The jab, produced by Serum Institute of India under licence from the US-based Novavax, will now be distributed as part of global vaccine-sharing system Covax, “giving a much-needed boost to ongoing efforts to vaccinate more people in lower-income countries”, WHO said in a statement.

“Even with new variants emerging, vaccines remain one of the most effective tools to protect people against serious illness and death from SARS-COV-2,” said Mariangela Simao, the WHO’s access to vaccines chief.

“This listing aims to increase access particularly in lower-income countries, 41 of which have still not been able to vaccinate 10 per cent of their populations, while 98 countries have not reached 40 per cent,” she said.

Covovax requires two doses and is stable at 2 to 8 degrees Celsius refrigerated temperatures.

(AFP)

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December 16 is celebrated each year as Victory Day for the moment Pakistani soldiers surrendered en masse to Indian and Bangladeshi forces, bringing an end to the nine-month conflict that claimed as many as three million lives.

Veterans who lost their limbs in the war laid wreaths at the National Martyrs’ Memorial, a concrete monument near the capital symbolising the campaign against Pakistani rule, before thousands of solemn observers.

Women across the country wore saris of green and red, matching the national flag, as they watched local concerts where musicians performed the country’s patriotic songs.

Bangladesh has held celebrations throughout the year to mark the golden anniversary of its independence, though some events were called off because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the guest of honour in March to mark the outbreak of the conflict — a recognition of his country’s crucial aid and support at the time.

“I recall the great valour and sacrifice by… the Indian Armed Forces,” Modi, who laid a wreath in Delhi to mark the anniversary, tweeted. “Together, we fought and defeated oppressive forces.”

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The Observatory along with Nursing and Midwifery Council, General Medical Council, and the Care Quality Commission have said in a statement that leaders should ensure that health and care staff are protected from racism, or any other form of discrimination, as they go about their vital work.

“It is essential that all healthcare employers ensure staff and patients are not discriminated against due to any form of racism, bias or prejudice. Racism within our society must be viewed as absolutely intolerable; it has devastating impacts upon lives and needs to be tackled head-on. The NHS Race and Health Observatory will work with the healthcare regulators, and all other parts of the wider healthcare system, to identify and tackle structural inequalities that lead to differential experience and outcome for our healthcare workforce, diverse communities and patients,” said Dr Habib Naqvi, director, NHS Race and Health Observatory.

“Britain will not be a successful, multicultural and forward-thinking country until it has equity at its core; and if we are to move towards achieving the promise of that ideal, we all must keep our own moral compass pointed in the right direction.”

The NHS Race and Health Observatory is an independent body hosted by the NHS Confederation and supported by NHS England and NHS Improvement. It provides evidenced recommendations with regards to long-standing health inequalities affecting ethnic minority patients and communities, including maternity and neonatal outcomes, mental health, data and digital access to healthcare – as well as the immediate challenges of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. www.nhsrho.org

“At the Nursing and Midwifery Council, we strongly believe there’s no place for racism in health and care, and as the regulator of almost 732,000 nursing and midwifery professionals, the NMC stands firmly together with our partners in being committed to tackling institutional discrimination in all its forms,” said Andrea Sutcliffe CBE, chief executive and rRegistrar, Nursing and Midwifery Council.

“The impact that racist and other discriminatory attitudes and behaviours has on people is devastating. That’s why the values of equality, diversity and human rights – that are fundamental in the delivery of person-centred care for everyone.

“We’re also determined to play our own significant part in becoming a better and fairer regulator by continuing with the second phase of our research into the differences experienced in referral rates of black and minority ethnic nurses, midwives and nursing associates. We’re committed to rooting out and addressing any unfairness in our own processes.”

Charlie Massey, chief executive and registrar, General Medical Council, said: “The GMC professional standards are clear – doctors must not unfairly discriminate against patients or colleagues. If doctors are aware of colleagues behaving in a way that does not meet the standards, we expect them to raise concerns or challenge them. Addressing entrenched bias and racial discrimination requires sustained focus and for healthcare regulators be aligned on this commitment.”

Ian Trenholm, Chief Executive, Care Quality Commission said: “As part of our Well Led domain we assess how organisations are performing on race equality across their workforce and if we find poor practice, it impacts on the rating we give. Where it is within our legal remit, we also take enforcement action to make sure providers of health and care services take action to improve.

“When we do not have legal powers to act ourselves on workforce equality in regulated services, we work with others to resolve issues and we welcome closer joint working on racism, bias and inequalities across all health and social care regulators.

“Everyone in health and social care has a role to play in ensuring that all colleagues can thrive in their workplaces and in tackling the inequalities in health and care that sadly still exist for some people. We would encourage anyone aware of racist or discriminatory behaviour to raise those concerns directly and with us via Give Feedback on Care.”

