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Asia accelerates AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine rollouts, even as trust plunges in Europe

The AstraZeneca shot was among the first and cheapest of the Covid-19 vaccines to be developed and launched at volume and is set to be the mainstay of vaccination programmes in much of the developing world.

But its brief suspension raised concerns that a slowdown in vaccination rollouts could hurt the global fight against the pandemic, as coronavirus cases surge in some countries, overwhelming healthcare systems and hurting economies.

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Prepare for the next pandemic, says WHO scientist

“We’ve seen time and time again that products developed in high income countries take decades to find their way to low income countries. This has happened with influenza pandemics, with HIV, and with hepatitis B vaccines.

It took 30 years for hepatitis B vaccines to get to developing countries and that’s exactly the reason why COVAX [the UN-led scheme to distribute two billion COVID-19 vaccines to mostly poorer countries] was set up, to make sure that as vaccines get developed, that there’s also equity in access.

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India records 43,846 new COVID-19 cases in last 24 hours, highest single day spike this year.

The daily rise in infections was the highest recorded in 115 days. The death toll increased to 1,59,755 with 197 daily new fatalities, the highest in 97 days, the data updated at 8 am showed.As many as 44,489 new infections were recorded in a span of 24 hours on November 26.
As India witnessed the highest daily tally of COVID-19 cases this year, the Union Health Ministry said on Sunday that Maharashtra, Kerala, Punjab, Karnataka, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh account for 83.14 per cent of the new infections.

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UN World Happiness Report 2021: India ranks 139 out of 149 nations, Pakistan happier at 105

The World Happiness Report 2021, issued by the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, focuses on the effects of Covid-19 and how people all over the world have fared.Finland has been ranked as the happiest country in the world. The Nordic nation is followed by Iceland, Denmark, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Sweden, Germany and Norway.

Pakistan is on 105th, Bangladesh on 101st and China on 84th, according to the report.

People in war-torn Afghanistan are the most unhappy with their lives, followed by Zimbabwe (148), Rwanda (147), Botswana (146) and Lesotho (145).

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