Health

A Chinese experimental coronavirus vaccine being developed by the Institute of Medical Biology under the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences was shown to be safe in an early-stage clinical trial, researchers said. In a Phase 1 trial of 191 healthy participants aged between 18 and 59, vaccination with the group’s experimental shot showed no severe adverse reactions, its researchers said …

SINGAPORE: China is in talks to have its locally-produced Covid-19 vaccines assessed by the World Health Organisation, as a step towards making them available for international use, a WHO official said on Tuesday. Hundreds of thousands of essential workers and other groups considered at high risk in China have been given locally-developed vaccines even as clinical trials had not been …

Left undisturbed, the new coronavirus can survive many hours on human skin, a new study has found. To avoid possibly infecting healthy volunteers, researchers conducted lab experiments using cadaver skin that would otherwise have been used for skin grafts. While influenza A virus survived less than two hours on human skin, the novel coronavirus survived for more than nine hours. …

The average face mask may be uncomfortable but does not limit the flow of oxygen to the lungs, even in people with severe lung diseases, researchers say. They tested the effect of wearing surgical masks on gas exchange – the process by which the body adds oxygen to the blood while removing carbon dioxide – in 15 healthy physicians and 15 …

Iran’s health ministry said on Monday nearly the whole country was on a coronavirus red alert as cases and deaths rose to record levels, with a member of the state task force’s warning field hospitals might be needed if people flout the rules. Ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari told state television that 26 of Iran’s 31 provinces were “red” zones, …

STOCKHOLM: Americans Harvey Alter and Charles Rice together with Briton Michael Houghton won the Nobel Medicine Prize on Monday for the discovery of the Hepatitis C virus, paving the way for a cure, the Nobel jury said. The three were honoured for their “decisive contribution to the fight against blood-borne hepatitis, a major global health problem that causes cirrhosis and …

GENEVA: The WHO estimated on Monday that 10 percent of the world has been infected by the new coronavirus — way more than has been recorded — as it mulled speeding up internal reforms. To date, more than 35 million cases of Covid-19 have been registered worldwide, including some 1.04 million who have died, according to a tally based on …

ISLAMABAD: The novel coronavirus claimed four more lives during the past 24 hours, bringing the death toll from the disease to 6,517. According to the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), 29,565 samples were tested for Covid-19 during this period, out of which 644 were declared positive. The number of infections across the country has reached 315,260 with the addition …

ISLAMABAD: A doctor deputed at the Polyclinic Islamabad has been confirmed with coronavirus citing sources.  The doctor, whose identity has been kept secret, was working in the Urology department of the hospital and was tested after showing signs of the coronavirus infection on Saturday. After the confirmation of the virus, the infected doctor has been isolated, said the sources within …

ISLAMABAD: The capital administration has decided to seal the Federal Government Postgraduate College for Girls in F-7/2 after two people at the institution tested positive for Covid-19. The college will be closed today (Monday) for five days, Islamabad District Health Officer Dr Zaeem Zia. “We will disinfect the educational institution and try to trace the patients’ contacts. Hopefully, the institution …