Important information of covid 19 and healthcare tips how to recover from corona virus

Spain’s nascent economic recovery is under threat because of a second wave of coronavirus infections, the International Monetary Fund said, warning that the government shouldn’t remove fiscal support too early. Spain has the highest number of cases in Europe, and the IMF assessment comes as the country prepares to impose new targeted restrictions in hotspots such as Madrid. Health officials from regional administrations will on Wednesday be asked to approve government plans, which would involve additional curbs on social gatherings as well as bars and restaurants. While such measures will hit the already-beleaguered hospitality industry, the IMF said controlling the virus is vital for the economy. In the review, which was conducted before the latest measures were announced, it predicted a 12.8% economic contraction this year. “Getting the second wave of infections under control will be critical for the economic outlook,” the Washington-based fund said. Risks are “tilted strongly to...

COVID-19 has hit Spain particularly hard. The first wave of the virus, suffered in late winter and spring 2020, was one of the worst in the European Union (EU), requiring a strict stay-at-home lockdown of over 100 days between 15 March and 21 June. Banning mobility affected the Spanish economy since it is one of the most open countries in the world, receiving, on average, over 80 million visitors every year. Tourism accounts for 12 percent of GDP and 13 percent of employment. This structural factor partly explains the steep decline of 18.5 percent of GDP in the second quarter of 2020, way above the EU GDP, which contracted by “only” 11.7 percent. The situation remains dire. Annual GDP contraction  for 2020 will be around 12 percent, the deepest since the Civil War in the 1930s. The fiscal deficit will be north of 10 percent, and unemployment will be close to 20 percent. More worrying, the health situation is worsening, with the threat of a second wave at the end of the summer...

The Spanish government is due to approve on Tuesday (Sep 29) an extension to Jan 31 of the furlough scheme that supports hundreds of thousands of workers through the country's worst recession on record, a labour ministry source told Reuters. With a new wave of COVID-19 cases hitting the economy hard, the ministry has reached an agreement with labour unions to extend the ERTE scheme, as furloughs are known in Spain, but still lacks the support of representatives of businesses, the source said. Even though the main business lobby in Spain, CEOE, still has to approve the agreement, the cabinet will pass the extension of the scheme which was due to expire on Wednesday. Millions of workers in Spain have benefited from the ERTE scheme from mid-March, when authorities imposed one of Europe's strictest lockdown to curb the novel coronavirus epidemic. As restrictions were lifted in late June, many returned to their jobs. But as of August more than 800,000 people were still getting ERT...

Between Friday and Monday, Spain registered nearly 32,000 more coronavirus cases and 179 deaths as the government continues to clash with local Madrid officials over tightening measures. As of Monday, more than one million residents in Madrid were confined in their neighborhoods and only allowed to leave for essential tasks such as work and school. These areas also have stricter measures including closed parks and reduced capacity in venues like bars and restaurants. Yet, over the weekend, Health Minister Salvador Illa warned that the region would be at "serious risk" if it did not take even tighter measures, including a city-wide confinement scheme, as well as lockdown in all areas that have detected more than 500 cases per 100,000 people in the last two weeks. Madrid premier Isabel Ayuso told radio station SER on Sunday that she would follow guidance to close regions within that threshold, but only if all areas of Spain with the same contagion rate were also forced to close...

The government will consider easing a rule on eating at movie theaters, economic revitalization minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said Monday, in an additional relaxation amid a recent decline in the number of novel coronavirus infections. While movie theaters have been allowed to sell all their seats since Sept. 19, eating is only allowed if audiences are limited to 50 percent of seating capacity to prevent infection. Movie theater operators had asked the government to ease the restriction, Nishimura, who is in charge of responding to the pandemic, told a news conference. While the government has determined that it is safe to consume beverages in movie theaters, Nishimura said people need to take off face masks for longer periods to eat. He added the government will make a decision on whether it is safe to relax the rule based on scientific data. While the number of infections in the country has been on a downward trend since mid-August, an advisory group for the health ministry warned las...

