Health

GENEVA: The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued a call for experts to join a new advisory group its forming, in part to address the agency’s fraught attempts to investigate how the coronavirus pandemic started. In a statement on Friday, the UN health agency said the new scientific group would provide the WHO with an independent analysis of the work …

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has decided that it will block the mobile phone SIM cards of the people in five districts of Peshawar division if they don’t get themselves vaccinated against novel coronavirus by the end of the current month. It urged the residents of Peshawar, Mohmand, Khyber, Charsadda and Nowshera districts to receive the shots of the Covid-19 …

Singapore, one of the world’s most vaccinated countries, is likely to stick to its mask mandate for some more time, according to its foreign minister, as the city-state cautiously reopens its borders and eases its COVID-19 restrictions. “I don’t think people want to wear masks. But on the other hand, I think we’ve gotten used to it,” Vivian Balakrishnan, who …

KARACHI: The Sindh government has put on hold its plan to import vaccines amid improved supplies from the centre and multiple unsolved issues between the provincial and federal governments which were crucial to complete the process, officials and sources said on Wednesday. They said the Sindh government’s plan to buy the single-dose vaccine developed by CanSino Biologics Inc to boost …

The Ministry of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives on Friday announced the launch of a mobile application to “protect emotional health of the front line responders as part of the Covid-19 response in the country”. The mobile app ‘MyCare+’, will soon be launched under the Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) initiative, the ministry tweeted from its official Twitter account. …

ISLAMABAD: As Covid continues to eat into the world’s health and economy with little respite even in its fourth wave, Pakistan has Sunday reported new 74 deaths owing to the global pandemic and 4,373 fresh cases. The National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) has released daily statistics today citing 55,634 tests conducted in the past 24-hour period across Pakistan, which …

WELLINGTON: New Zealand imposed a snap three-day lockdown on Tuesday after identifying a single case of locally transmitted Covid-19 suspected to be the Delta variant, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said. Ardern said New Zealand, which had not recorded any infections in the community for six months, could not take any chances with the “game changer” Delta strain. “We have seen …

PESHAWAR: Seventeen people died of coronavirus in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as health officials expressed concerns over the widespread active cases, which could spread the infection further. Infectivity level of the virus also surged to 13.6 per cent in Abbottabad and 13.5 per cent in Peshawar on Tuesday. Positivity in Peshawar and Abbottabad was recorded 12 per cent and 9.3 per cent …

ISLAMABAD: While the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Tuesday decided to keep main Covid19 vaccination centers open on 9th of Muharram (today), schools in Sindh would reopen with 50 per cent attendance from Aug 23. The vaccination centers will remain closed on Ashura day (Thursday). As over 43 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine have been administered in Pakistan, …

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (PCAA) has established rapid polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing facilities at eight major airports in different cities including Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore, Multan, Peshawar, Faisalabad, Quetta and Sialkot for passengers travelling to United Arab Emirates (UAE). On the other hand, six people passed away after losing their battle against Covid-19 in Islamabad and Rawalpindi districts …