Category:

Non-Life

Blue sky thinking: 5 things to know about air pollution

Air pollution is also harming also harms our natural environment. It decreases the oxygen supply in our oceans, makes it harder for plants to grow, and contributes to climate change.Around 90 per cent of people go through their daily lives breathing harmful polluted air, which has been described by the United Nations as the most important health issue of our time. To mark the first International Day of Clean Air for blue skies, on 7 September, UN News explains how bad it is and what is being done to tackle it.

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Govt determined to vaccinate everyone by December this year: Union Minister Kishan Reddy

”We want to reach out to the last person to be vaccinated in the country, in the most remotest part by December this year. It is also a matter of great pride that India was one of the two countries which invented a vaccine for COVID, besides USA, this raised the stature of Indian scientists and the country in the world,” the release quoted Kishan Reddy as saying.

”As many as 153 countries have sought our vaccines and some even paid the respective companies advance amount, but the government placed an embargo on export till people in our country are vaccinated,” he said.

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One in every two families paid over Rs 750 for COVID antibody test in India: Survey

According to the survey, 29 per cent of the respondents said they paid Rs 1,000 or more during their COVID antibody test. Further, 21 per cent said they paid between Rs 750-1000 and 14 per cent said they paid between Rs 500-750.

While, 24 per cent said they paid Rs 250-500 and 7 per cent said they paid less than Rs 250. 5 per cent respondents did not say anything. “On an aggregate basis, 50 per cent of citizens who got a COVID antibody test done paid over Rs 750 for it,” said LocalCircles release.

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Covid-19 jabs effective at reducing severe illness, hospitalisation: Lancet

They found that of more than 1.2 million adults who received at least one dose of either the Pfizer-BioNTech, Oxford-AstraZeneca, or Moderna vaccine, fewer than 0.5 per cent reported a breakthrough infection over 14 days after their first dose.
People most vulnerable to a breakthrough infection after their first vaccine dose included frail older adults, 60 years and older, and those living with underlying conditions such as obesity, heart disease, kidney disease, and lung disease, they said.

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After dropping below one, Covid R-value rises sharply to 1.17 in second half of August

When the second wave swept through the country between March to May, the R-value was 1.37 (between March 9 to April 21). From May 15-June 26, the R-value stood at 0.78. However, it slowly started increasing — it was 0.88 from June 20-July 7, 0.95 from July 3-22, 0.96 from July 24-27. It breached the value of 1.03 for the first time after the second wave during July 27-31. However, since then it has slowly started to decline.

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