Japan will make available an online version of a health questionnaire that travelers are required to fill out before entering the country to streamline the immigration control process, sources familiar with the matter said Saturday. The online questionnaire meant to flag travelers who are possibly at higher risk of arriving while infected with the coronavirus will be available soon on a trial basis for some international flights arriving at Narita airport near Tokyo, they said. The questionnaire is currently handed out to travelers aboard inbound flights. With the new system to be introduced more widely later this year, arriving passengers can complete the questionnaire by accessing a dedicated website of the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry before their departure and are given a QR code that confirms they have completed the process to use upon arrival, according to the sources. Japanese authorities said Friday the country will reopen its borders to foreigners with permits to stay ...

Japan on Monday confirmed 279 new COVID-19 infections, bringing the nation's cumulative total to 82,577 excluding cases related to a cruise ship quarantined in Yokohama near Tokyo earlier in the year. Of the 279 new cases, 78 of them were reported in Tokyo, the metropolitan government said, with the daily figure falling below the 100-mark for the first time since last Wednesday. Tokyo, the hardest hit by the novel coronavirus among all of Japan's 47 prefectures, has seen its total tally rise to 25,335 infections, the metropolitan government's preliminary figures showed Monday. Towards the end of last week, experts voiced concerns that while the country had seen new infections mark a downward trajectory of late, virus resurgence was still possible. Virologists and infectious disease experts advising the health ministry said that the reproduction number in Japan (R0 or R-number), also known as the R value, which measures the average number of people that one infected person w...

The job information provider Mynavi ran a survey in June 2020, targeting 2,886 companies nationwide and asking about their recruitment processes for graduates in 2021 and their plans for 2022 graduates as of that time. The results revealed that 36.6% of companies had not yet confirmed any graduate hires for spring 2021. This was a 9.1-point increase from the previous year. Mynavi said there had been a lot of competition among companies to hire a diminished number of graduates in 2019 and the much higher results this time speak to the impact of the pandemic. This is particularly the case with small and medium-sized companies. Of the companies that stated they had not yet confirmed any hires, those with fewer than 300 employees gave the largest response with 43.3%, in comparison to 29.3% of companies employing 300-999 staff members and 16.0% for those with more than 1,000 employees. It reflects that the smaller the company, the greater the percentage that had failed to hir...

Cocooned in the mountains of Nagano, Japan, employees at Ina Food Industry Co. begin the day by tidying the garden around their office and factory buildings. The smell of freshly cut grass perfumes the summer air as loudspeakers pipe out the company song: “… surrounded by the green of pines, showered by the happiness of the morning sun, the gathering of our comrades. … ” As usual, the company’s patriarch, Hiroshi Tsukakoshi, who turns 83 in October, greets his employees, reinforcing the sense of community and security he’s created over more than six decades of running the business while never cutting a single job. And he doesn’t plan on doing so now, even as the Covid-19 pandemic causes the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Tsukakoshi has told his workforce of 500 or so that all their jobs are safe. Even though sales are forecast to be down about 15% this year, he says, Ina Food’s employees will still get modest annual raises and their traditional summer b...

Australia has cut forecasts for the country's LNG exports for 2020-2021 (July-June) by some 6% to 75.6 million mt, citing the expected impacts of both the COVID-19 pandemic and domestic technical issues. If realized, the forecast for the current fiscal would see volumes fall by 3.7 million mt year on year. They are expected to recover in 2021-2022 to 80.1 million mt, the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources said Sept. 28 in a report. In the December edition of the report, which came out prior to the widespread impacts of COVID-19, the department had forecast 2020-2021 Australian LNG exports to be as high as 81.3 million mt. The latest edition noted that Australia's average capacity utilization is expected to fall in calendar 2020 on the back of some buyers having exercised rights to reduce contracted purchases by around 10%. Some of these volumes have been replaced by cheaper spot cargoes, it noted. "Cargoes have also been delayed, several plants have unde...

Australia's coronavirus hot spot state of Victoria on Sunday extended a hard lockdown in its capital Melbourne until Sept. 28, as the infection rate has declined more slowly than hoped. "We cannot open up at this time. If we were to we would lose control very quickly," State Premier Daniel Andrews told a televised media conference on Sunday. The hard lockdown was ordered on Aug. 2 in response to a second wave of infections, that erupted in Melbourne. Australia's second most populous state has been the epicenter of a second wave of the novel coronavirus, now accounting for about 75% of the country's 26,282 cases and 90% of its 753 deaths. Victoria on Sunday reported 63 new COVID-19 infections and five deaths, down from a peak of 725 new cases on Aug. 5. By contrast, Australia's most populous state, New South Wales, has had no more than 13 cases a day since early August. Melbourne's stage 4 restrictions, which had been due to end on Sept. 13, shut most of ...

