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No data shows need for booster vaccines presently: Dr Gagandeep Kang

According to Dr Kang, whether people will have more antibodies or be better protected with the booster dose is still not known.

“It sounds obvious that more antibodies (abs) are better but we really don’t know whether people who push up abs with additional doses will be better protected than with the level they initially made. Or that when abs wane, we need to boost to maintain above some level,” she said.

Further, she explained how people with a poor immune response should get a third dose,

Claim and counter-claim: health insurance key point of debate in pandemic

Health insurance companies received a total of 23.06 lakh claims from April 2020 till August 6, 2021, of which 13.19 lakh claims worth Rs 14,783 crore were received since April 1 this year, it said.

But why are claims being rejected? Giving the flip side of the picture, companies in the business said there are various reasons, including patients hiding pre-existing conditions or raising a claim before the waiting period of certain days after purchasing a policy.

COVID-19 caseload in India breaches 89-lakh mark

The number of active cases remained below 5 lakh for the eighth consecutive day.There are 4,46,805 active cases of coronavirus infection in the country as on date which comprises 5.01 per cent of the total caseload, the data stated.

The total recoveries have surged to 83,35,109 pushing the national recovery rate to 93.52 per cent, while the COVID-19 case fatality rate stands at 1.47 per cent.

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FDA approves first COVID-19 test kit for home use

The single-use test, made by Lucira Health, has been given emergency use authorization for home use with self-collected nasal swab samples in individuals aged 14 and older who are suspected of COVID-19 by their health care provider, the FDA said.“While COVID-19 diagnostic tests have been authorized for at-home collection, this is the first that can be fully self-administered and provide results at home,” FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn said.

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Dip in new COVID-19 cases, India records 29,163 infections in single day

The number of active cases remained below 5 lakh for the seventh consecutive day.There are 4,53,401 active cases of coronavirus infection in the country as?on date?which comprises 5.11 per cent of the total caseload,the data stated.?

The total recoveries have surged to 82,90,370 pushing the national recovery rate to 93.42 per cent,while the COVID-19 case fatality rate stands at 1.47 per cent

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Insurers are trying to escape COVID-19 liability, watchdog tells UK Supreme Cour

A lawyer for the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which brought a test case against insurers on behalf of policyholders, said insurers had reached an “extraordinary conclusion” that business losses were largely uncovered during the coronavirus pandemic because of the widespread havoc it has caused.

“(Insurers) are saying: ‘We insure perils but not ones that are going to cost us a huge amount of money. We never contemplated that’. Well, that isn’t an answer,” Colin Edelman, the FCA’s lawyer, told the second day of a four-day appeal, watched by thousands of businesses brought to their knees during the pandemic.

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Normalcy may return by winter 2021, says COVID-19 vaccine creator

A new COVID vaccine’s impact will work significantly over the summer and life should be back to normal by next winter, Prof Ugur Sahin, co-founder of BioNTech, whose vaccine candidate has proved to prevent over 90 per cent people from getting Covid-19, as per preliminary reports. The Pfizer-BioNTech is one of the 11 vaccines in their final tests.

This winter would still be hard, he said in an interview on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show.

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Moderna says its COVID-19 Vaccine is over 94% effective

A preliminary analysis of data from more than 30,000 volunteers showed Moderna’s vaccine prevented virtually all symptomatic cases of Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, the company said in a statement on Monday.
A key advantage of Moderna’s vaccine is that it does not need ultra-cold storage like Pfizer’s, making it easier to distribute. Moderna expects it to be stable at standard refrigerator temperatures of 2-8 degrees Celsius (36-48°F) for 30 days and it can be stored for up to 6 months at -20 degrees Celsius.

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Insurers cannot provide unlimited cover in pandemic, UK Supreme Court told

The case revolves around whether 21 policy wordings, affecting potentially 700 types of policies, 60 insurers, 370,000 policyholders and billions of pounds in claims, should cover disruption caused by the virus.

The wordings cover business interruption when insured premises cannot be accessed because of public authority restrictions, in the event of a notifiable disease within a specified radius and hybrid wordings.

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