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The country has some 500 million smartphone users, most of whom use Google’s Android platform, but Indian start-ups have criticised the company for policies they say stifle their growth.

SoftBank-backed Paytm, one of India’s leading payments firms, protested against the U.S. tech giant’s decision to remove its app for a few hours last month citing violations of gambling policies.

Alphabet-owned Google also said this week that it will strictly enforce a policy which will levy a 30% commission on payments made within apps on its Android store.

In response to an earlier media report, a senior Indian official told Reuters New Delhi hasn’t received any formal request but was willing to consider developing a mobile platform where apps could be downloaded.

“Before we open one we need to know there will be takers for it,” said the government official, declining to be named as he is not authorised to speak with media.

India already runs a mobile app store that lists over 1200 mainly government-backed applications, but also Paytm, and the government could also consider expanding that instead of starting from scratch, the official added.

India’s technology ministry, Google and Apple did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Google has previously said that fewer than 3% of developers with apps on its Play store sold digital goods over the last 12 months, and nearly 97% comply with its payment system policy.

Nonetheless, several Indian start-up founders are calling for a local app store that doesn’t charge a high service fee.

“It’s absolutely necessary to have a local app store,” said Vishal Gondal, co-founder of Bengaluru-based gaming firm nCore Games.

“If we have to give 30% fees to Google and also pay for customer acquisition, how will our budding businesses survive?”

Paytm disagreed with Google’s assessment but removed certain promotions to have its app reinstated. The company’s founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma has said in interviews that Google was acting as “judge, jury and executioner”.

Without referring to Paytm by name, Google later said its policies were aimed at protecting users from potential harm and were applied and enforced on all developers consistently.

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At least 70,000 people are estimated to have been laid off after $3.5 billion-worth of clothing orders were cancelled or suspended and exports plummeted by 84% in April, the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) said.

Most of the country’s 4,000 clothing factories, which employ about 4 million people – mostly women, reopened in April after a month-long break to stem the spread of COVID-19. Bangladesh has seen at least 364,900 confirmed cases and 5,250 deaths to-date.

While factory bosses say the sector has seen a recent uptick – with 90% of cancelled orders reinstated – and is hiring again, activists said demand for jobs outstripped supply and pointed to a lack of alternatives and assistance for fired garment workers.

“For every 10 workers who lost their jobs, only one is being hired,” Kalpona Akter, founder of the Bangladesh Centre for Worker Solidarity, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone.

“This is putting the lives of thousands of workers and their families at risk, because they haven’t earned for the last three to four months,” Akter said.

With no social security to tide them over, many of the workers have had to leave Dhaka to return to their villages and are now relying on food handouts from local charities, she said.

Sajida Foundation, which has partnered with British clothing app Mallzee to raise money by selling off unwanted stock, said it had distributed about $250,000 among 10,500 garment workers.

Advocates welcomed the initiative but say charity alone will not suffice and have urged the government to work with factory owners and brands to introduce welfare benefits for the sector.

A European Union-funded scheme to provide cash to laid-off garment workers is being discussed, according to a labour ministry official who was not authorised to speak to the media.

SECOND SLOWDOWN FEARED

The Thomson Reuters Foundation spoke to 20 people who lost their garment industry jobs between April and August. Three had been rehired but most were unemployed and struggling to get by.

“I haven’t paid my rent in two months and I am struggling to feed my children,” said 26-year-old Jesmin, a former seamstress who lost her job in April. She requested to remain anonymous.

“I tried standing outside factories at the start of every month because that’s when they are most likely to hire new workers. But its been difficult as there are so many of us looking for jobs. I hope October is better,” she added.

Although the industry has staged a recovery lately – with exports reaching $2.9 billion in August after falling to $520 million in April – factory owners said expected orders were down by two-thirds and that brands were demanding 10-15% price cuts.

“The turnaround hasn’t been significant,” said Mohammad Hatem, vice-president of the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association, which represents about 800 factories.

“We thought we would get a good number of orders before Christmas, but that hasn’t happened.”

Nazma Akter, head of the Sommilito Garments Sramik Federation – a union that represents nearly 100,000 garment workers – said she had come across cases where laid-off workers had been rehired by their former factories but on worse terms.

“It’s been difficult for workers because new orders have been hard to come by,” she said.

“Even workers who have jobs now are worried of losing them because of the pandemic’s second wave in Europe.”

Koli, a 26-year-old helper or junior worker, lost her job in April and said she now depended on her family for survival.

“I am not a skilled operator, there isn’t much demand for helpers,” said Koli, who asked to remain anonymous.

“I have tried hard, but couldn’t find a job. I don’t know what my future holds.”

