In a surprising development, The Insurance Bill, 2023,’ drafted by...
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The next big advance in cancer treatment could be a vaccine
Drugmakers Moderna and Merck are jointly developing a personalized...
“Govt refused foreign-made Covid vaccines as firms were demanding indemnity” Union Health minister
Mansukh Mandaviya,Union Health Minister The minister also dismissed...
India’s services sector loses more steam in December, job cuts resume
Job market conditions darkened, slipping back into contraction, although the pace of job shedding remained minimal.
“Given the damaging impact of the pandemic on the service economy, some companies are facing financial difficulties, which is preventing staff hiring. December saw the ninth round of job shedding in ten months,” said Pollyanna De Lima, economics associate director at IHS Markit
India’s proposed changes to anti-smoking law face objections from tobacco industry
India released draft changes to its tobacco-control law over the weekend to ban smoking zones in hotels, restaurants and airports. The proposal also calls for increasing the minimum legal smoking age from 18 to 21.
The draft changes have also tightened existing provisions to ban advertising at kiosks and prohibit sale of loose cigarette sticks, which form the bulk of the sales, health activists said.
If implemented, the plan is seen hitting sales of companies such as ITC, Godfrey Phillips India and a unit of Philip Morris International which operate in the country’s $12 billion cigarette market, executives said.
EU regulator approves Moderna vaccine as fears grow over virus variants
The EU has ordered 160 million doses of the shot developed by Moderna, a U.S. biotech company, enough to vaccinate 80 million people in its 27 member states.
Health min warns people against fake Co-WIN apps, says govt-approved app will be launched soon
”Some apps named ‘Co-WIN’ apparently created by unscrupulous elements to sound similar to upcoming official platform of Government, are on Appstores. DO NOT download or share personal information on these. MoHFW Official platform will be adequately publicised on its launch,” the Union Health ministry tweeted.
Peruvian minister raises ‘controversy’ over Pfizer vaccine liability clause
Several other countries, including Brazil and Argentina, have raised concerns about liability waivers in their negotiations with Pfizer.
World Bank officials said on Tuesday they were working with countries to address the liability waiver issue which they said had emerged as one of the key obstacles to sealing vaccine supply deals.
Criticism mounts over India’s ‘abrupt’ approval of COVAXIN
Regulators also granted approval to Bharat Biotech’s vaccine only “in clinical trial mode”, unusually cryptic language that left some experts baffled.
All Indian vaccines being developed for storage at 2-8 degree Celsius: DBT secretary
Unlike the Pfizer and Moderna which requires a minus 70 degree celsius (cold) chain, this (the Biological E’s vaccine candidate) is basically at the 2-8 degree Celsius, department of biotechnology secretary Renu Swarup said
Ready to roll out COVID-19 vaccine within 10 days of emergency use authorisation: Govt
Bhushan further said that Co-WIN has the facility of automated session allocation, Aadhaar authentication to prevent malpractice, creation of Unique Health ID for willing beneficiaries, reporting and tracking of adverse events following immunization, if any, SMSes in 12 languages to guide beneficiaries and vaccinators, QR code-based vaccination certificate issued after all doses, DigiLocker integrated for data retrieval and storing QR code-based certificate, 24×7 Helpline including IT professionals.
Bird flu: J-K, K’taka, Tamil Nadu on alert; culling of chickens and ducks starts in Kerala
In Madhya Pradesh, officials said that 155 dead crows in Indore have been found with the H5N8 strain since the pathogen was first detected in the city a week back, while in Rajasthan, after Jhalwar, birds in Kota and Baran were found with the infection. However, no cases have been reported yet in Maharashtra, which shares borders with Madhya Pradesh.
Speedy distribution of Covid-19 vaccine a major challenge for global govts: WHO experts
Currently, there are 45 candidate vaccines in clinical evaluation and 156 candidate vaccines in pre-clinical evaluation, the WHO scientists said.
This daunting challenge is not only for India but also for all the governments across the globe as they start inoculating their populations to tackle the pandemic, noted Dr Soumya Swaminathan, Chief Scientist of WHO, and Dr Hamsadvani Kuganantham, Consultant, WHO.