Health

A fire broke out on Thursday at India’s Serum Institute, the world’s largest maker of vaccines, but a company source said production of drugs to prevent coronavirus was not affected. The Serum Institute is producing millions of doses of the Covishield coronavirus vaccine, developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University, for India and many other countries. Local TV channels showed thick …

India started delivering coronavirus vaccines to its neighbours on Wednesday, the foreign ministry said, flagging off a drive to garner goodwill in an often fractious region with the first shipment sent to the tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan. Bangladesh and Nepal said they expected deliveries on Thursday. The only neighbour absent from India’s list apart from China, is Pakistan, which …

ISLAMABAD: In a major development on Wednesday, the district health department gave approval to store the Covid-19 vaccine to be acquired from Chinese state-owned company Sinopharm in the warehouse of the Expanded Programme of Immunisation (EPI) located at the National Institute of Health (NIH) and other facilities. On the other hand, 137 more positive cases were reported from the federal …

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has recorded 48 more coronavirus-related deaths in past 24 hours, surging the overall death toll to 11,103. According to the latest statistics of the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) the COVID-19 has claimed 48 more lives and 1,772 fresh infections were reported. In the past 24 hours, as many as 2,046 patients have recovered from the virus …

Moderna Inc said on Tuesday it had received a report from California’s health department that several people at a center in San Diego were treated for possible allergic reactions to its COVID-19 vaccine from a particular batch. The company’s comments come after California’s top epidemiologist on Sunday issued a statement recommending providers pause vaccination from lot no. 41L20A due to …

WASHINGTON: Presi­dent-elect Joe Biden has tapped Pennsylvania Health Secretary Rachel Levine to be his assistant secretary of health, leaving her poised to become the first openly transgender federal official to be confirmed by the US Senate. A pediatrician and former Pennsylvania physician general, Levine was appointed to her current post by Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf in 2017, making her one …

ISLAMABAD: More than 40 million children under the age of five years received vaccination during the latest nationwide anti-polio campaign. A total of 287,000 frontline polio workers were deployed across the country for door-to-door vaccination, observing strict standard operating procedures in the wake of Covid-19 pandemic. Around 32m children were given vitamin A supplements during the campaign. Strict Covid-induced SOPs …

LONDON: Two British hospitals are using blockchain technology to keep tabs on the storage and supply of temperature-sensitive COVID-19 vaccines, the companies behind the initiative said on Tuesday, in one of the first such initiatives in the world. Two hospitals, in central England’s Stratford-upon-Avon and Warwick, are expanding their use of a distributed ledger, an offshoot of blockchain, from tracking …

LAHORE: In the first phase, 300,000 health workers have been registered in Punjab for the coronavirus vaccination programme. Chief Minister Punjab Usman Buzdar in his tweet stated that the arrangements for the coronavirus vaccination in the province have been finalised and as many as 637 staff members of 189 hospitals of the province have completed their training for the vaccination …

KARACHI: The daily numbers of Covid pandemic have on Tuesday reported 778 new infections across Sindh while the new deaths in this period were 17. According to the updates shared by the chief minister for the 24-hour span today, new 17 deaths have taken total mortality to 3,830 in the province since the viral infection broke out. CM Sindh Murad …