Health

CARBIS BAY, England: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson expects the Group of Seven to agree to donate 1 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses to poorer countries during its summit starting on Friday, and help innoculate the world by the end of next year. Just hours after U.S. President Joe Biden vowed to supercharge the battle against the coronavirus with a donation …

CARBIS BAY: The United States will spend $3.5 billion to buy and donate 500 million doses of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine to some of the world’s poorest countries, it said on Thursday, urging other G7 nations to follow suit. The vaccine donation — the largest ever by a single country — was announced before US President Joe Biden meets leaders …

ISLAMABAD: Countries in the region are far ahead of Pakistan in terms of health indicators and even Afghanistan is ahead of it, according to the Economic Survey of Pakistan. It said the Covid-19 pandemic had tested the country’s health infrastructure and identified needs for more investment in the sector, especially to improve diagnostic facilities, disease surveillance, prevention and spread, training …

ISLAMABAD: While around 300,000 doses of vaccines are being administered daily and number of cases is continuously decreasing across the country, over 70 per cent ventilators and the oxygenated beds allocated for Covid-19 patients are vacant. The Ministry of National Health Services (NHS) has denied rumours that the government would “forcibly” administer the vaccine and plans were under consideration to …

KARACHI: The provincial health minister at a meeting held on Wednesday with a foreign delegation shared concern over the regional situation that might force migrants from across the border into Pakistan and create a great challenge for local authorities fighting against polio. The delegation was led by Dr Chris Elias representing the Polio Oversight Board of Bill & Melinda Gates …

ISLAMABAD: The COVID-19 has claimed 76 more lives and infected 1,303 people over the past 24 hours. According to the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) data, 76 more people lost their lives. The overall death toll has surged to 21,453, while 1,118 new infections surfaced when 43,900 samples were tested during this period. The positivity rate in the country …

ISLAMABAD: Given limited stock of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine, the federal government has tinkered with its policy about who will be administered the American vaccine. They said work visa holders and students travelling abroad will not be administered the Pfizer vaccine as only Hajis and people suffering from chronic diseases will be receiving this vaccine. They said people traveling abroad will …

The Biden administration plans to donate 500 million Pfizer coronavirus vaccine doses to about 100 countries over the next two years, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. The United States is likely to distribute 200 million shots this year and 300 million in the first half of next year, they said It will donate them to 92 lower-income …

Uruguay on Tuesday released real-world data on the impact of Sinovac Biotech’s COVID-19 vaccine among its population that showed it was over 90% effective in preventing intensive care admissions and deaths. The shot reduced deaths by 95% and intensive care admissions by 92%, and also showed 61% efficacy in cutting coronavirus infections, the government said. A total of 795,684 people …

ISLAMABAD: Giving approval to allocation of $1 billion for vaccine procurement on Tuesday, Planning Minister Asad Umar said the National Economic Council (NEC) of the cabinet had decided to frequently hold its meetings every year for evaluation of not only the federal Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) but also the provincial Annual Development Plans (ADPs) to ensure effective utilisation of …