Health

London, Nov 27 (AP-PTI) The British government on Friday said it has formally asked the country's medicines regulator to assess whether a coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University should be authorised for use.

The step comes amid questions about preliminary results from trials of the jab, after the company and the university acknowledged that the most encouraging part of their findings stemmed from a dosing error.

Kolkata, Nov 26 (PTI) Months ahead of the 2021 state polls, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday expanded the state-run "Swasthya Sathi' health scheme to cover the entire population of the state.

The decision will be applicable from December 1, 2020, Banerjee announced.

25 Nov 2020; MEMO: Tunisian authorities have decided to extend the state of emergency for an additional month.

According to the Official Gazette of the Republic of Tunisia, the government took the decision to extend the state of emergency until 25 December.

Washington, Nov 26 (PTI) US President-elect Joe Biden has said democracy was tested this year when coronavirus hit and the people of the country showed that they were up to the task by voting in record numbers in the presidential elections amid the pandemic.

He also said the country is at war with the coronavirus and called for redoubling of efforts to combat it.

Lucknow, Nov 25 (PTI) The Lucknow Police Commissionerate on Wednesday said that prohibitory orders in the state capital will now be extended till December 1 in view of upcoming festivals during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a statement issued here, Joint Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Lucknow Naveen Arora said that section 144 of the CrPC was imposed in the city on October 15 and it was in place till November 25.

New Delhi, Nov 26 (PTI) Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai on Thursday tested positive for coronavirus.

Rai is the third minister in the Arvind Kejriwal government to have contracted the virus.

Earlier, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and Health Minister Satyendar Jain had been infected with coronavirus.

An official said that Rai, who is also AAP's Delhi convenor, had met party workers around Diwali.

LONDON (AP) — AstraZeneca and Oxford University on Wednesday acknowledged a manufacturing error that is raising questions about preliminary results of their experimental COVID-19 vaccine.

A statement describing the error came days after the company and the university described the shots as “highly effective” and made no mention of why some study participants didn’t receive as much vaccine in the first of two shots as expected.

25 Nov 2020, PTI: RDIF continues expanding existing agreements with international manufacturing partners to produce the vaccine for more than 500 million people in 2021 MOSCOW, Nov. 24, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The cost of one dose of the Sputnik V vaccine for international markets will be less than 10. Sputnik V is a two dose vaccine.

Therefore, Sputnik V will be two or more times cheaper than mRNA vaccines with similar efficacy levels.[1] Vaccination with Sputnik V will be free of charge for Russian citizens.

New Delhi, Nov 24 (PTI) At a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday said the high severity of the third wave of COVID-19 in the national capital is due to many factors, pollution being an important one, sources said

Kejriwal told the prime minister that Delhi saw the peak of 8,600 coronavirus cases on November 10 during the third wave and since then, the number of cases as well as the positivity rate are steadily decreasing, the sources said

New Delhi, Nov 23 (PTI) The Delhi High Court Monday declined to entertain a plea seeking directions to the AAP government to immediately place the city under lockdown in view of the rising COVID-19 cases and air pollution levels, saying the petition was "half-baked" and "unnecessary".

A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan said the plea was filed without doing any homework and it ought to be dismissed with costs.