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The Broadcast Audience Research Council India (BARC) said the first seven matches of the tournament’s 13th edition from Sept. 19 to 25 had 60.6 billion viewing minutes, 15% more than the opening week of the 2019 edition (52.8 billion).

“We’re thrilled to deliver the biggest ever IPL. The opening week… resulted in a staggering new viewership record,” Gautam Thakar, the CEO of broadcaster Star Sports said in a statement.

“Dream11 IPL 2020 wouldn’t have been possible without the support of all our sponsors and stakeholders. Our teams are working tirelessly in a bio-secure bubble in India and UAE to bring fans closer to the game.”

The increase in viewership for the 2020 edition — up from 268 million viewers in 2019, was despite there being only seven matches in the opening week, one fewer than last year, BARC said.

The season opener between champions Mumbai Indians and three-times winners Chennai Super Kings on Sept. 19 was watched by 158 million viewers, it added.

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Thomas Andrews, addressing the UN Human Rights Council, said the polls could not be free and fair because of the exclusion of Rohingya of voting age living in the western Rakhine state and in refugee camps in neighboring Bangladesh.

“The results of an election cannot accurately reflect the will of the people, when the right to vote is denied because of a person’s race, ethnicity or religion,” he told the Geneva forum.

“And, I have seen no evidence that the government is willing or prepared to facilitate the right to vote for hundreds of thousands of voting age Rohingya located in Rakhine State or in refugee camps in Bangladesh,” he said.

More than 730,000 Rohingya fled Myanmar for Bangladesh in 2017 during a military-led crackdown the United Nations has said was executed with genocidal intent. The country denies the allegations and says it was targeting militants who attacked police posts.

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya remain in Rakhine state where they are mostly confined to camps and villages.

Kyaw Tun, Myanmar’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, told the U.N council the country’s electoral body had “set forth criteria for the elections to be free, fair, transparent, trustworthy and reflective of the desire of voters”.

He said the body had scrutinized applications to ensure all could patke part equally.

“Every citizen without any discrimination who meets the criteria set in the election law can run for a public office,” he said.

Of at least a dozen Rohingya who applied to run as candidates in the election, six were rejected after officials said they failed to prove their parents were citizens at the time of their birth, a requirement under the election law.

Myanmar does not recognise the term Rohingya or the community as an indigenous ethnic group.

Instead, they are derided as Bengalis, implying they are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, despite tracing their history in Myanmar’s Rakhine State back for centuries.

Successive military governments that ruled Myanmar stripped the Rohingya of identity documents, leaving many with no proof of their origins.

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Military officials from the both countries met on Monday and exchanged ideas on their contested Himalayan border, defence ministry spokesman Wu Qian said. Neither side should take any unilateral action in the region, it was also agreed.

In June, tensions erupted into a frontier clash in which 20 Indian soldiers were killed and China suffered an unspecified number of casualties.

China and India said on Sept. 11 that they had agreed to de-escalate the situation and restore “peace and tranquillity” following a high-level diplomatic meeting in Moscow.

Both sides agreed at the time that troops from both sides should quickly disengage and ease tensions.

Indian and China have fought three wars against each other, in 1962, 1967 and 1987.

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Recovery teams from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), aided by sniffer dogs, are still searching for survivors buried under layers of brick and concrete after the three-storey block collapsed on Monday in the town of Bhiwandi, near Mumbai.

“So far we have rescued 25 people. Total death toll stands at 20,” NDRF commandant Ithape Pandit told AFP.

The latest five survivors pulled from the wreckage were “grievously hurt,” Pandit said, adding they had been taken to nearby hospitals for treatment.

NDRF director general Satya Narayan Pradhan tweeted that he expected the toll to increase, with “more (bodies) likely under debris”.

The cause of the accident was not immediately clear, but building collapses are common during India’s June-September monsoon season, with old and rickety structures buckling after days of non-stop rain.

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The world’s second-most populous country is third behind the US and Brazil in terms of total caseload, and has recorded the world’s highest single-day caseload consistently since August 7, a Reuters tally showed.

Deaths in the last 24 hours stood at 1,059, taking the total number of fatalities from the infection to 59,449. The country reported its first coronavirus infection on January 30.

The overall Covid-19 count reached 3,234,475 including 707,267 active cases.

Maharashtra has 166,239 active cases, the highest in the country followed by Andhra Pradesh with 89,932 active cases.

As many as 823,992 samples were tested on August 25 while over 37 million samples have been tested so far, according to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

According to the health ministry, India has exponentially scaled its testing from one in January to one million/day in August 2020.

On Tuesday (25), the ministry informed that there has been more than 100 per cent hike in the recoveries in the last 25 days.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has on Wednesday (26) called a review meeting to discuss the coronavirus situation in the national capital.

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