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Pandemic

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India’s Covid deaths could double in coming weeks, forecasters warn

While coronavirus cases can be hard to predict, particularly in a sprawling nation like India, the forecasts reflect the urgent need for India to step up public health measures like testing and social distancing. Even if the worst estimates are avoided, India could suffer the world’s biggest Covid-19 death toll. The U.S currently has the largest number of fatalities at around 578,000.

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Two pandemics clash as doctors find that Covid spurs diabetes

Among Covid-19’s many ripple effects, the worsening of the global diabetes burden could carry a heavy public-health toll. The underlying mechanisms stoking new-onset diabetes aren’t clear, though some doctors suspect the Sars-CoV-2 virus may damage the pancreas, the gland that makes insulin which is needed to convert blood sugar into energy.

Sedentary lifestyles brought on by lockdowns could also be playing a role, as might late diagnoses after people avoided doctors’ offices. Even some children’s mild coronavirus cases can be followed by the swift onset of diabetes, scientists found.

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Global e-commerce jumps to $26.7 trillion, fuelled by COVID-19

The digital retail economy experienced the most growth in the Republic of Korea, where internet sales increased from around one in five transactions in 2019 to more than one in four last year.

The UK also saw a spike in online transactions over the same period, from 15.8 to 23.3 per cent; so too did China (from 20.7 to 24.9 per cent), the US (11 to 14 per cent), Australia (6.3 to 9.4 per cent), Singapore (5.9 to 11.7 per cent) and Canada (3.6 to 6.2 per cent).
“These statistics show the growing importance of online activities”, said Shamika Sirimanne, UNCTAD’s director of technology and logistics. “They also point to the need for countries, especially developing ones, to have such information as they rebuild their economies in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

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HC asks Centre why it should not face contempt for failing to supply oxygen

A bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Palli also rejected the Centre’s submission that Delhi was not entitled to 700 metric tonnes of medical oxygen in light of existing medical infrastructure.
“We see grim reality everyday of people not able to secure oxygen or ICU beds in hospitals which have reduced beds due to gas shortage, the high court said.

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Pfizer lifts sales forecast for coronavirus vaccine to $26 billion

The raised goal assumes 1.6 billion doses of vaccine, which is co-developed with BioNTech SE, will be delivered in the year, with the two-shot vaccine emerging as the best-selling product for the U.S. drugmaker in the first quarter.
“Based on what we’ve seen, we believe that a durable demand for our COVID-19 vaccine – similar to that of the flu vaccines – is a likely outcome,” Chief Executive Albert Bourla said in his prepared remarks.

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Maruti Suzuki cuts production as car sales fall due to Covid lockdown

The problem is on the “sales side because in several states there is a partial lockdown and there’s a curfew in some states and the dealers who sell the cars are having to close down,” Maruti Chairman R.C. Bhargava said in an interview with Bloomberg Television on Tuesday. “Half the sales outlets are closed at the moment.”India’s largest carmaker was producing at full capacity before it also decided to shut some plants in order to divert oxygen to hospitals last week.

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