Author: News Desk

The US is buying nearly all the next three months’ projected production of COVID-19 treatment remdesivir from US manufacturer Gilead. The US health department announced on Tuesday it had agreed to buy 500,000 doses for use in American hospitals. Tests suggest remdesivir cuts recovery times, though it is not yet clear if it improves survival rates. Gilead did sign a licensing deal in May for production outside the US but it is still in its early stages. “President Trump has struck an amazing deal to ensure Americans have access to the first authorised therapeutic for COVID-19,” Department of Health and…

Oman has ranked third among Arab countries in the 2020 Sustainable Development Report issued by the UN Development Institution. The report, published in the institution’s last night, said that Oman occupied the 76th position globally and won 69.76 points. Sweden took first place, followed by Denmark and Finland in the rating, which comprises 193 countries. Taking insights from the achievements made in the 2015 Sustainable Development Goals, the report monitored the performance of all UN member states in terms of Sustainable Development Standard, the extent to which they achieved the goals of development and the impact of COVID-19 pandemic. The…

UAE records 402 cases, and 1 fatality from coronavirus in the past 24 hours, taking the total cases in the country to 49,069, as the country reopens the mosques with 30 percent limit on worshippers. The new death takes the total fatalities to 316. Also, the country has conducted over 3.5 million exams nationwide, using the best and latest technologies. Meanwhile, 594 new recoveries were also announced, bringing the total recoveries to 38,160. This means that over 77 percent of the confirmed cases have fully recovered from the virus. An increase in violations of safety and health instructions put in place…

Bahrain Defence Force Hospital installs portable chambers for isolation of suspected coronavirus cases. The BDF Military Hospital is one of the first hospitals in the Kingdom of Bahrain to install such equipment, with other hospitals to follow. It is under orders from the Director of the Royal Medical Services, Deputy Chairman of the National Medical Taskforce for Combating Coronavirus (COVID-19), Major General Professor Sh. Khalid bin Ali Al-Khalifa, and in line with the directives issued by the General Command of the Bahrain Defence Force (BDF). https://twitter.com/StarvisionNews/status/1278740114135486464?s=20 The BDF emergency department screens all patients by visual triage, identifying and quickly isolating…

Anti-vaccine protesters took to the streets in Johannesburg on Wednesday to voice their concern over Africa’s first human trials for a potential coronavirus vaccine. Last Wednesday, the University of the Witwatersrand in partnership with Oxford University rolled out South Africa’s first clinical trial, which will consist of 2,000 volunteers. The involvement of South Africa in vaccine trials is intended to ensure the continent will have access to an affordable vaccine and not be left at the back of the queue. About 50 people held protests at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, saying they did not want Africans to…

Geetha Sridhar never used to enter her kitchen in Mumbai without her smartphone. The 54-year-old homemaker used to post dozens of short videos daily on the Chinese video app TikTok, mostly of herself cooking traditional recipes. With 1 million TikTok followers, she earned an average 50,000 rupees ($662) a month from companies who paid her to use their products. For thousands of Indian content creators like Sridhar, TikTok was a window into fame and fortune. But on Tuesday, the app, owned by China’s ByteDance, went blank on phones across India after the government banned it along with 58 other Chinese-origin…

Bahrain has announced the death of a 67-year-old male citizen from coronavirus. So far the total has reached up to 92. It’s the fifth death recorded today. The MOH expressed its condolences to the family of the deceased. The total cases have driven to 26,758 of which 21,331 have recovered, which means that over 79 percent of the confirmed cases have recovered from the virus. Currently, there are 5,335 active cases. Also, there are 86 COVID-19 cases receiving treatment, of which 46 are in a critical condition. So far the country has conducted 554,239 tests, as per the government statics.

The Saudi-led coalition has started a military operation against the Yemeni Houthi movement after it stepped up cross-border missile and drone attacks on Saudi Arabia, state television reported on Wednesday. In Yemen, Houthi-run Al Masirah TV reported coalition air strikes on the capital Sanaa, Marib, al-Jouf, al-Bayda, Hajjah and Saada provinces on Wednesday. The coalition, which has been battling the Iran-aligned movement for five years, will hold a news conference on the operation against Houthi targets that aims to neutralise its military capabilities, Al-Ekhbariya channel and Saudi-owned Al Arabiya TV said. Last week, Houthi fighters fired missiles that reached the…

The United Arab Emirates is seeking to verify the credentials of the Pakistani pilots and engineers employed in its airlines after the South Asian government grounded 262 pilots for holding “dubious” qualifications. Pakistan grounded the pilots on June 26 on suspicion that they allegedly falsified their examinations to qualify for flying aircraft, leading to them having licenses the country’s aviation minister termed “dubious. A total of 262 of the country’s 860 pilots were affected, including 141 of national carrier Pakistan International Airline’s (PIA) pilots. The Director-General of the UAE’s General Civil Aviation Authority Saif Mohammed Al Suwaidi requested the verification…

Saudi Arabia has reported 3,402 new cases and 49 deaths from coronavirus, taking the total cases to 194,225. The death toll raised to 1,698 after reporting the new deaths. Meanwhile, 1,994 patients fully recovered from the virus, bringing the total recoveries to 132,760. In line with recent trends, the majority of the new cases are in Riyadh (401), followed by Dammam (283) and Al Hofuf (229). https://twitter.com/media_ksa/status/1278306149838786561?s=20