Australia's coronavirus hotspot of Victoria said on Monday its daily rise in new coronavirus infections fell to single digits for the first time in more than three months, as the state began winding back some restrictions. Victoria, Australia's second-most populous state, placed nearly 5 million residents of its capital Melbourne into a hard lockdown in early August but lifted a night curfew on Sunday thanks to a steady fall in new daily case numbers. The southeastern state reported just five new cases and three deaths from COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, after daily cases topped 700 in early August. The two-week average of new infections in Melbourne fell below 21. Authorities have flagged that more curbs could be relaxed once average cases hit certain targets. Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Sunday said the state should do more "in the weeks ahead to safely ease more restrictions," after state authorities promised an accelerated time table for returning to normal....

Australia’s coronavirus hotspot Victoria recorded a single digit rise in new cases for the first time in three months on Monday and lifted some of the state’s tough restrictions, as it aims for near-normal conditions by Christmas. Australia’s second-most populous state reported just five new cases and three deaths from Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, after daily cases had topped 700 in early August. That pushed a key indicator, the rolling 14-day average, to 20.9 cases, tracking ahead of state government expectations. “That is a very, very significant set of numbers. We are well ahead of schedule,” Premier Daniel Andrews told a daily press conference, anticipating a move to “Covid normal”, where most restrictions are lifted. However, he urged people to continue to follow strict social distancing rules, despite the rigours of an eight-week lockdown so far to curb the second-wave outbreak. “If people don’t do the right thing in the final few weeks of the lockdown, or if they lie about ...

Victoria, Australia's second most populous state and the epicentre of the country's COVID-19 outbreak, will accelerate the easing of social distancing restrictions as infections slow to fewer than 20 cases a day, its premier said on Sunday. Victoria, which reported 16 COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, has placed nearly 5 million residents of its capital Melbourne under one of the world's most stringent lockdowns since early August. With cases well below the record one-day high of more than 700 cases reported in August, state Premier Daniel Andrews said some curbs, including a night curfew, will be removed almost immediately. The remaining curbs could be relaxed earlier, with restrictions eased when case numbers hit certain triggers. Victoria state previously said most restrictions would remain in place until the end of November. "We are ahead of schedule, we have made more progress than we hoped to make at this point in time," Andrews told reporters in Melbou...

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Friday insisted that any nation that develops a Covid-19 vaccine share it universally, warning that history will be a "severe judge" if not. Morrison made the strongly worded appeal at the United Nations as the United States, a historic ally of Australia, resists global efforts to collaborate on a vaccine. "When it comes to a vaccine, Australia's view is very clear -- whoever finds the vaccine must share it," Morrison said in a message to the virtual UN General Assembly recorded in front of the iconic Sydney Opera House. "This is a global responsibility and it's a moral responsibility for a vaccine to be shared far and wide," he said. "Some might see short-term advantage or even profit, but I assure you, to anyone who may think along those lines -- humanity will have a very long memory and be a very, very severe judge." Morrison vowed that Australia will share a vaccine if it ...

Australia’s coronavirus hotspot of Victoria said on Monday its daily rise in new coronavirus infections fell to single digits for the first time in more than three months, as the state began winding back some restrictions. Victoria, Australia’s second-most populous state, placed nearly 5 million residents of its capital Melbourne into a hard lockdown in early August but lifted a night curfew on Sunday thanks to a steady fall in new daily case numbers. The southeastern state reported just five new cases and three deaths from COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, after daily cases topped 700 in early August. The two-week average of new infections in Melbourne fell below 21. Authorities have flagged that more curbs could be relaxed once average cases hit certain targets. Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Sunday said the state should do more “in the weeks ahead to safely ease more restrictions,” after state authorities promised an accelerated time table for returning to normal. The southeastern st...

