South Africa

US rushes to catch up in the race to detect mutant viruses

11:12 pm February 4, 2021

New York: Despite its world-class medical system and its vaunted Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, the US fell behind in the race to detect dangerous coronavirus mutations. And it’s only now beginning to catch up. The problem has not been a shortage of technology or expertise. Rather, scientists say, it’s an absence of national […]

UK vaccination drive expands as virus toll nears 100,000

12:02 am January 25, 2021

London: Britain is expanding a coronavirus vaccination programme that has seen more than 6 million people get the first of two doses — even as the country’s death toll in the pandemic approaches 100,000. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said Sunday that three-quarters of the U.K.’s over-80s have received a vaccine shot. He said three-quarters of nursing home […]

UP CM likens anti-Covid vaccine to ‘Sanjeevani Booti’

4:30 pm January 24, 2021

Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday compared the Covid-19 vaccines given by India to Brazil to ‘Sanjeevani Booti’, a mythological life-saving herb figuring in the Hindu epic Ramayana. Yogi made the comparison a day after Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro invoked Lord Hanuman while thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi for providing two million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to fight the deadly coronavirus infection in his country, one of the worst-hit […]

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

‘South African Hindu priests ‘overcharging’ for funerals of COVID-19 victims’

4:01 pm January 24, 2021

Johannesburg: Cashing in on the fearful atmosphere prevailing in South Africa amidst a second wave and a new variant of the COVID-19 virus, some Hindu priests in the country are allegedly charging exorbitant rates for conducting funerals of coronavirus victims. The priests are under fire for charging between 1,200 rand (USD 79) and 2,000 rand (USD 131) to conduct […]

Pfizer vaccine may protect against UK variant of coronavirus, study claims

10:20 pm January 8, 2021

New Delhi: Scientists have found evidence that the COVID-19 vaccine co-developed by the US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and German biotechnology company BioNTech may protect against the novel coronavirus variant which originated in the UK and has been reported in several parts of the world, including India. In a yet-to-be peer reviewed research, scientists from the University of Texas Medical Branch in the US, […]