Following the outbreak of Coronavirus in December last year, Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) had allocated $12.5 million to three medical firms to expedite the development of the vaccine of COVID-19; Moderna, Inovio, and University of Queensland.
Now, the researchers at Moderna are claiming that they have developed the COVID-19 vaccine at unprecedented speed and will soon begin clinical trials.
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Moderna is a US-based biotechnology company that specializes in vaccine development by converting viral sequences into messenger RNA (mRNA).
Chief Medical Officer (CMO) at Moderna, Tal Zaks, says that the medical firm had already recruited volunteers for the clinical trials in the first week of March.
I don’t think proving the vaccine in an animal model is on the critical path to getting this to a clinical trial.
However, this is not the way how vaccine testing happens normally.
Medical firms ar..
Category: Apple
Pakistan Govt Launches Urdu Twitter Chatbot For Coronavirus Updates
Tania Aidrus, head Prime Minister Imran Khan’s ‘Digital Pakistan’ initiative and the former Google Head of Strategic Initiatives on the Next Billion Users (NBU), has announced a coronavirus focused Urdu chatbot to provide Pakistanis with authentic information.
In her attempt to fight the current epidemic outbreak and to help the locals, Tania Aidrus decided to collaborate with the telemedicine companies and startups.
As expected, several firms, companies, and startups jumped at the opportunity of working with her, which is why in such a short span of time, she came up with this effective way of getting information out to Pakistanis.
The chatbot is equipped to provide users with authentic information regarding the current situation of the epidemic in the country. Apart from getting the latest news, people can also get all the information regarding the nearest laboratories that can help them carry out a self-assessment test.
The chatbot can be accessed via Facebook messenger here. If..
CDC Invests $82 Million in Transformational Pakistani Wind Power Project
CDC Group, the UK’s publicly owned impact investor, has signed an $82 million debt deal in a wind power project in Pakistan that will reduce the country’s dependence on fossil fuels.
The deal will fund 150MW of wind farms located in the Jhimpir area of the Sindh province of Pakistan. The project involves three separate schemes of 50MW each – two developed by Liberty Mills and one by Indus Group.
The projects are part of a program of 12 wind projects across Pakistan totaling 610 MW, increasing the renewable energy generation capacity of Pakistan by 50 percent and providing clean, affordable power to the country at an average tariff of $4.5c/kWh, in comparison to the existing average wind project tariff of $11.0c/kWh.
The projects will avoid the equivalent to the average annual emissions of 130,000 people or 0.06 percent of the total of Pakistan’s annual domestic greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, they will add $19.1 million to the country’s GDP, support the creation of 6,260 indi..
Recovered Coronavirus Patient Dies in China
According to Shanghai’s The Paper, Li Liang, a 36 years old resident of Wuhan, has died due to respiratory failure, just five days after being discharged from a quarantine facility.
Li Liang was first admitted to a makeshift hospital made to treat mild and moderate cases of coronavirus on 12 February.
After recovering from the affliction, the hospital staff discharged Li on completion of the mandatory 14-day isolation period. Li was also directed to remain in self-isolation for another two weeks as a precautionary measure.
However, he started to feel unwell once again in a couple of days and complained about a dry mouth and gaseous stomach.
As per Li’s spouse, Li fell ill on 2 March and was rushed to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead later that day.
Li Liang’s death certificate issued by Wuhan Health Commission states COVID-19 as the direct cause of the death and listed respiratory failure as the symptom which could have led to the man’s death.
On one hand, the Chinese g..
Pakistan Approves Emergency Response Plan for Coronavirus
A special meeting of Concept Clearance Committee / CDWP was convened to initiate precautionary measures and approve the concept paper of “Pakistan National Emergency Preparedness and Response Plan for COVID-19” in Islamabad.
The meeting was chaired by Deputy Chairman Planning Commission Dr. Muhammad Jehanzeb Khan. Secretary Planning Zafar Hasan and senior officials from EAD ministries also attended the meeting.
The Project was presented by Chief Health and informed that the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination have come up with a proposal to enhance country capacity for preparedness and response to COVID-19 pandemic. The project aims to establish functional coordination mechanism at the national and provincial levels for preparedness and response to the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Government of Pakistan is working to strengthen preparedness to identify, diagnose primary cases, effectively respond to minimize impact of COVID-19 through surveillance strengthening,..