Amid the race to produce a potential vaccine for the novel coronavirus, Russia today announced that it will be able to vaccinate more than one billion people within 2020-2021, according to a report. The country's sovereign wealth fund said that more than one billion people would receive its  COVID-19 vaccine  "Sputnik-V" in the said period, reported Reuters citing the Interfax news agency. The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) has already signed a deal to export the vaccine abroad and on the Brazilian state of Bahia. Along with that, the state also aims to buy  50 million doses to market in Brazil , officials said. Another agreement with Kazakhstan, which is set to buy more than 2 million doses initially and could later increase the volume to 5 million doses. India will be producing 300 million doses of the vaccine, according to reports. The update comes in the backdrop of Russia earlier announcing that it has successfully fast-tracked its recently launched Sputn...

The first batch of  Russia's Covid-19 vaccine 'Sputnik V'  is likely to be delivered to all regions of the country by Monday, 14 September, Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko told reporters, according to news agency TASS. "The first batches of the vaccine for testing the supply chain have already been shipped, we are now checking the delivery system so that the staff gets to know it. The first small batches have already been shipped to all regions, the Leningrad region will also receive [the vaccine] among the first ones. In fact, the first samples of the vaccine will be delivered by Monday," Murashko said. The development comes after a week of Russia releasing the first batch of the Sputnik V vaccine into civil circulation, the Russian Health Ministry informed. Sputnik V Covid vaccine, which is developed by Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology under the Russian Health Ministry, may be granted permission to release a batch of its v...

The Centre is in consultations with the Russian government for exploring the possibility of cooperation between the two countries for advancing the Covid-19 vaccine in India, Parliament was told on Friday. The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) has informed that it has received information about one Covid-19 vaccine developed and approved in Russia,  Minister of State for Health Ashwini Choubey informed the Lok Sabha.    Further, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), an autonomous organisation under the Department of Health Research, has informed that as per information available from WHO draft landscape of Covid-19 vaccine (last updated on September 17), globally there are 36 candidate vaccines which are under various stages of clinical trials.  "Of this only 02 are Indian candidates (Bharat Biotech International Ltd. and Cadila Healthcare). All 36 candidates are under various stages of clinical trials. None of the candidate vaccine...

China, the United States and Russia butted heads at the United Nations on Thursday over responsibility for the pandemic that has interrupted the world, trading allegations about who mishandled and politicised the virus in one of the few real-time exchanges among top officials at this year's Covid-distanced UN General Assembly meeting. The remarks at the UN Security Council came two days after UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres decried the lack of international cooperation in tackling the still "out-of-control" coronavirus. The sharp exchanges, at the end of a virtual meeting on "Post Covid-19 Global Governance," reflected the deep divisions among the three veto-wielding council members that have escalated since the virus first emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, speaking first, stressed the importance of UN-centred multilateralism and alluded to countries - including the US - opting out of making a Covid-19 vaccine a glo...

The Russian government on Monday said that over 250 Moscow residents have got the dose of its  first Covid-19 vaccine , Sputnik V, over the past five days, according to a report. The vast majority of them are in good health, the anti-coronavirus crisis centre told reporters today. "Over the past five days of clinical trials of the vaccine against the coronavirus infection over 250 Moscow residents got inoculated at the seven centres that opened first. Doctors closely monitor the health condition of the vaccinated. The absolute majority is in excellent health - 75% of the participants today do not observe any symptoms or ailments," the crisis centre said, according to the Russian news agency. On Friday, Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko told reporters that the first batch of Russia's Covid-19 vaccine was likely to be delivered to all regions of the country by 14 September, according to TASS. "The first batches of the vaccine for testing the supply chain hav...

Russia will soon register a second vaccine against COVID-19, informed President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday. "By the way, the second vaccine against coronavirus will be registered soon," as reported by Sputnik quoting Putin while speaking to the Russian Upper House lawmakers. On Tuesday, national consumer health watchdog said that another vaccine -- developed by the Vector research centre and dubbed as EpiVacCorona would be registered by October 15. Putin also complimented the country's ability to counter the pathogen adding that the healthcare system is "now ready to efficiently counter' COVID-19. "During the pandemic, we have perceived the value of every human life, the value of the heroic effort of healthcare workers, and of course, the enormous role that healthcare system's efficiency plays for the society and the country. Over the past months, its capabilities have increased significantly. The healthcare system is now ready to efficiently counter th...

