Health

LONDON (AP) — With daily coronavirus infections surging as a result of a new virus variant, the British government faced mounting pressure Saturday from teachers’ unions to keep schools in England closed for at least another two weeks.

The government, which oversees schools in England, has already decided to keep all schools in London closed next week to try to stem new infections. Unions want the policy extended across the whole of England, expressing fears about the health of both teachers and children.

Sydney, Jan 2 (AP-PTI) Australia's leading medical group says the New South Wales state government has put the rest of the country at risk by its decision not to go "hard and early" in its response to the COVID-19 outbreak on Sydney's northern beaches, which is suspected to have also caused new cases in neighboring Victoria state.

On Saturday, Victoria recorded 10 new local cases, bringing active cases in the state to 29. Trace testing has linked the new Melbourne coronavirus cluster to the New South Wales outbreak.

Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 2 (PTI) At least 25 health workers each took part in the dry run, organised in four districts of Kerala on Saturday to asses the preparedness of the state's health sector for the COVID-19 vaccination once the vaccine is received.

The vaccine mock drill was conducted in four districts- Thiruvananthapuram, Idukki, Wayanad and Palakkad from 9 am to 11 am.

NEW DELHI, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- Indian Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said on Saturday that COVID-19 vaccines would be free of cost across the country.

"Not just in Delhi, it (vaccine) will be free across the country," Vardhan told reporters.

The health minister was asked if COVID-19 vaccine will be provided free on the lines of Delhi.

Vardhan was at a hospital in Delhi to review the dry run of vaccination that was started Saturday morning across the country.

NEW DELHI (AP) — India tested its COVID-19 vaccine delivery system with a nationwide trial on Saturday as it prepares to roll out an inoculation program to stem the coronavirus pandemic.

The trial included data entry into an online platform for monitoring vaccine delivery, along with testing of cold storage and transportation arrangements for the vaccine, the health ministry said in a statement.

31 Dec 2021; AA: China on Thursday assured Pakistan that Beijing will provide more than one million doses of COVID-19 vaccine to Islamabad for emergency use.

This came in a phone talk between Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, according to a statement by Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry.

Qureshi said that Pakistan had approved Sinopharm vaccine for emergency use in Pakistan and expressed hope for its early availability from China.

31 Dec 2021; AA: Turkey on Thursday reported 14,380 more infections and 239 new fatalities from the novel coronavirus over the past 24 hours.

According to Health Ministry data, the new cases include 2,219 symptomatic patients. The tally of infections exceeded 2.21 million, while the death toll climbed to 20,881.

As many as 22,021 more people recovered over the past day, taking the total to over 2.1 million.

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — In the early days of the pandemic, a panicked Israel began using a mass surveillance tool on its civilians, tracking people’s cellphones in hopes of stopping the spread of the coronavirus.

The government touted the technology, normally used to catch wanted Palestinian militants, as a breakthrough against the virus. But months later, the tool’s effectiveness is being called into question and critics say its use has come at an immeasurable cost to the country’s democratic principles.

Ankara, Dec 30 (AP-PTI) A first batch of vaccines developed by Chinese biopharmaceutical company Sinovac has arrived in Turkey, after a two-week delay.

A plane carrying 3 million doses of the CoronaVac vaccine landed in the capital Ankara early on Wednesday. The first shipment was initially scheduled to arrive on December 11 but Turkish officials said problems concerning permits, followed by a COVID-19 case in Beijing customs and high alert against infections there, caused the delay.

New Delhi, Dec 30 (PTI) Passenger flights between the UK and India would remain suspended till January 7 and they will resume in a "strictly regulated" manner thereafter, Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Wednesday.

The Civil Aviation Ministry had last week suspended all flights between the European country and India from December 23 to December 31 as a mutated variant of the coronavirus was detected there.