If you’re one of the few thousand people heading to see the Milwaukee Bucks play the Brooklyn Nets on Sunday, May 2nd, you have a chance to get a very special souvenir during the game — your first dose of a Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. The unusual vaccination drive is part of a host of new efforts across the US to get people their shots, whether that’s by bribing them with savings bonds in West Virginia or hosting vaccine clinics at professional basketball games in Wisconsin. In the US, vaccine supplies are high, but demand is starting to taper off, as my…
Author: Mike Harrison
The mRNA vaccine from the US manufacturer joins vaccines from AstraZeneca, Pfizer-BioNTech and Johnson & Johnson in receiving the WHO’s emergency use listing. PTI | , Geneva PUBLISHED ON MAY 01, 2021 06:00 PM IST The World Health Organisation has given the go-ahead for emergency use of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine.The mRNA vaccine from the US manufacturer joins vaccines from AstraZeneca, Pfizer-BioNTech and Johnson & Johnson in receiving the WHO’s emergency use listing.Similar approvals for China’s Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines are expected in the coming days and weeks, WHO has said.The greenlight for Moderna’s vaccine, announced late Friday, took many months…
Minority ethnic groups in general and South Asians, in particular, had a higher risk of testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 and of Covid-19 related hospitalisations, intensive care (ICU) admissions and deaths during the second wave of the pandemic in the UK compared to the first, according to a new observational study of 17 million people.Led by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), the study published in the medical journal ‘Lancet’ on Friday accounted for a large number of explanatory variables such as household size, social factors and health conditions across all ethnic groups and at different stages of…
Canada is all set to suspend entry of international students, including from India, to Ontario, the worst-hit province which is battling the third wave of the coronavirus.According to the Canadian Bureau for International Education (CBIE), an education service provider based in Ottawa, there were 530,540 international students in Canada in 2020, of which the maximum were from India (34 per cent) followed by China (22 per cent).Ontario has the maximum number of foreign students at 242,825 or 46 per cent, it said.During a press conference on Friday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the government is considering halting the arrival of…
Kabul security was ramped up on Saturday as the city braced for reaction from the insurgent Taliban as U.S. troops still present under President Joe Biden’s orders, beyond the May 1 withdrawal deadline agreed in 2020 with the Trump administration.An increased military presence and security at checkpoints were visible in the Afghan capital, and a security source said the city had been placed on “high alert”. Military patrols and security were being increased in main cities around the country, the source said.Under the Trump administration’s February 2020 deal with the Taliban, foreign forces were to withdraw from the country by…
The US will not have a representative at the table when the diplomats meet in Vienna because former President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled the country out of the deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, in 2018. AP | PUBLISHED ON MAY 01, 2021 03:57 PM IST High-ranking diplomats from China, Germany, France, Russia and Britain are set to resume talks Saturday focused on bringing the United States back into their landmark nuclear deal with Iran.The US will not have a representative at the table when the diplomats meet in Vienna because former President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled…
Singapore will reinstate some social distancing controls and tighten borders with countries that are seeing a persistent rise in coronavirus cases to stem a virus spread in the city.The government will allow fewer people at malls and large stores, and close campsites for two weeks from May 1, according to a statement from the health ministry on Friday. It will reduce the operating capacity of attractions to 50% from 65% for a week from May 7, and urged people to limit social gatherings to two per day and stay home where possible, it said.Visitors and long-term pass holders from Bangladesh,…
The 90 victims, all but about five of them men, were removed from the house and given food and water, said Daryn Edwards, assistant chief of the Houston Police Department. Reuters | PUBLISHED ON MAY 01, 2021 03:28 PM IST Police responding to reports of a kidnapping said on Friday they had found more than 90 people crammed into a two-story suburban Houston home and suspected it was being used in a human smuggling operation.The 90 victims, all but about five of them men, were removed from the house and given food and water, said Daryn Edwards, assistant chief of…
The decision comes in the wake of rising cases of Covid-19 infections in India. India’s daily coronavirus tally crossed the grim milestone of four lakh, while the death toll rose to 2,11,853 with 3,523 fresh fatalities, according to the date updated by the Union Health Ministry on Saturday. PTI | PUBLISHED ON MAY 01, 2021 03:24 PM IST The Nepal government has decided to close 22 border points with India amid a sharp surge in Covid-19 cases in the neighbouring country.The decision came after the Covid Crisis Management Coordination Committee (CCMC) on Friday recommended to the Council of Ministers to…
At a climate summit convened by US President Joe Biden last week, Xi reiterated the nation’s goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2060. Bloomberg | PUBLISHED ON MAY 01, 2021 02:40 PM IST China will make cutting emissions a focus of its ecological strategy in the next five years, President Xi Jinping said, vowing to call off projects which consume a lot of energy and can’t meet environmental standards.“The carbon neutral and emission-peaking goals are solemn promises China has made to the world,” Xi said at a study session of the Communist Party’s Politburo on Friday. “They will bring about…