SOCHI  (Russia):  Formula One  confirmed on Friday that it has recorded the sport's biggest  coronavirus  spike this year as it prepares for the  Russian Grand Prix , the 10th race of the season. The sport said it had returned its highest number of positive  Covid-19  test results, hours before welcoming a significant number of spectators to a race for the first time this year. The  F1  organisation and the sport's ruling body the International Motoring Federation (FIA) said they had discovered seven cases of coronavirus following 3,256 tests between September 18 and September 24. The tests are carried out every five days on the teams' staff, drivers and all paddock and news media personnel. This weekend's event is the first major international sports event of the Covid-19 era to have a significant crowd of spectators after the Russian promoters claim to have sold 30,000 tickets for Sunday's race. Seven of the ten teams are based in ...

Iran and Russia's sovereign wealth fund RDIF are discussing the joint production of a vaccine against COVID-19, Russian news agencies cited the Iranian ambassador to Moscow as saying on Friday. "We are holding talks, I spoke with the head of RDIF Kirill Dmitriev, our officials have held several rounds of consultations and we announced that we will co-operate," Ambassador to Moscow Kazem Jalali was cited as saying. Thus far, Russia has struck a manufacturing partnership deal with India, which is due to produce 300 million doses of the 'Sputnik-V' vaccine domestically. It is also discussing such partnerships with several other countries, including Brazil.

More than a month after becoming the first country to approve a coronavirus  vaccine , Russia has yet to administer it to a large population outside a clinical trial, health officials and outside experts say. The approval, which came with much fanfare, occurred before Russia had tested the vaccine in late-stage trials for possible side effects and for its disease-fighting ability. It was seen as a political gesture by President Vladimir Putin to assert victory in the global race for a vaccine. It is not clear whether the slow start to the vaccination campaign is a result of limited production capacity or second thoughts about inoculating the population with an unproven product. The Russian vaccine is one of nine candidates around the world now in the late-stage clinical trials that are the only sure means to determine whether a vaccine is effective and find possible side effects. A vaccine is considered the only way to halt the spread of the coronavirus, which has sickened more...

One in seven volunteers complained of side effects after being injected with Sputnik V, Russia’s experimental vaccine against the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), the country’s health minister has said. Mikhail Murashko, the Russian health minister, said more than 300 out of the announced 40,000 volunteers have been vaccinated with Sputnik V so far, according to the state-run TASS news agency. “Approximately 14% have small complaints of weakness, muscle pain for 24 hours and an occasional increase in body temperature,” TASS quoted Murashko as saying on Wednesday, according to Moscow Times. The minister said the symptoms after being injected with the anti-coronavirus vaccine “level off” by the next day. “The complications are described in the instructions and are predictable,” he said, according to TASS. Volunteers are expected to receive a second shot of the adenovirus-based viral vector vaccine within 21 days of the first. The Sputnik V has yet to complete large scale...

The Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine, the world’s first officially registered vaccine against coronavirus, is currently undergoing post-registration trials The Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine is undergoing clinical trials for the coronavirus pandemic The vaccine was registered by the Ministry of Health of Russia and became the world's first registered vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 based on the human adenoviral vectors platform Moscow says it has received requests or 'expressions of interests' from various countries for 1.2 billion doses of the vaccine Moscow:  Hans Kluge, the Regional Director for Europe at the World Health Organization (WHO), said that the UN health agency greatly appreciates the efforts Russia has made to develop a vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 disease,  Sputnik News  reported. The Sputnik V, the world’s first officially registered vaccine against COVID-19, developed by the Gamaleya Scientific Research Institute of Epidemi...

The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, and ChemRar Group have agreed to supply  Avifavir , the world's first registered favipiravir-based drug against  coronavirus  and Russia’s first drug approved for the treatment of COVID-19, to 17 countries. Avifavir and other favipiravir-based drugs produced in Russia, as well as  Remdesivir  developed in the US are currently the leading drugs against COVID-19registered globally. Avifavir will be delivered to Argentina, Bulgaria, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Kuwait, Panama, Paraguay, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Slovakia,South Africa, UAE and Uruguay. The drug has already been delivered to Belarus, Bolivia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. On May 29, 2020, Avifavir received a registration certificate from Russia’s Ministry of Health based on thorough and transparent clinical data and became the first favipiravir-based drug in the world approved...