On Saturday, The U.K. government confirmed that people with COVID-19 will not have to legally be required to self isolate themself from next week. This major step was taken under the “living with COVID” plan that will result in testing for the coronavirus scaled back. UK prime minister Mr. Borris Johnson said that the government is ending all the legal restrictions brought in to retrain the spread of the infection. Speaking ahead of the conference alongside England’s chief medical officer Prof Chris Whitty, and Sir Patrick Vallance, the UK government’s chief scientific adviser said
On Tuesday, for the next five years, The European Union and the Gates Foundation will invest more than 100 million euros to help set up an African medicines regulator to boost the continent’s drugs and vaccine commission. The announcement comes ahead of a summit of EU and AU leaders when a 150-billion-euro investment package in Africa is expected to be reaffirmed by the EU. In November, a treaty establishing the African Medicines Agency (AMA) came to force. However, the agency is currently existing only on papers. Currently, just over half of the 55 member states of the African Union hav
On Friday, the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres asks the international community to “change track” in protecting the ocean from the climate crisis. The ocean is affecting its ecosystem by getting warmer and more acidic as it serves as a giant carbon and heat sink. Guterres warned that the ocean “shoulder a great deal of the burden” and global warming, biodiversity loss, and pollution are a triple crisis facing the planet. In his video message, he said that the polar ice is melting and global weather patterns are also changing with it. The conference took place t
On Wednesday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that the EU would increase its spending to boost the vaccination drive in African states. They plan to increase as they are lagging behind despite having received the COVID-19 vaccine supplies. African countries began rollouts of the vaccines much later than wealthier countries, which began receiving the limited doses in late 2020. Gavi, a nonprofit global vaccine alliance, estimates that Congo and Burundi have used less than 20% of the available doses, however, supplies have grown exponentially in recent months and m
On Monday, India approved Russia's one-shot Sputnik Light COvid-19 vaccine for unvaccinated people. India has approved the shots for emergency use almost 10 months after it cleared the two-dose Sputnik V. Indian drugmaker Dr. Reddy’s spokesperson said, “The current restricted use in emergency situation approval from the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) to Sputnik Light is for the single-shot standalone vaccine. Our efforts to seek approval for Sputnik Light as a precautionary dose/booster are currently underway”. However, the was no immediate response to an email request for
The Worlds Health Organization director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus discussed collaboration on Covid origins with the Chinese premier. Tedros visited Beijing for the 2022 Winter Olympics. On Saturday, Tedros tweeted, “Pleased to meet with Premier Li Keqiang. We discussed COVID-19 and the need for an aggressive effort on VaccinEquiyt this year to vaccinate 70 percent of all population”. He tweeted referring to the campaign organized by the WHO for fair access to vaccines around the world. He further added that they also discussed the need for stronger collaboration on COVID-19 vi
On Thursday, Germany’s expert vaccine commission, the Standing Committee on Vaccination (StiKo) raised a recommendation approving the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine for adults. Novavax shots were first approved in Indonesia. It is hoped the protein-based shot might help address vaccine hesitancy since it uses a conventional technology rather than messenger RNA vaccines (mRNA) that have proven most effective during the pandemic. Approximately 74% of people in Germany have already had two doses of the COVID vaccine. The government wishes to increase its status to 90%. In the StiKo, it is r
Australia is set to reopen its border for foreign tourists from February almost two years. The nation has locked its border for tourists due to the coronavirus pandemic. On Sunday, the Australian government is set to announce the news post-meeting of the national security committee. Karen Andrews, Home Affairs Minister said in an interview, “We are getting ready to open as soon as we can. We don’t have all the information we need to be able to take the decision, but we are very close”. Prior to lockdown, Australia’s tourism industry’s annual revenue generated was over $84.9
Queen Elizabeth II is ready to mark 70 years on the throne on Sunday. She is the first British monarch to reign for 70 years, heralding the start of her Platinum Jubilee. At the age of 25, she inherited the throne on February 8, 1952, after the death of her father George VI. The sovereign’s record-breaking reign as head of the state came when she was watching wildlife in a remote part of Kenya with her husband, Prince Philip. However, on this landmark date, the queen traditionally spends the anniversary of the death of her father in private. On Sunday, there are no public engagements
Most of the European countries have lifted almost all the COVID restrictions and plans to ease restrictive measures. The WHO has prepared a set of guidelines with six criteria. However, according to the WHO guidelines, countries are requesting to consider easing measures after the number of infections declines and its health system can cope with the virus cases and the possible outbreak. They further asked to guarantee their capability for surveillance and contact tracing. Denmark is the latest EU nation to announce dropping most of the measure as it follows in the footsteps of the UK,