Category: Life & Style

The Russian Direct Investment Fund has said that Sputnik Light Covid-19 vaccine will be available in India by December this year. CEO of Russian Direct Investment Fund Kirill Dmitriev told reporters that they have Pune’s Serum institute as their production partner, and hope that Sputnik Light will help in India’s vaccination campaign.

Earlier in the day, the Russian vaccine maker announced that Sputnik vaccine for children aged 12-17 will be approved by Russia’s Health Ministry soon and the shots will roll out by the end of the year.

In recent weeks, Russia has seen a big spike in Covid19 cases. 33,558 new cases were confirmed on November 24, taking the total number of infections to 9,434,393.

India reported 9,283 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday. With this, the active number of infections in the country stands at 1,11,481, which is the lowest in 537 days. As of November 2021, 29.8% of India’s total population has been fully vaccinated.

India has largely eased Covid19 restrictions in most of its states and cities. Schools and universities have also reopened in some parts of the country, while the tourism industry seems to be picking up pace again. However, fully vaccinating a population of 138 crore people still remains a big challenge.

As Europe continues to see nearly 4,200 Covid19 cases a day, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that the continent’s death toll from the virus could exceed 2 million by March.

WHO European regional director Dr. Hans Kluge said Europe has said that the continent needs to take a “vaccine plus” approach to the crisis. What this means is that along with getting fully vaccinated, people should continue to comply with other precautions like covering the face with a mask, maintaining social distance and frequently sanitizing their hands.

Kluge further said in a statement that Europe can expect exhaustion of beds in 25 countries starting now until March 2022. He also specified that 49 out of 53 countries will have to deal with extreme stress in intensive-care units.

Earlier this week, Germany’s Health Minister Jens Spahn said that by the end of this winter, Germans will be “vaccinated, cured or dead”. Germany is the seventh-largest country in Europe, and one-third of its citizens are still not vaccinated. The country is currently dealing with the fourth wave of Covid19.

Countries like Netherlands, Denmark and Norway had earlier allowed their citizens to go out in public without a mask, but they have now reversed their decision. 

One of the richest people in the world, Jeff Bezos, is contributing $100 million to the Obama Foundation, which is the largest single donation ever made to former President Barack Obama’s foundation. Reportedly, the contribution has been made in memory of late Congressman John Lewis, and Bezos feels it would help broaden the scope of programming that targets rising leaders in the United States and throughout the world. There are also reports that as per Bezos’ request, the plaza of the Obama Presidential Centre will be renamed John Lewis Plaza.  

The former Amazon CEO has been doing a lot of charity lately. The 57-year-old has made a $200 million contribution to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, and most of that money will be used to make the Bezos Learning Centre.

Among other recent donations announced by Bezos is $100 million to CNN political commentator Van Jones, founder of Dream Corps, and chef Jose Andres, co-founder of World Central Kitchen, which feeds people stuck in a disaster. Additionally, he is donating $2 billion to combat family homelessness, while his $10 billion Earth Fund will help fight climate change. 

Most recently on Monday, NYU Langone Health, a medical centre in New York announced that it has received $166 million from the Bezos Foundation, which was started by the entrepreneur’s parents. 

While Covid19 restrictions have been eased in most parts of the world, large vaccination drives continue to be carried out to ward off any further waves of the virus. There has been a rise in Covid19 cases in Israel over the summer, and half of the patients to test positive for the virus in the last few weeks have been children under the age of 11.

In the wake of the current situation, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has confirmed that Israel is experiencing a ‘Children’s Wave’, for which children as young as five years old are being vaccinated. The vaccination drive was already being carried out for children aged 12 to 17, but the age was further lowered due to spike in cases among those under 11. The vaccine being administered is the Pfizer-BioNTech.

In 2020, Israel was among the first countries to receive vaccines for Covid19. The country provided Pfizer with data on the vaccine’s efficacy, for which it received access to millions of doses from the American multinational pharmaceutical corporation. As of November 2021, more than 5.7 million of Israel’s total population of nine million has been fully vaccinated.

Australia is all set to welcome fully vaccinated and eligible visa holder students and workers from December 1. They will be allowed to enter the country without applying for a prior travel exemption.

Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison said, “The return of skilled workers and students to Australia is a major milestone in our pathway back, it’s a major milestone about what Australians have been able to achieve”.

Earlier this month, Australia had reopened its border to quarantine-free travelers after 20 months of restrictions due to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, these arrivals were earlier restricted to Australian citizens and their permanent residents.

Some key points include: The nation is expecting nearly two lakh vaccinated foreign students and skilled workers to return without going for quarantine. Travelers, skilled workers, and students will be allowed to land in Sydney and Melbourne without seeking exemptions from the travel ban. Cities like New South Wales and Victoria with higher vaccination rates are encouraging travel without quarantining, whereas areas with lower vaccination rates are still imposing pandemic restrictions. The government is yet to decide the fixed date for general tourists allowed to return within the country.

To reopen the nation, the government of Australia has gathered pace in its vaccine drive and has achieved more than 85% mark of fully vaccinated adults above 16.

