Health

JAKARTA, June 21 (Reuters) - After not securing a COVID-19 vaccination at home, Indonesian Muhammad Risqy Putra booked a trip to the United States to get inoculated there on his first overseas trip since the pandemic.

With rich nations like the United States rolling out vaccinations far more quickly, wealthier residents in developing countries - from Indonesia to Thailand to Mexico - are prepared to head abroad to get a shot more quickly.

JAMSOTI, India (AP) — In Jamsoti, a village tucked deep inside India’s most populous state of Uttar Pradesh, the common refrain among the villagers is that the coronavirus spreads only in cities. The deadly infection, they believe, does not exist in villages.

So when a team of health workers recently approached Manju Kol to get vaccinated, she locked up her house, gathered her children and ran to the nearby forest.

The family hid there for hours and returned only when the workers left in the evening.

20 June 2021; MEMO: The United Arab Emirates will suspend travellers from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Namibia from entering the country on national and foreign flights, effective 23:59 pm on Monday, June 21, state news agency WAM reported on Saturday, citing a statement by the General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA), reports Reuters.

BEIJING, June 20 (Xinhua) -- More than 1 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines had been administered in China by Saturday, as the country is pushing ahead with the largest vaccination drive in the history of New China.

It took the country just five days to hit its most recent 100-million dose increase, according to daily updates by the National Health Commission (NHC).

New Delhi, June 20 (PTI) The roll out of Russian COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik V at Indraprastha Apollo and Madhukar Rainbow Children's Hospital in Delhi has been delayed for some days, officials said on Sunday.

A spokesperson of Apollo Hospitals said the facility in Delhi will tentatively start administering the two-dose vaccine by June 25.

GENEVA, June 18 (Reuters) - The Delta variant of COVID-19, first identified in India, is becoming the globally dominant variant of the disease, the World Health Organization’s chief scientist said on Friday.

Soumya Swaminathan also voiced disappointment in the failure of CureVac’s (5CV.DE) vaccine candidate in a trial to meet the WHO’s efficacy standard, in particular as highly transmissible variants boost the need for new, effective shots.

Kampala, Jun 19 (AP-PTI) Uganda is tightening its lockdown measures to try and stem a surge in coronavirus infections in the East African country that is seeing an array of variants.

The measures announced late Friday by President Yoweri Museveni include a ban on private and public transportation within and across districts, including in the capital Kampala. Only vehicles carrying cargo and those transporting the sick or essential workers are permitted to operate on the roads.

Colombo, Jun 19 (PTI) A senior health official in Sri Lanka has been transferred after President Gotabaya Rajapaksa expressed his unhappiness over not being able to ease the COVID-19 restrictions in the country on June 14 due to presentation of wrong data that showed a spike in the number of deaths from the virus.

Addressing the health officials on Friday to announce the easing of travel restrictions from June 21 till June 25, Rajapaksa said he was planning to lift the lockdown on June 14 but could not do so due to the presentation of wrong data on COVID-19 deaths.

New Delhi, Jun 18 (PTI) Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal on Friday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has "without doubt" lost the moral authority to rule for not standing with people in need of medical aid during the second wave of COVID-19 and instead focussing on political one-upmanship in polls.

In an interview with PTI, the former union minister launched a hard-hitting attack on the prime minister saying the lack of a credible political alternative did not mean that he should stop discharging his duties believing that his political fortunes are secure.

Dehradun, Jun 19 (PTI) The Uttarakhand Police has set up a special investigation team to probe allegations that fake Covid tests were conducted during the Haridwar Kumbh Mela.

One of the world's largest religious gatherings, the Kumbh was held in the state from April 1 to 30, and the notified area for the congregation covered various places in Haridwar, Dehradun and Tehri districts.