman

Farhan Haq, Deputy Spokesman for the UN chief said 11 help desks and on-site counselling activities on COVID-19 prevention and business continuity were set up by the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and these have benefitted over 140,000 employees.

UNIDO also developed an online platform to help companies bounce back from the crisis, tailored to smaller businesses, while ILO helped over 100,000 self-employed workers to access social security measures and training on safety and health.

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