Category:

Non-Life

Prevalence of COVID-19’s Delta variant among specimens sequenced over past 4 weeks exceeded 75 per cent: WHO

“According to GISAID data, as of 20 July, the prevalence of Delta among the specimens sequenced over the past 4 weeks exceeded 75 percent in many countries worldwide including Australia, Bangladesh, Botswana, China, Denmark, India, Indonesia, Israel, Portugal, Russian Federation, Singapore South Africa, and the United Kingdom,” the update said.

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From China to Germany, floods expose climate vulnerability

“Governments should first realize that the infrastructure they have built in the past or even recent ones are vulnerable to these extreme weather events,” said Eduardo Araral, associate professor and co-director, Institute of Water Policy, at Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy
. In Europe, climate change is likely to increase the number of large, slow-moving storms that can linger longer in one area and deliver deluges of the kind seen in Germany and Belgium, according to a study published https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2020GL092361 June 30 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

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World Bank signs $125 million to support Resilient Kerala Program

The Resilient Kerala Program will focus on two key areas.

First, it will incorporate disaster risk planning in the master plans of urban and local self-governments to ease financial constraints on the state government when faced with unexpected shocks. Second, it will help make the health, water resources management, agriculture, and road sectors more resilient to calamities.

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48.68 crore Covid vaccine doses manufactured in India: Govt

Under the ”Mission COVID Suraksha, facility augmentation for production of Covaxin is being supported, whereby Bharat Biotech and three public sector enterprises (PSEs) — Haffkine Biopharmaceutical Corporation Limited in Mumbai, Indian Immunologicals Limited (IIL) in Hyderabad and Bharat Immunologicals Biologicals Limited (BIBCOL) in Bulandshahr — are being supported.

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Psychiatric patients at increased risk of Covid-19 hospitalisation, mortality: Study

Individuals with psychotic disorders and mood disorders, as well as patients receiving treatment with antipsychotics or anxiolytics (anxiety-reducing drugs) appeared as the most vulnerable groups for Covid-19-associated mortality. Patients with substance use disorders were also at increased risk for hospitalisation following Covid-19.

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India’s healthcare infrastructure has many gaps, adversely impacts the lives of  marginalised people : Oxfam Study

India’s healthcare infrastructure has many gaps, adversely impacts the lives of  marginalised people : Oxfam Study

Noting that 63 million people are pushed into poverty every year due to health costs, the report said 67.8 per cent of total expenditure on health in India was paid out of pocket, while the world average is just 18.2 per cent.

The availability of free medicines in public healthcare facilities has declined from 31.2 per cent to 8.9 per cent for in-patient care and from 17.8 per cent to 5.9 per cent for out-patient care over the last two decades, the report said.

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World Bank provides $185million to Jamaica in storm protection

Dr The Hon. Nigel Clarke, Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Government of Jamaica, said, “The Government of Jamaica has strategically prioritized Disaster Risk Financing to mitigate the adverse fiscal impact of tropical cyclones and natural disasters, thereby strengthening Jamaica’s economic resilience. We are pleased with the successful placement of this catastrophe bond, which adds an indispensable layer of disaster risk financing that complements our multi-layered approach. In this transaction, Jamaica benefited from the vast technical resources of the World Bank, and from the strength of its balance sheet. We are also grateful to our bilateral partners, the Governments of the United Kingdom and Germany, through the Global Risk Financing Facility, and to the United States through the United States Agency of International Development who provided financial support for the transaction.”

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Final settlement for Brazil’s Samarco dam disaster could reach $19 bln, governor says

That estimate is nearly four times higher than an initial deal struck with mining companies in 2016, which created a foundation to implement reparations and temporarily froze lawsuits relating to the incident. “The expectation is that the agreement is around 100 billion reais,” Romeu Zema, governor of Minas Gerais, told Reuters in an interview late on Friday.

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