Brasilia [Brazil], March 13 ,2021: Brazil comes now second in terms of the number of the confirmed coronavirus cases while the death toll from COVID-19 in the country has surpassed 275,000 people, the national Ministry of Health said.
Over the past 24 hours, the Latin American country has registered 85,663 new COVID-19 cases, with the total number has reached 11,363,389. India, which previously came second, has recorded 11,308,846 coronavirus cases. The United States is the worst-hit nation with more than 29.32 million COVID-19 patients.
Within the same period of time, the death toll from the coronavirus in Brazil has increased by 2,216 to 275,105 people.
Rome, Mar 13,2021: Italian authorities announced on Friday that shops, restaurants and schools will be closed across the country on Monday, as PM Mario Draghi warned of a “new wave” of the coronavirus outbreak.
For three days over Easter, April 3-5, there will be a total shutdown across the country.
Italy, which one year ago imposed one of the first national lockdowns and was one of the worst affected countries from the coronavirus in the world is once again struggling to contain the rapid spread of infections.
The country has reported more than 100,000 COVID-related deaths, Europe’s second highest tally after the UK.
Like the rest of the European Union Italy’s vaccination campaign has been hit by delays in the delivery of the vaccines.
Last week the government in Rome blocked the export of 250,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine to Australia in a bid to address shortfalls of vaccines.
Brasilia, Mar 5 ,2021: The number of people, who have died of COVID-19 in Brazil, has increased by 1,699 to 260,970 within the past 24 hours, the national Health Ministry said.
The number of confirmed cases in the country has risen by 75,102 to 10,793,732 within the same period of time. More than 9.63 million people have recovered since the start of the outbreak.
Brazil comes second in terms of the number of deceased people following the United States with over 520,000 fatalities and third in terms of the number of confirmed cases after the US and India.
The World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on March 11, 2020. To date, more than 115.57 million people have been infected with the COVID-19 worldwide, with over 2.56 million fatalities, Johns Hopkins University said.
Washington , March 1,2021: US’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advisory committee on Sunday has voted to recommend that Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine can be given to people ages 18 and older in the United States.
The announcement by CDC Director Rochelle Walensky will allow vaccinations to begin as soon as the doses are received, The Hill reported. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted 12-0, with one recusal, to recommend the use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
Walensky called the decision “another milestone toward an end to the pandemic.” This comes a day after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that it had approved Janssen’s single-dose COVID-19 Vaccine for emergency use in the US in individuals 18 years of age and older.
“This vaccine is also another important tool in our toolbox to equitably vaccinate as many people as possible, as quickly as possible,” Walensky said in a statement.
“As a one-dose vaccine, people do not have to return for a second dose to be protected. In addition, this vaccine does not need to be kept in a freezer and can be stored at refrigerated temperatures — so it is easy to transport and store and allows for expanded availability in most community settings and mobile sites, as supply scales up,” Walensky added.
The nation’s third coronavirus vaccine arrives days after the United States surpassed 500,000 COVID-19 deaths.
The United States has reported more than 28.6 million confirmed Covid-19 cases and over 512,000 reported deaths. The demand of vaccines still far exceeds supply, these vaccines can’t come soon enough.
US President Joe Biden on Saturday said the approval of Johnson & Johnson’s single-shot coronavirus vaccine by the FDA is “exciting news” but warned Americans against letting their guard down as the situation could deteriorate.
TOKYO,Mar 01,2021:Japanese companies are ramping up the use of artificial intelligence and other advanced technology to reduce waste and cut costs in the pandemic, and looking to score some sustainability points along the way.
Disposing of Japan’s more than 6 million tonnes in food waste costs the world’s No.3 economy some 2 trillion yen ($19 billion) a year, government data shows. With the highest food waste per capita in Asia, the Japanese government has enacted a new law to halve such costs from 2000 levels by 2030, pushing companies to find solutions.
Convenience store chain Lawson Inc has started using AI from U.S. firm DataRobot, which estimates how much product on shelves, from onigiri rice balls to egg and tuna sandwiches, may go unsold or fall short of demand.
Lawson aims to bring down overstock by 30% in places where it has been rolled out, and wants to halve food waste at all of its stores in 2030 compared with 2018.
Disposal of food waste is the biggest cost for Lawson’s franchise owners after labour costs.
Drinks maker Suntory Beverage & Food Ltd is experimenting with another AI product from Fujitsu Ltd to try to determine if goods such as bottles of oolong tea and mineral water have been damaged in shipping.
Until now, that’s been a time-consuming human endeavour. With the new AI, Suntory hopes to gauge when a damaged box is just that, or when the contents themselves have been damaged and need to be returned.
Suntory aims to reduce the return of goods by 30-50% and cut the cost of food waste and develop a common standard system that can be shared by other food makers and shipping firms.
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS
Japan’s notoriously fussy shoppers are showing signs of getting on board, especially as the coronavirus pandemic hits incomes.
