Page 2 - Coronavirus

Kamala Harris seizes on claims that Trump sent Putin Covid testing devices

The vice president said people were scrambling to get these kits during the pandemic

Inflammation in vital brain region could be driving long Covid: Study

Symptoms of long Covid, including fatigue and brain fog, have been linked to damage to the brainstem or the brain region, which acts as a "critical junction" between consciousness and all that is physically happening in the body, according to a study. The brainstem connects the spinal cord to two main parts of the brain -- cerebrum and cerebellum. Often dubbed as the 'control centre' of involuntary functions, the brainstem regulates basic life-sustaining activities such as breathing, heart rate and sleep, and located at the base of the brain. Symptoms of long Covid have been studied to persist in some patients for up to two years following initial infection. The previous studies have found prolonged inflammation to be one of the main drivers of long Covid. In this study, the researchers from the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford, UK, looked at high resolution MRI brain scans of 30 patients, who had severe COVID-19 early in the pandemic, and found that the infection caused ...

XEC now in Australia. Here's what we know about this hybrid Covid variant

The latest variant to make headlines is called XEC. This omicron subvariant has been reported predominantly in the northern hemisphere, but it has now been detected in Australia too

Indian real estate mkt to jump manifold by 2047, to touch $10 trn: Report

Housing demand in Indian real estate market continues to be strong with no signs of slowdown and there is a need to boost supply to meet the requirements, according to realtors' apex body CREDAI. The association said that housing sales in any particular quarter could fall due to lesser number of launches, but consumer demand that has surged post COVID pandemic remains intact. CREDAI is holding its flagship conference 'CREDAI NATCON' here during September 23-26 being attended by more than 1,100 delegates. When asked about estimated fall in sales during the current quarter, CREDAI National Chairman Manoj Gaur said the new launches have been lower in the September quarter. "There is no inventory. There is a huge demand for residential properties from good developers at right locations and attractive prices," Gaur told reporters here. He was replying to a query about PropEquity latest data which estimates 18 per cent fall in sales across nine major cities to 1,04,393 units during ...

What is the new XEC Covid variant? Symptoms, spread, vaccine and prevention

The new Covid variant was initially detected in Germany in June, according to the BBC. Since then, it has been found in several other countries, including the UK, US, Denmark, and more

Amazon asks employees to return to office five days a week starting next yr

Companies have been allowing many employees to work from home since the pandemic, leaving downtown offices nearly empty in a number of cities such as San Francisco and Seattle

Cathay Pacific buys back warrants from Hong Kong government's 2020 bailout

Cathay made heavy losses and layoffs during the COVID-19 pandemic and reported its first annual profit in four years in March, and paid its first dividend since 2019

Chhattisgarh scientists launch India's first Covid severity biomarker kit

The new biomarkers, created by the MRU team, are designed to identify patients at risk of severe Covid-19 in the early stages of infection

LIC ordered to pay Rs 50 lakh to Covid policy premium payer's family

A district-level consumer disputes commission in Kerala has ordered Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), India's largest insurer, to pay Rs 50 lakh in compensation to the family of a policy premium payer who succumbed to COVID-19, citing the insurer's technical lapse. The commission fined LIC Rs 50 lakh for violating its own guidelines, which require policy issuance within 15 days of receiving premium payment. In this case, LIC received over Rs 20 lakh as premium, but refunded it only after nine months. The Kottayam District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission further observed that LIC failed to inform the applicant about the temporary suspension of life insurance policies for non-resident Indians during the COVID-19 pandemic, prior to his demise. This omission denied him the chance to secure alternative coverage, constituting a grave service lapse, it said. According to an official release here, Jemon, a London-based expatriate, had purchased a Jeevan Umang life insurance policy f

IIL develops live-attenuated, needle-free intranasal Covid-19 vaccine

The contagion still killing 1,700 people every week across the world, says WHO

Supreme Court halts Ayush Ministry notification over misleading drug ad

The notification by the Ayush Ministry was in direct breach of the Supreme Court's earlier orders that mandate advertisers to submit a self-declaration before broadcasting or publishing ads

International credit card use up 63% after Covid-19, overtakes debit cards

Data from the RBI shows international credit card spending rose 63 per cent from December 2022 to July 2024, while PPIs grew 53 per cent and debit card transactions increased by just 8 per cent

Spike protein changes found to help Coronavirus infect brain: Study

Changes in the spike protein enhanced the ability of the coronavirus to infect the brain, which could underlie the brain-related symptoms of the disease, including brain fog of long Covid, according to a new study. The spike protein directs the virus, SARS-CoV-2, how to enter human cells before infecting them with COVID-19. The exact causes of long Covid, which persists for months after the initial infection, and its brain-affecting symptoms are still not known and are being widely studied around the world. The study could, therefore, help scientists understand these aspects better and may lead to specific treatments to protect and clear the virus from the brain, according to researchers at Northwestern University, UK, and the University of Illinois-Chicago, US. For the study, published in the journal Nature Microbiology, the researchers infected mice with the coronavirus. As the virus multiplied itself within the host, the researchers compared the spike proteins of the viruses in

Here's what went wrong for Nestle's recently ousted CEO Schneider

This feat was particularly remarkable, given the hit industry margins took during the pandemic

Mpox risks heighten with mosaic of infection patterns in Central Africa

Diagnostic testing is insufficient in central Africa, investigators say, as is the sophisticated genomic sequencing that helped scientists map and understand the spread of Covid-19 within communities

Africa's mpox vaccine plan aims to avoid repeat of Covid-19 pandemic errors

It was a similar story during the Covid-19 pandemic. When those shots first became available, Africa found itself at the back of the queue

Nothing CEO asks staffers to resume in-office work, cites these 3 reasons

Carl Pei acknowledged that the decision might not be universally popular, recognising that many companies have adopted remote or hybrid models since the Covid-19 pandemic

Auto companies Tata Motors, Ashok Leyland board the fully built bus boom

Financing, better after-sales services and stricter regulations fuel rising demand for FBUs

Weak business driving TCS, Infosys and Cognizant to cut travel costs by 50%

A recent American Express survey found that one of the factors hindering a complete recovery of business travel post-Covid is the increasing prevalence of virtual meetings and events

Smartwatch sensors may prevent future pandemics: Israeli researchers

Their findings also suggest that early detection via wearable technology can induce behavioral changes -- such as reduced social contacts -- at a critical stage when the disease is most infectious