The Cabinet’s news portal stated that Vietnam’s Prime Minister Pham Min Chinh ordered local officials to accelerate COVID-19 shots. He wishes to fully vaccinate all adults aged 18 years and older by the end of the year. The cabinet further stated that he wished to surpass the nation’s inoculating target.

Vietnam had targeted to fully vaccinate half of its population aged 18 and older by the end of this year and 70% people by the end of March in 2022. However, the nation is said to have enough vaccines to administer two-dose to its entire population against the virus infection.

This month the planning ministry proposed to increase its target to 80% within the same duration. The report states that the premier, who spoke with his deputy over the weekend in front of the anti-Covid 19 task force, ordered the speeding up of vaccinations for children and preparing booster shots for those who had already been vaccinated.

According to the health ministry, till last Saturday, the government had administered approximately 108 million vaccine shots. Nearly 53.4% of Vietnamese adults were fully vaccinated till Friday.

However, the cases of infection saw a plunge of 2.9% since October whereas, a drop in fatalities and hospitalization is seen with 46.3% and 25.3% respectively.

More than 10,000 people in Australia have registered for compensation for COVID-19 vaccine side effects. The government of Australia is said to face more than A$50 million bills which starts from A$5,000 for each claim to be approved.

The people have registered for a government program to be compensated for lost income as they were being hospitalized for some mild and rare side effects.

According to the website of Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), 79,000 reports were received of adverse side effects out of 36.8 million doses of vaccine. Some of the recent adverse side effects which are being reported are sore arm, headache, chills, and fever.

288 cases of heart inflammation have been reported to the TGA as being associated with Pfizer vaccines, as well as 160 cases of thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS) associated with AstraZeneca vaccines.

TGA also said due to the immunization program, nine deaths have been reported with those who were 65 years and older in the majority.

As the delta variant plunged Australia’s two largest cities, Sydney and Melbourne, into a months-long lockdown after an initial setback, the country ramped up vaccination efforts in the second half of the year.

The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has put India on ‘Level One’ COVID-19 list for Americans who wish to travel to India. According to the authorities, the risk of catching infection with severe symptoms is considered lower for fully vaccinated individuals.

CDC said, “Your risk of contracting covid-19 and developing severe symptoms may be lower if you are fully vaccinated with an FDA (Food and Drug Administration) authorized vaccine”.

The US has presented level two and level three travel advisories also to Pakistan along with India. The guideline said that Americans are advised to avoid traveling to Pakistan due to terrorism and sectarian violence, they should exercise caution in India because of crime and terrorist activities.

The CDC also advised citizens who are traveling to India, not to travel to Jammu and Kashmir because of civil unrest and terrorism. It further added to avoid traveling within 10 kilometers of the border of India-Pakistan due to the possibility and risk of armed conflict.

One of its statements also said that the Indian authorities also report rape as one of the fastest-growing crimes in India. Tourist sites and other places have been victimized by violent crimes, including sexual assault.

Quarantine-free travel is available to fully vaccinated Singapore residents to the vaccinated travel lanes (VTL) countries in Europe.

Despite the European Union (EU) raising its COVID-19 risk assessment of the Republic on November 9, few countries have not reimposed compulsory quarantine on travelers from Singapore. The list includes Italy, Spain, France, Germany, Netherlands, Britain, and Switzerland as per their border regulation. From Nov. 29, Finland and Sweden will start their VTLs with Singapore. These nations have also not introduced quarantine curbs on visitors from Singapore.

Currently, only Denmark is the one TVL country to have reimposed quarantine restrictions. Starting on Nov. 11, the visitors from Singapore will have to go for four to ten days of isolation after arrival. Denmark has removed Singapore from the list of countries that have lifted travel curbs. Border restrictions outlined in the council’s updated recommendations on Nov 9 are not legally binding.

However, the 27 EU member states, which will not include Britain and Switzerland, rely on the recommendations when determining their border restrictions. According to a British official, the EU’s changes will not affect British travel rules. During last year’s European Union membership referendum, Britain left the bloc.

China is battling with its biggest outbreak with its highly transmissible Delta Variant of COVID-19. The new data of cases reported between October 17 and November 14 were 1,308. This new data has surpassed China’s summer Delta outbreak of 1,280 local cases.

The Chinese government has restricted entry from the northeastern cities. Last week, these areas saw a spike in infection and in total have affected a total of 21 provinces, regions, and municipalities. This included cities near Dalian, Dandong, Anshan, and Shenyang. However, when comparing these cases with other countries, China’s rate is much smaller. Nevertheless, this number is making Chinese authorities anxious and blocking the transmission under the government’s zero-tolerance guidance.

The government has quickly implemented a complex set of curbs and a dozen province-level regions contained their flare-ups within weeks. The curbs included multiple rounds of testing people in risk areas, rigorous contact tracing, the closure of entertainment and cultural venues along with restricting tourism and public transport.

The nation has confirmed 98,315 confirmed cases with symptoms, as of November 14. The cases included domestic transmitted cases along with overseas. The total death toll is reported at 4,636.