Nasopharyngeal swabs produced by 3D printing can provide comparable results to traditional swabs for SARS-CoV-2 reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) testing, according to research from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) recently published online in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology. A multidisciplinary research team led by first author Cody Callahan of BIDMC’s department of…
ISLAMABAD: With at least two judges contracting the novel coronavirus, the Supreme Court (SC) recently reminded the federal government to take the health emergency seriously and come up with uniform national legislation. “This becomes important more so when the passing of the executive orders to deal with the pandemic has trampled and affected the fundamental…
ISLAMABAD: The recent surge in the novel coronavirus has recently claimed 458 more lives besides infecting at least 26,853 more people during the last one week only, thus surpassing 100,000 and 2,000 number of confirmed Covid-19 cases and related deaths across the country, respectively. Earlier, the tally of Covid-19 confirmed cases had jumped to 101,468,…
KARACHI: Ghulam Murtaza Baloch, Sindh’s Minister for human settlement, died recently after testing positive for coronavirus more than three weeks ago, officials and his family sources said. The 55-year-old senior member of the Pakistan Peoples Party, who was elected member of the Sindh Assembly from the party’s stronghold of PS-88 (Malir), tested positive for Covid-19…
KARACHI: A local pharmaceutical company plans to import a generic version of remdesivir a broad spectrum antiviral medication that has shown to reduce recovery time in Covid-19 patients from a Bangladesh-based manufacturer. The drug has been granted emergency use authorisation by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and authorities in Japan and the UK…
UNITED NATIONS: The economic consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic could push as many as 86 million more children into poverty by the end of 2020, a joint study by Save the Children and UNICEF showed, recently. That would bring the total number of children affected by poverty worldwide to 672 million, an increase of 15…
‘Possibility’ isn’t only a word, it sounds more of a hope to many of us in this era of the pandemic. I believe, there is always the possibility of something good to happen in the midst of darkness and chaos. It’s okay to be upset but with a pinch of hope and positivity one can…
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will soon start production of the antiviral drug remdesivir, which has shown promise in treating the novel coronavirus, the country’s top health official and a pharmaceutical company’s chief executive announced on Friday. Production should start “within weeks,” said Osman Khalid Waheed, the chief executive of Ferozsons Laboratories Ltd, which will produce the drug….
In recent turn of events, scientists have called for urgent research to be conducted into whether mouthwash could be effective in reducing the spread of coronavirus. The call comes after a team of researchers from Cardiff University led a study to assess the importance of the throat and saliva glands in the replication of Covid-19. The team stated that their research demonstrated that…
ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives, Asad Umar recently said that amid sharp rise in death toll and coronavirus cases last week, the government still hope that the virus will not spread as rapidly as previously had been estimated but takes measures to prepare the nation for the worst. Federal Minister for…