Rs. 383 Billion Wiped Off from PSX in Worst Day in History
Stocks around the world, have been in a free-fall for some time now due to worries about the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on the global economy. Pakistan wasn’t safe either as another massacre was seen during the first day of the week with last week’s negative sentiment continuing into this week.
PSX’s benchmark index, KSE-100 index declined by 2375 points in today’s session which was the highest ever decline in history in terms of points. It touched an intraday low of 2,442 points on Monday.
The market closed at 33,664 points, declining 6.59%, which is the highest decline in percentage terms since 20th May 2002, according to Arif Habib Ltd.
Over Rs. 383 billion was wiped off from the market during today’s session, according to Capital Stake.
Shortly after the stock market opened Monday, the market went in the red zone. For the fourth time in six working days, trading was halted at the Pakistan Stock Exchange after the KSE-30 index fell by more than 5%.
The activity was halt..
This Guy Will be a Better Batsman Than Babar Azam: Shoaib Akhtar
Former speed star Shoaib Akhtar has named a Pakistani cricketer who, according to him, has the potential to become even a better batsman than Babar Azam.
Akhtar heaped praised for the teenage sensation Haider Ali who was drafted for Peshawar Zalmi this year under the Emerging category. With his fearless approach, game sense, stroke-making abilities, Haider became the talk of the town just after his first few innings. Since then, he has become a regular feature in Zalmi’s star-studded squad.
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This is the reason why the Rawalpindi Express was all praise for the young batsman in his YouTube vlog. Haider’s scintillating performance with the bat not only gained Akhtar’s attention but has every cricket guru talking.
From Ramiz Raja to foreign Michael Slater, every PSL 2020 commentator, admired his hitting abilities and batting skills.
Before the beginning of the league, Haider was chimed as a batsman at par with Ba..
CAA Bans Entry of Visitors at All Airports
In an attempt to contain the spread of coronavirus, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has imposed a ban on the entry of visitors coming either to receive or see off passengers at the airports.
According to details, no visitor will be allowed to enter the airport with the passengers. The ban, which comes into effect immediately, will be applicable on all airports.
Only the drivers will be allowed to enter the airport, but they too will not be allowed to go beyond parking spots. Passengers will have to move their luggage themselves from the parking space.
CAA officials state that the decision has been taken to provide a safe environment for all passengers and lower the risk of coronavirus.
At the same time, CAA has requested citizens not to make unnecessary visits to airports as they could contract the disease.
So far, Pakistan has reported 106 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with Sindh accounting for 88 of the cases.
Take These Safety Precautions Against Coronavirus If You’re Traveling
The outbreak of the coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, has had devastating effects all around the world with over 180,000 people infected and thousands of fatalities. It has led to a blood-bath in the stock markets and even halted the global auto industry.
At the time of when this article was being written, over 90 cases of COVID-19 had been confirmed in Pakistan and we thought to put together a list of preventive measures that you can take to help stop spread the virus.
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Social Distancing This is the single biggest factor that can prevent the virus from spiraling out of control. Experts around the world have urged people to stop going to public spaces unless it is an emergency such as buying medical supplies or grocery. Cut down on unnecessary commute, and we have seen a lot of people disregard this.
We would like to point towards the case of South Korea, where the government had the situation under control with 30 c..
Nokia Launches its Most Affordable Smartphone Yet
HMD Global has quietly unveiled its latest Android Go smartphone under the moniker Nokia C2. The smartphone, as compared to its predecessor, comes with slight upgrades in almost all the categories. Since it is a budget smartphone, the company did not give it a dedicated event or announcement, which makes complete sense.
Design and Display Design-wise, the Nokia C2 does not look much different from its older counterpart. The only visible difference is the larger display size. Like most of the Nokia budget smartphones, this one also comes with a plain matte back and thick bezels around the display.
It is built around a large 5.7-inch LCD with HD+ (720p) resolution. The earpiece and selfie camera sit in the thick forehead bezel.
Internals and Storage Internally, the Nokia C2 comes with a 1.4GHz quad-core Unisoc processor at the helm, topped with 1 GB RAM, and 16 GB of onboard expandable storage.
On the software front, it runs on Android 9.0 Pie Go Edition.
Cameras Since the Nokia C2 ..
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