HEALTH

2 Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine doses 85-90 per cent effective, real-world study finds

3:26 pm May 21, 2021

London: Two doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine have shown to prevent around 85 to 90 per cent of symptomatic COVID-19 infections, the first real-world data from Public Health England (PHE) has found. The method used for the ‘COVID-19 Vaccine Surveillance Report’ by PHE for analysing the approximate number of deaths and hospitalisations prevented by the vaccine programme was able to take into […]

‘Black fungus’ declared as notifiable disease in TN

8:08 pm May 20, 2021

Chennai: The Tamil Nadu government on Thursday declared ‘black fungus’ or Mucormycois as a notifiable disease after nine people were found to have been infected with it in the state. “Currently nine people are being treated for the disease, of which six are old cases and three, new ones. Seven of them are diabetic… all […]

TN records 2,405 COVID-19 cases, 49 fatalities

India sets global record for daily coronavirus deaths

9:25 pm May 19, 2021

NEW DELHI: India on Wednesday reported more coronavirus deaths in a single day than any other country at any time during the pandemic, while infections continued to spread through vast rural areas with weak health systems. The Health Ministry reported a record 4,529 deaths in the past 24 hours, driving India’s confirmed fatalities to 283,248. […]

Rajasthan records three more Covid deaths, 55 new cases

DST institute develops RT-PCR kit with higher accuracy

11:28 pm May 18, 2021

New Delhi: Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST) has developed an RT-PCR kit that has a higher accuracy of detecting COVID-19 across various mutant strains, the Department of Science and Technology (DST) said on Tuesday. The new multiplex RT-PCR kit developed by SCTIMST in Thiruvananthapuram, a DST institute, targets two SARS-CoV-2 […]

Biden to boost world vaccine sharing commitment to 80M doses

11:23 pm May 17, 2021

Washington: President Joe Biden will announce Monday that the US will share an additional 20 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines with the world in the coming six weeks, the White House said. The doses would come from existing US production of Pfizer, Moderna or Johnson & Johnson vaccine stocks, according White House press secretary Jen Psaki, who said more details would be released in the coming days. It comes […]