Category:

Policy

Health Ministry partners with Google to enhance people’s access to COVID-19 vaccine

Starting this week, for over 13,000 locations across the country, people will be able to get more helpful information about vaccine availability and appointments — powered by real-time data from the CoWIN APIs (application programming interfaces). This includes information such as availability of appointment slots at each center, vaccines and doses offered (dose 1 or dose 2), expectations for pricing (paid or free) and the link to the CoWIN website for booking.

The above information will automatically show up when users search for vaccine centres near them, or in any specific area – across Google Search, Maps and Google Assistant.

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Number of people with dementia set to jump 40% to 78 mln by 2030 -WHO

Only one in four countries has a national policy in place to support dementia patients and their families, it said, urging governments to step up to the public health challenge.

“Dementia robs millions of people of their memories, independence and dignity, but it also robs the rest of us of the people we know and love,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general.

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German companies not allowed to check on employees’ vaccine status

But Germany has strict data privacy laws because of its history of Nazi and Communist state surveillance of citizens, meaning that companies have no right to find out about health issues relating to their staff.

German businesses have been pushing to be able to ask staff about vaccination and the government is trying to get more people to get the shots as infections rise again. Almost 61% of the population has had both shots and 65% at least one.

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New Zealand’s Auckland stays in lockdown, officials report Pfizer-linked death

The health ministry on Monday announced a woman had died due to myocarditis, which is known to be a rare side effect of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. Myocarditis is an inflammation of the heart muscle that can limit the organ’s ability to pump blood and can cause changes in heartbeat rhythms. The health ministry did not provide the woman’s age. Pfizer in New Zealand did not immediately reply to an emailed request for comment.
Moderna Inc’s COVID-19 vaccine contamination woes in Japan have widened with another million doses being suspended after foreign substances were found in more batches and two people died following shots from affected lots.

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FSDC meeting on Sep 3; to take stock of economy, financial sector

The Reserve Bank of India Governor, and the heads of the Securities and Exchange Board of India, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India, Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority, and International Financial Services Centres Authority are also members of the FSDC.Sources also said that the finance minister may ask financial sector regulators to relax and harmonise investment norms for instruments like infrastructure investment trusts (InvITs) to be used to monetise public assets like highways, power and railway tracks.

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Govt brings new ‘BH’ registration series for personal vehicles to ensure seamless transfer across states

”This vehicle registration facility under ‘Bharat series (BH-series)’ will be available on voluntary basis to defense personnel, employees of central government/ state government/ central/ state public sector undertakings and private sector companies/organisations, which have their offices in four or more states/union territories,” the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) said in a statement. This scheme, it said, will facilitate free movement of personal vehicles across states/union territories of India upon relocation.

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