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UK jobless rate highest since 2016 as second COVID-19 lockdown hits

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  Britain’s unemployment rate hit its highest in nearly five years in the three months to November, when coronavirus cases began to rise for a second time and most of the country returned to a partial lockdown. Redundancies touched a record high, taking the unemployment rate to 5.0%, its highest since mid-2016, according to official data, although the increase was slightly weaker than economists’ forecasts. There were some signs of a limited recovery in December, when lockdown measures eased, although a deterioration is likely in early 2021 as a tougher lockdown shut schools and closed most non-essential businesses to the public. Tax data for December showed a 52,000 increase in the number of staff on company payrolls from November, but there were 828,000 fewer workers on payrolls than in February. Economists said the data showed the jobs market was holding up better than many forecasters had feared.Unemployment has been kept down by the government’s Job Retention Scheme, which support
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Global life insurers impose restrictions, worried about long-term pandemic risks

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   Global life insurers are taking steps to curb payouts stemming from the coronavirus pandemic, including long-term health consequences that are not fully understood, industry sources told Reuters. Life insurers, including Prudential Financial Inc, and Aviva PLC, are now imposing waiting periods before COVID-19 patients, including those who have recovered, can apply for coverage, executives and spokespeople said. Some are also limiting coverage for certain age groups. These changes come as some reinsurers demand new safeguards from life insurers they backstop, and as the industry struggles to ascertain the extent of problems caused by the novel coronavirus. COVID-19 has killed over 2.1 million people globally and infected nearly 100 million, according to a Reuters tally. Some victims suffer long-term consequences including severe respiratory problems, organ damage, circulatory impairment and chronic fatigue. Three weeks after recovery, 10% of COVID-19 patients are still unwell and up
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Merck ends COVID vaccine program, cites inferior immune responses

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  Drugmaker Merck & Co on Monday said it will end development of its two COVID-19 vaccines, and will focus pandemic research on treatments, with initial efficacy data on an experimental oral antiviral expected by the end of March. Merck said in a statement it will record a pretax discontinuation charge in the fourth quarter for vaccine candidate V591, which it acquired with the purchase of Austrian vaccine maker Themis Bioscience, and V590, developed with nonprofit research organization IAVI.In early trials, both vaccines generated immune responses that were inferior to those seen in people who had recovered from COVID-19 as well as those reported for other COVID-19 vaccines, the company said.Merck was late to join the race to develop a vaccine to protect against the coronavirus, which has so far killed more than 2 million people and continues to surge in many parts of the world including the United States. U.S. regulators in December authorized COVID-19 vaccines from Moderna Inc a
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Head of French health regulatory body: COVID situation is worrying

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  The COVID-19 situation in France is worrying, the head of the country’s Haute Autorite de Sante (HAS) health regulator told France Inter radio on Monday, as President Emmanuel Macron’s government considers a new lockdown. France has the world’s seventh-highest COVID-19 death toll, with more than 73,000 deaths.It is a worrying moment. We are looking at the figures, day by day. We need to take measures pretty quickly....but at the same time, not too hastily,” said HAS head Dominique Le Guludec. Jean-François Delfraissy, head of the scientific council that advises the government on COVID-19, had said on Sunday that France probably needed a third national lockdown, perhaps as early as the February school holidays, because of the circulation of new variants of the virus.French European Affairs Minister Clement Beaune, when asked about this on French radio on Monday, replied that no firm decision had been taken on the matter. France is currently in a nationwide 6pm to 6am curfew, in a bid
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Turkey to get a further 6.5 million Sinovac vaccines on Monday

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  Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said 6.5 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine made by China’s Sinovac will arrive in Turkey on Monday, part of a second planned shipment, allowing the nationwide rollout to continue. Three million doses of the CoronaVac have already arrived and 10 million more doses were expected in total in Turkey’s second consignment from Sinovac Biotech. “It will reach us in accordance with the procurement plan and the vaccine programme will continue without interruption,” Koca said on Twitter on Sunday. Some 600,000 people were vaccinated in just two days when the vaccine rollout began in mid-January, but the pace later slowed as it moved beyond healthcare workers.
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नेपाल आएको यो “कोभिसिल्ड भ्याक्सिन” यस्ता समस्या हुनेहरुले लगाउन हुँदैन !