Tatsuya Sekito launched Kuradashi, an e-commerce firm dealing in unsold foods at a discount, in 2014 after seeing massive amounts of waste from food processors while working for a Japanese trading firm in China.
The online business is now thriving due partly to a jump in demand for low-priced unsold foods as consumers became more cost conscious amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Sales grew 2.5 times last year from a year before, while the amount of food waste has doubled since the coronavirus cut off food supply chain,” Sekito told Reuters.
Kuradashi has a network of 800 companies, including Meiji Holdings Co, Kagome Co and Lotte Foods Co, who sell it a total 50,000 items including packs of instant curry, smoothies and high-quality nori.
“Japanese shoppers tend to be picky but we attract customers by offering not just a sale but a chance to donate a portion of purchases to a charity, raising awareness about social issues,” Sekito said.
Membership numbers jumped to 180,000 in 2021 from 80,000 in 2019.
Others have also joined forces with food firms in developing new technological platform to cut food waste as part of global efforts to meet sustainable development goals (SDGs).
NEC Corp is using AI that can not only analyse data such as weather, calendar and customers’ trends in estimating demand but also give reasoning behind its analysis.
NEC has deployed the technology to some major retailers and food makers, helping them reduce costs by 15%-75%.
NEC hopes to share and process data through a common platform among makers, retailers and logistics, to reduce mismatches in supply chains.
“Reducing food waste is not our ultimate goal,” said Ryoichi Morita, senior manager overseeing NEC’s digital integration.
“Eventually, we hope it can lead to resolve other business challenges such as minimizing costs, fixing labour shortages, streamlining inventory, orders and logistics.”
Geneva, Mar 1,2021: The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that less than 10 percent of the global population have antibodies to the coronavirus, WHO Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan said.
“Less than 10 per cent of the world’s population actually has antibodies to this virus. Of course in some settings, like particularly in the very high density urban settlements, there are pockets where 50, 60 percent of the population has been exposed to the virus and has antibodies,” Swaminathan said in a Sunday interview, released on the official WHO twitter page.
The only way to achieve mass herd immunity is through vaccination, the WHO chief scientist stressed.
According to Swaminathan, the currently approved vaccines offer good protection against severe disease, hospitalisation and death from COVID-19. The vaccines’ effectiveness with regard to mild disease and asymptomatic coronavirus infection is still being studied.
More than 114 million coronavirus cases have been confirmed globally since the start of the pandemic last spring. According to Johns Hopkins University data, the global COVID-19 death toll stands at over 2.5 million.
Brasilia, Feb 28,2021: Brazil registered 1,386 deaths from the Novel Coronavirus in the last 24 hours, bringing the death toll to 254,221, the Ministry of Health reported.
A total of 61,602 new cases were reported, bringing the national tally to 10,517,232, according to the ministry.
Brazil has the second largest number of deaths from the coronavirus, following the United States, and the third largest number of cases, after the United States and India.
As of Friday, 6.4 million Brazilians have received at least one dose of vaccine against Covid-19, while 1.8 million people have received both doses.
New York [US], February 27,2021: The UN Security Council on Friday unanimously passed a resolution calling on all member states to support a “sustained humanitarian pause” to local conflicts, in order to allow for COVID-19 vaccinations.
Dallas [US], February 25,2021: Postmenopausal women who ate high levels of plant protein had lower risks of premature death, cardiovascular disease, and dementia-related death compared with women who ate fewer plant proteins, according to new research.
The research was published today in the Journal of the American Heart Association, an open-access journal of the American Heart Association.
Previous research has shown an association between diets high in red meat and cardiovascular disease risk, yet the data is sparse and inconclusive about specific types of proteins, the study authors say.
In this study, researchers analyzed data from more than 100,000 postmenopausal women (ages 50 to 79) who participated in the national Women’s Health Initiative study between 1993 and 1998; they were followed through February 2017. At the time they enrolled in the study, participants completed questionnaires about their diet detailing how often they ate eggs, dairy, poultry, red meat, fish/shellfish and plant proteins such as tofu, nuts, beans and peas. During the study period, a total of 25,976 deaths occurred (6,993 deaths from cardiovascular disease; 7,516 deaths from cancer; and 2,734 deaths from dementia).
Researchers noted the levels and types of protein women reported consuming, divided them into groups to compare who ate the least and who ate the most of each protein. The median percent intake of total energy from animal protein in this population was 7.5 per cent in the lowest quintile and 16.0% in the highest quintile. The median percent intake of total energy from plant protein in this population was 3.5% in the lowest quintile and 6.8% in the highest quintile.
New Delhi, Feb 25,2021: Union Minister Prakash Javadekar on Wednesday said that people aged over 60 and those above 45 years with co-morbidities will be inoculated at 10,000 government and over 20,000 private vaccination centres from March 1.
The Minister apprised that the proposal was approved at a meeting of the Union Cabinet which was chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
People will receive the COVID vaccine jab free of cost at government centres.