India must be prepared for another Covid-19 outbreak, said an expert on Friday, August 30, amid rise in cases in several countries, including the US and South Korea.
According to estimates from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Covid infections are increasing across 25 states in the country. South Korea is also seeing an outbreak with a significant number of related hospitalizations.
Meta Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg, in a letter to the House Judiciary Committee, has alleged that the Biden-Harris administration “repeatedly pressurized” the company to censor posts related to Covid.
He further said that the platform had to make some changes, that “with the benefit of hindsight and new information”, they won’t make today. Zuckerberg also said he ‘regrets’ not being “more outspoken” about it.
In a freewheeling conversation with Microsoft Co-Founder Bill Gates, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi highlighted important measures that should be taken while using Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the contemporary technological world, and said that the world should establish some dos and don’ts for using this technology.
In a major discovery, a team of scientists discovered disruption to the blood vessels in the brains of patients suffering from Long Covid and ‘brain fog’. The team from Trinity College Dublin showed that this blood vessel “leakiness” was able to objectively distinguish those patients with brain fog and cognitive decline compared to patients suffering from Long Covid but not with brain fog.
One in nine adults in the US who have ever had Covid-19 continue to experience Long Covid with a wide range of symptoms, according to new data of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). To bolster Long Covid research efforts, the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced on Tuesday that it is investing an additional $515 million over the next four years into the Researching Covid to Enhance Recovery (RECOVER) Initiative, a nationwide research program to fully understand, diagnose and treat Long Covid.
US pharma giant Pfizer’s antiviral drug Paxlovid (Nirmatrelvir-ritonavir) does not reduce the risk of developing long Covid for vaccinated, non-hospitalised individuals, according to a study.
A team of researchers from the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) revealed that among Paxlovid users, a higher proportion of individuals with acute symptoms rebound and test-positivity than previously reported.
Hospitals in at least five states have brought back mask mandates, as the United States is grappling with a fresh wave of Covid-19 cases, driven by the highly transmissible JN.1 variant, as well as flu. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in its latest update before Christmas stated that JN.1 has become the dominant variant in the US.
Indian American civic entrepreneur Harbir Bhatia who recently took over as CEO of Silicon Valley Central Chamber of Commerce (SVCCC) has already put plans in place for infusing new vigor into the organization and revitalizing the economy by fostering entrepreneurship. In fact, it is for the first time in SVCCC’s history that both the chairperson (Elnaz Masoom) and the CEO are women.
SARS‐CoV‐2 infection causes inflammation that can lead to significant changes in bone structure, according to a study in mice. The study, published in the Journal of Orthopaedic Research, is the first to suggest that people with Covid‐19 may experience long‐term orthopaedic issues, such as decreased bone mass, increased fracture risk, and other musculoskeletal complications.
The new president of the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI) took charge along with other office bearers during a convention in Philadelphia. She promised to foster improved access to healthcare.
A team of Indian-origin American researchers has developed a real-time monitor that can detect any of the SARS-CoV-2 virus variants in a room in about five minutes. The inexpensive, proof-of-concept device, developed by combining recent advances in aerosol sampling technology and an ultrasensitive biosensing technique, could also potentially monitor for other respiratory virus aerosols, such as influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
Global Indian Technology Professionals Association (Gitpro) World 2023, the eighth annual daylong conference on technology and entrepreneurship, and the first one after the pandemic, drew accomplished speakers from startups to large enterprises and tech students who were keen to learn about emerging technology.
Australian researchers, including one of Indian-origin, have developed a new drug that could help long Covid symptoms including fatigue, breathlessness and brain fog, affecting between 10 per cent and 20 per cent of the millions infected with Covid-19.
Partha Chakraborty says: Taken together, the US, India, and Israel create a formidable triumvirate that is willing and able to counter any concentration of power in any other emerging axis. Taken together, they form the biggest – and the most distributed – center of economic heft and the promise of its peoples. Taken together, they can bring a fight to the doorstep to any demon and make Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) a multi-dimensional chase, and hence more potent. Taken together, they are the emerging guardians of the world, bigger than any Thanos, more persuasive than any Dr. No, more creative than your worst imagination.
India is fast emerging as a key global aviation market, according to the latest market analysis report of the International Air Transport Association ( ATA). India’s domestic air travel has continued to grow robustly and as of February, it was a mere 2.2 per cent shy of reaching pre-pandemic levels measured by passenger revenue kilometres (PRK).
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) in its flagship World Economic Outlook projected that India will be the fastest growing economy in the world amid financial sector turmoil, high inflation, ongoing effects of the Russia-Ukraine war, and three years of COVID.
The global economy is heading for the weakest period of growth since 1990 as higher interest rates set by the world’s top central banks drive up borrowing costs for households and businesses, the head of the International Monetary Fund has warned.
On April 3, India reported 3,641 infections, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. On Saturday, it reported 3,824 new Covid-19 infections — the biggest single-day rise in about 184 days.
The US Senate has passed a bill to end the national Covid-19 emergency which was declared by former President Donald Trump on March 13, 2020. The 68-23 vote on Wednesday was overwhelmingly bipartisan and the joint resolution, which cleared the House earlier this year, now heads to President Joe Biden.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is expected to pause their interest rate hike and the current 6.5 per cent repo rate could be the terminal rate for now, said SBI Research in its latest Ecowrap report. The repo rate is the interest rate at which the RBI lends money to all commercial banks. The next monetary policy meeting is scheduled for the first week of April 2023.
The US nominee for World Bank President Ajay Banga, upon his arrival in New Delhi on Thursday, tested Covid positive and is now under quarantine as per the local guidelines. Soon after he arrived, he tested positive and has not met any Indian counterparts yet.
India is currently seeing a surge in respiratory illness commonly characterised by cough, body ache, fever, and sore throat. But how to know whether it is influenza, caused by H3N2 virus, or Covid, caused by Omicron sub-variants XBB.1.16 and XBB.1.5?
China’s new Foreign Minister Qin Gang has clearly signaled that his country is all in with Russia and by presented their coming together as a global stabilizing force against the United States.
The Foreign Ministers of Quad member nations who met in New Delhi on Friday, March 3, called for lasting peace in Ukraine and said without naming Russia that the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons is “inadmissible”.
The highly transmissible Omicron subvariant XBB.1.5 now accounts for 85 percent of all Covid-19 cases reported in the US this week, according to the latest estimates of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