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  कोभिड-१९ विरुद्दको खोप उत्पादक कम्पनी सिरम इन्स्टिच्युटले एलर्जीको समस्या भएका, रोग प्रतिरोधात्मक क्षमता कम भएका तथा गर्भवती, ज्वरो आएका तथा रगत पातलो बनाउने औषधि सेवन गरिरहेका व्यक्तिलाई खोप नलगाउन सुझाव दिएको छ। नेपालमा पनि आज पहिलो चरणमा कोभिसिल्ड खोप आएको छ। भारत सरकारले अनुदान सहयोगस्वरुप नेपाललाई १० लाख डोज कोभिसिल्ड खोप उपलब्ध गराएको हो। सिरम इन्स्टिच्यूटल खोप उत्पादनमा प्रयाग गरिएको कुनै पनि घटकको गम्भीर एलर्जी छ भने खोप नगाउन भनेको हो। सिरम इन्स्टिच्युटद्वारा जारी फ्याक्ट सीटमा कोभिसिल्डको पहिलो डोज लगाएपछि कुनै गम्भीर एलर्जी वा अन्य स्वास्थ्य समस्या देखिए ती व्यक्तिलाई दोस्रो डोज नलिन समेत सुचित गराएको छ। कम्पनीको वेवसाइटमा जारी फ्याक्ट सीटमा,‘यदि तपाईलाई कुनै किसिमको औषधि, खाद्य पदार्थ, कुनै खोप वा कोभिसिल्डमा समावेश गरिएका सामग्रीबाट गम्भीर एलर्जी भएको छ। ज्वरो, रगतसम्बन्धि रोग, रगत पातलो बनाउने औषधि सेवन गरिरहको भए वा रोग प्रतिरक्षा शक्ति कमजोर भएको वा औषधि दिइरहनुभएको छ भने खोप नगाउनुहोला।’ साथै, गर्भधारणको योजना बनाइरहेका, गर्भवती र स्तनपान गराइरहेका महिलालाई खोप नलगाउ
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EU says it will make vaccine companies respect supply contracts: Michel

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  The European Union will make pharmaceutical companies respect contracts they have signed for the supply of COVID-19 vaccines, European Council President Charles Michel said on Sunday. Pfizer Inc last week said it was temporarily slowing supplies to Europe to make manufacturing changes that would boost output. On Friday, AstraZeneca also said that initial deliveries to the region will fall short because of a production glitch. We plan to make the pharmaceutical companies respect the contracts they have signed ... by using the legal means at our disposal,” Michel said on Europe 1 radio. He did not mention possible sanctions but said that the EU would insist on transparency about the reasons for the delays.He said that after Pfizer’s first warnings about delays of several weeks, the EU had managed to reduce these delays by taking a tough stance. “We banged our fist on the table and finally announced delays of several weeks turned into a slowdown of deliveries,” he said.
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UK jobless rate highest since 2016 as second COVID-19 lockdown hits

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  Britain’s unemployment rate hit its highest in nearly five years in the three months to November, when coronavirus cases began to rise for a second time and most of the country returned to a partial lockdown. Redundancies touched a record high, taking the unemployment rate to 5.0%, its highest since mid-2016, according to official data, although the increase was slightly weaker than economists’ forecasts. There were some signs of a limited recovery in December, when lockdown measures eased, although a deterioration is likely in early 2021 as a tougher lockdown shut schools and closed most non-essential businesses to the public. Tax data for December showed a 52,000 increase in the number of staff on company payrolls from November, but there were 828,000 fewer workers on payrolls than in February. Economists said the data showed the jobs market was holding up better than many forecasters had feared.Unemployment has been kept down by the government’s Job Retention Scheme, which support
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Covid-19: Preparations on to vaccinate 250-300 million Indians on priority

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A research scientist at India's Serum Institute, the world's largest maker of vaccines. India is gearing up to vaccinate at least 250-300 million people, including about 30 million health care and frontline workers, against  Coronavirus disease (Covid-19)  by July next year, for which it will be looking at procuring about 500-600 million vaccine doses. The Centre is regularly following up with the states to devise measures to successfully launch the Covid-19 vaccination drive across the country that is likely to start in the first quarter of next year when the vaccine is expected to be made available for use. Initially, the approvals to manufacturers are likely to be under the emergency use authorisation, and later after analysing full phase-3 clinical trials data, there will be marketing approvals in place for use by general public.A crucial part of the strategy is to get the exact list of people who need to be vaccinated on priority. States were asked to draw up a list of the
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China Is Making It Harder to Solve the Mystery of How Covid Began

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  In the year since seafood hawkers started appearing at Wuhan’s hospitals sickened with a strange and debilitating pneumonia, the world has learned a lot about Covid-19, from the way it spreads to how to   inoculate   against the infection. Despite these advances, a chasm remains in our understanding of the virus that’s killed nearly 2 million people and   whipsawed   the global economy: we still don’t know how it began. Where the pathogen first emerged and how it transmitted to humans is a stubborn mystery, one that’s becoming more elusive with each passing month. Before the initial cluster among stall-holders at a produce market in central China, the trail largely goes cold, and the country the novel coronavirus hit first — the place many blame for unleashing the disease on an under-prepared world — now has little incentive to help find the true origin of the greatest public health emergency in a century. China has effectively snuffed out Covid-19, thanks to stringent border curbs, 
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