Health

LONDON: The number of COVID-19 infections in England jumped by 60% in the week from Aug. 30 to Sept. 5 according to official estimates, as the number of official cases rises across the UK and days before a ban on social gatherings comes into effect. Britain’s Office for National Statistics said that it estimated there were around 3,200 new cases …

MOSCOW: Russia’s sovereign wealth fund said on Friday that more than one billion people would receive its COVID-19 vaccine “Sputnik-V” in 2020-21, the Interfax news agency reported. The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) has already signed two deals to export the vaccine abroad and on the Brazilian state of Bahia on Friday agreed to conduct Phase III clinical trials of …

ISLAMABAD: The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) has confirmed that five patients died of COVID-19 during the last 24 hours in Pakistan. The total count of coronavirus deaths reached to 6,370, whereas, 548 new cases were also reported as active cases recorded up to 5,795 in the country. According to NCOC statistics, 288,206 patients recovered from coronavirus. In Pakistan, …

QUETTA: The Balochistan government has begun the construction work of its first cancer hospital at the spare land on the premises of Quetta’s Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Hospital. The construction of the special facility for cancer patients will be completed at Quetta’s Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Hospital within two years. The spokesperson of the provincial health department said that the …

KHYBER: Polio vaccination at Torkham border was restarted after six months of suspension due to the coronavirus outbreak. Health officials said that they also held a ‘face-to-face’ meeting with their Afghan counterparts after almost a year break on Thursday and discussed ways and means to help each other to eradicate poliovirus from the bordering regions of both the neighbouring countries. …

ISLAMABAD: The World Health Organisation (WHO) said Pakistan was among countries from whom the international community should learn how to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic. Former Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on Health Dr Zafar Mirza told Dawn it was the recognition of Pakistan’s effort at the international level. WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in a media briefing said Pakistan …

ISLAMABAD: The novel coronavirus claimed six more lives across the country during the last 24 hours, taking the death toll from the deadly disease to 6,365. According to the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), 441 more people tested positive for the highly contagious disease, lifting the number of people affected by it to 299,855. The number of people recovering …

The following is a roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus. More young adults survive heart attacks than severe COVID-19 Among COVID-19 patients treated at 419 U.S. hospitals from April through June, only about 5% were ages 18 to 34. …

ZURICH/FRANKFURT: AstraZeneca should still know before the end of the year whether its experimental vaccine protects people against COVID-19, the drugmaker’s chief executive Pascal Soriot said on Thursday, as long as it can resume trials soon. The British company suspended late-stage trials this week after an illness in a participant in Britain. The patient was reportedly suffering from symptoms associated …

LONDON: AstraZeneca has paused global trials of its experimental coronavirus vaccine after an unexplained illness in a participant, denting the British drugmaker’s shares on Wednesday as the move was seen as dimming prospects for an early rollout. On Tuesday, AstraZeneca said it voluntarily paused trials, including late-stage ones, to allow an independent committee to review safety data, and it was …