Top headlines: Pfizer's pill cuts risk of severe Covid; Delhi AQI worsens

Business Standard brings you the top headlines on Friday

Pfizer develops Covid pill that cuts hospitalisations and deaths by 89%

Pfizer Inc. said its Covid-19 pill reduced hospitalisations and deaths in high-risk patients by 89%, a result that has the potential to upend how the disease caused by the coronavirus is treated and alter the course of the pandemic.

The drugmaker said in a statement on Friday that it was no longer taking new patients in a clinical trial of the treatment “due to the overwhelming efficacy” and planned to submit the findings to U.S. regulatory authorities for emergency authorization as soon as possible. Read more

Oil rises after OPEC+ rebuffs US call to boost output; Brent crude past $80

Oil prices rose on Friday after OPEC+ producers rebuffed a U.S. call to raise supply to cool the market, sticking to plans for a gradual increase in output after cuts made in the face of the coronavirus crisis.

Brent crude rose 36 cents, or 0.45%, to $80.90 a barrel by 0912 GMT after touching $81.79. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude gained 60 cents, or 0.76%, to $79.41 after rising as high as $80.17. Read more

Party's over: Diwali leaves Delhi wheezing in dangerously unhealthy air

The morning after Diwali, residents of New Delhi woke up under a blanket of toxic smog and breathed in the most dangerously polluted air of the year so far, after revellers, as usual, defied a fireworks ban.

New Delhi has the worst air quality of all world capitals, but even by its sorry standards Friday's reading was extra bad, as people paid the price for celebrating India's biggest festival in the noisiest, and most smoky way. Read more

Sidhu says he has taken back his resignation as Punjab Congress chief

Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu on Friday informed that he has taken back his resignation as the president of the party's Punjab unit.

"I have taken back my resignation (as Punjab Congress chief) and I categorically state that the day new Advocate General will be appointed and a new panel will come, I will take charge of my office. It was not any personal ego," Sidhu said while addressing a press conference. Read more