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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. ALSO READ Israel Says It Will Introduce Coronavirus Vaccine in 90 Days 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..

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..

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..

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,..

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. ALSO READ Haider Ali Becomes the Youngest Player to Score a Fifty in PSL 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..

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 ..