Category:

Non-Life

India finds five with coronavirus on UK flight, testing for strain

The discovery of the new strain, just months before vaccines are expected to be widely available, sowed new panic in a pandemic that has killed about 1.7 million people worldwide and more than 67,000 in Britain.At least two other flights from Britain have landed in India since the announcement of the flight ban, one in Mumbai and the other in the northern city of Amritsar.

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Scientists say UK strain unlikely to affect efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines, warn against more mutations

According to Jeremy Farrar, director of the London-based research charity Wellcome Trust UK, there is no indication at the moment that the new strain would evade treatments and vaccines.

However, the mutation is a reminder of the power of the virus to adapt, and that cannot be ruled out in the future. Acting urgently to reduce transmission is critical, Farrar said in a statement.

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44% rural Indians willing to pay for COVID-19 vaccine; 51% consider coronavirus ‘Chinese conspiracy’: Survey

The survey, conducted by Gaon Connection among 6,040 rural respondents across 60 districts in 16 states and one union territory, found that 36 per cent said they would not want to pay for it. The remaining 20 per cent said they are yet to decide on paying for the vaccine.

Of those who were willing to pay, two-third said they can pay up to Rs 500 for two doses of the vaccine, whenever it is available.

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Emergency no 112 to be available for disaster relief in 2 yrs;alert protocol in 4 yrs: NDMA official

”The MHA (Ministry of Home Affairs) is working on public safety… it is 112 single number emergency response system. It is being implemented for police, fire emergency, women and child protection and the next evolution is for disaster on which we are working. This will be rolled in two year or so,” NDMA Advisor, Operations and Communications, Brig Ajay Gangwar said

he said the government is also working on priority call routing which will give precedence to officials and agencies that will be first point of response for relief and rescue operations during any disaster like earthquake, cyclone or floods. Gangwar said NDMA has done a pilot project for common alert protocol which sends out automated alerts to people and it will implemented across country in four years.

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GMR Hyderabad Air Cargo gears up for distribution of Covid-19 vaccines

“An infrastructure to handle the Covid-19 vaccine has been developed to enhance the capacity for handling the vaccine supply from and to Hyderabad. The dedicated work station has been set up at the terminals to handle this sensitive shipment of the vaccine. Temperature zone has been developed for maintaining the vaccine. The staff has been given special training to handle the shipment of vaccine right from the acceptance till the shipment reaches the destination,” said T. Purushottam Singh, General Manager, Head operations

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Delhi airport has a storage capacity of 2.7 million Covid-19 vaccine vials:CEO, Delhi International Airport

The Delhi airport has two cargo terminals with cool chambers where temperature can be set anywhere between -20 degrees Celsius to 25 degrees Celsius.
“We have a storage capacity of around 2.7 million vaccine vials at any moment of time. If we are able to conduct two rounds of distribution during a day, we can distribute 5.4 million vials daily,” . Videh Kumar Jaipuriar, the CEO of Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), said.
“These vaccines can come in an envirotainer which can be plugged in to keep the vaccines cool. We have made about 60 plug points where they can be plugged in and they can stay there at the same temperature,” Jaipuriar noted.

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