AIIMS Patna starts human trial of COVID vaccine
• AIIMS Patna has begun the human trial of COVID vaccine on 10 volunteers selected by the hospital authority. Many people had offered to take part in the trial, but only 10 people were selected for the process.
• The first dose was administered to the selected volunteers and after 14 days, the second dose will be given. Doctors are maintaining a strict vigil of the people who have taken a dose of the vaccine. A special team of doctors was constituted for this purpose.
• After completion of the trial period, the volunteers will undergo check-ups for after-effects of the vaccine. The vaccine has been jointly developed by the National Institute of Virology, Pune and Hyderabad - based Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research.
• AIIMS - Patna is one of the 12 medical institutes that were shortlisted by ICMR for conducting the human trial of the indigenous vaccine.
India among most open economies in the world: PM Modi
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently said that India is among the most open economies in the world. He said this while interacting with Google CEO Sundar Pichai through video conferencing on July 13, 2020.
• The Prime Minister said that Indians are adjusting and adopting technology at a rapid pace. PM Modi and Sundar Pichai spoke on varied other subjects as well including leveraging the power of technology to transform the lives of India’s farmers, youngsters and entrepreneurs.
• PM Modi also spoke about the recent steps taken by the government towards reforming agriculture and creating new job opportunities. He also lauded the efforts of Google in several sectors including education, learning and digital payments. Pichai then briefed the Prime Minister about new products and initiatives of Google in India.
Government to increase public health expenditure to 2.5% of GDP by 2025
• The Union Health Ministry has called for increased expenditure on public health. Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan highlighted during a meeting with the 15th Finance Commission that the government aims to gradually increase the public health expenditure to 2.5 percent of the nation's GDP by 2025.
• The Minister asserted that the outlay for primary health expenditure will also be made nearly 2/3rd of the total public health expenditure in the country. The Health Minister further emphasized on the importance of increasing the state’s health sector spending to nearly 8 percent of their total budget.
• The Health Ministry has also revised its requirement of around 4.9 lakh crores to 6.04 lakh crores in the wake of the COVID pandemic. The Ministry has asked for additional resources for the states that will be utilized for the achievement of the National Health Policy targets.
Indian Railways develops post-COVID coach
• The Indian Railways has developed a post-COVID coach to fight Covid-19. The post COVID coach has handsfree amenities, copper-coated handrails and latches, plasma air purification and titanium di-oxide coating for Covid-free passenger journey.
• The special coach has been designed by Rail Coach Factory at Kapurthala to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The Railways has been taking several steps and measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 virus infection.
• The post COVID coach will include handsfree amenities such as foot-operated water tap and soap dispenser, foot-operated lavatory door and foot-operated flush valve.
• The coach will also have the provision of plasma air equipment in AC duct. This equipment will sterilize the air and surfaces inside the AC coach using ionised air to make the coach Covid-19 and particulate matter resistant.
Commercial farming of endangered species in Myanmar may boost their demand: WWF
• The Wildlife and environmental conservation group WWF along with Fauna & Flora International (FFI) has issued a warning that the change in the Myanmar law, which allows commercial farming of endangered species may end up increasing the demand for rare animals in the world, posing a risk to the existence of such species.
• The wildlife organisations warned in a joint statement that commercial trade has been shown to increase trade in wildlife by creating a parallel market for these products.
• The Myanmar government had passed a law in June 2020 allowing private zoos to breed 90 wildlife species out of which more than 20 are endangered. The list of endangered wildlife animals allowed for commercial farming includes Tiger, Pangolin, Ayeyarwady Dolphin and Siamese crocodile.
• Myanmar is considered to be a major hub of illegal trade in wildlife, which is driven by demand from neighbouring nation China.
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