Health

Vietnam has approved the Hayat-Vax coronavirus vaccine for emergency use, the seventh to be endorsed in the country. The vaccine is manufactured in China and packaged in the United Arab Emirates, the government said in a statement. Hayat-Vax is the same Sinopharm CNBG’s BiBP inactivated vaccine that was registered by the UAE Ministry of Health and Prevention on December 9, …

ISLAMABAD: As many as 50 million citizens have received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine while more than 20 million have been fully vaccinated against the viral disease, said NCOC head Asad Umar on Friday. “In the early days of the vaccination campaign we had set a daunting target of vaccinating 7 crore people by the end of …

RAWALPINDI: The Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has exempted the New Zealand cricket team from rapid antigen testing upon their arrival at the Islamabad International Airport on Saturday. The waiver, however, is subject to other relevant SOP rules, such as thermal scanning upon arrival. The exemption was given in the light of request from Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for the …

ISLAMABAD: Restric­tions imposed on educational institutions, gatherings and public transport in 24 districts of the country with a view to curbing the spread of Covid-19 have been extended till Sept 15. The National Command and Control Centre (NCOC) through a notification on Thursday night confirmed that educational institutions would remain closed until Sept 15. The restrictions imposed on gymnasiums and …

GENEVA: The World Health Organisation called on Wednesday for countries to avoid giving out extra Covid jabs until year-end, pointing to the millions worldwide who have yet to receive a single dose. “I will not stay silent when the companies and countries that control the global supply of vaccines think the world’s poor should be satisfied with leftovers,” WHO chief …

Hundreds of millions of children in South Asian countries including Pakistan and India are suffering as their schools have been closed because of the coronavirus but they lack online devices and connections for remote learning, the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) said on Thursday. The repeated school closures since last year had affected 434 million children in South Asia and a …

Vaccine developer Novavax said on Wednesday it has initiated an early-stage study to test its combined flu and COVID-19 vaccine. The trial, to be conducted in Australia, will enroll 640 healthy adults between the ages of 50 and 70 years and who have either been previously infected with the coronavirus or given an authorized COVID-19 shot at least eight weeks …

More people are believed to have died from illnesses related to 9/11 than were killed on the actual day of the attacks on New York and Washington, according to a report published on Tuesday. The September 11 Victim Compensation Fund (VCF) has received more than 67,000 claims since it reopened in 2011. Nearly 3,900 of those claims were filed on …

Vietnam’s health ministry will offer the coronavirus vaccine jointly developed by Pfizer and BioNTech as a second dose option for people first inoculated with the Moderna vaccine, state media reported on Wednesday. The ministry had approved the mixed regimen, which is due to low supplies of the Moderna vaccine. Both vaccines are of the Messenger RNA (mRNA) type. Q&A about …

ISLAMABAD: For the last few days, the positivity rate of Covid-19 cases across the country has dropped below seven per cent. However, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Tuesday urged people to get the second dose of Covid-19 vaccine and follow safety protocols as these are the only remedy against the potentially deadly coronavirus. It said in a …