India is to recruit hundreds of former army medics to support its overwhelmed healthcare system, the defence ministry said on Sunday, as the country grapples with record Covid-19 infections and deaths amid angry calls for a complete nationwide lockdown.

The World Health Organization announced on Friday it had approved a Covid-19 vaccine from China's state-owned drugmaker Sinopharm for emergency use, reports Reuters.

Across the border from a devastating surge in India, doctors in Nepal warned Friday of a major crisis as daily coronavirus cases hit a record and hospitals were running out of beds and oxygen.

Countries worldwide wrestling with new coronavirus surges are trying to ensure they aren’t hit by an India-style disaster. They face many of the same risks, including large populations that have shirked restrictions and fragile health systems shaken under the strain.

With new variants of Covid-19 spreading faster than ever before in several nations, the global coronavirus cases surpassed 155.6 million on Friday.

Ambassadors from World Trade Organization countries on Wednesday resumed discussions on trade rules protecting the technological know-how behind COVID-19 vaccines amid growing pressure on rich nations to relax them — as a way to help poorer countries fight the pandemic.

As India continues to struggle to contain a severe second wave of Covid-19, a top scientific advisor to the government today said a third wave was "inevitable" and the authorities should be prepared for it.

India accounted for 46% of the new Covid-19 cases recorded worldwide last week and one in four of deaths, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday.

Europe's medicines regulator said on Tuesday it has started a real-time review of Sinovac's COVID-19 vaccine, based on preliminary results from animal and human trials that suggested the vaccine produces an immune response against the coronavirus.

People's willingness to take a vaccine for the coronavirus varied across the world in 2020, with the percentage of people saying they would take a vaccine ranging from a high of 96 percent in Myanmar to a low of 25 percent in Kazakhstan, while it is 83 percent in Bangladesh, says a global survey.

It will be confirmed within a few days whether the highly contagious Indian variant of the coronavirus is in Bangladesh or not, as an investigation is on in this regard, said Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) today.

A forum of scientists of the Indian government today termed “incorrect” a media report that suggested that they had cautioned in early March about the more contagious second wave of Covid-19 but no attention was paid to it.

A total of 179 Bangladeshi expatriates are stuck at the Muscat International Airport after Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (Caab) added Oman to a list of 12 countries from which passengers would not be allowed to enter Bangladesh as part of the country’s Covid-19 containment measures.

A 10-bed Intensive Care Unit (ICU) ward was inaugurated at Tangail General Hospital today for Covid-19 infected critical patients.

US President Joe Biden is expected to impose new travel restrictions on India starting Tuesday in light of the COVID-19 epidemic, barring most non-US citizens from entering the United States, a White House official told Reuters.

The government has issued emergency use approval for China’s Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine.

Uncertainty looms large over getting the second dose of Covid-19 vaccines for around 22,000 residents in Bagerhat. Many were seen returning without being inoculated from vaccination centres today, despite showing up on their scheduled date.

A sore arm is the most common side effect of the Covid-19 vaccines and roughly one in four (25%) people had wider effects like fever, headache, nausea and fatigue and lasted for a day on average while two-thirds (66%) had a local reaction according to a UK study.

A single dose of Covid-19 vaccine can slash transmission of the virus by up to half, BBC reports quoting a Public Health England (PHE) study.

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, who was infected with coronavirus, will be taken to Evercare Hospital tonight for some medical tests, including CT scan, said her personal medical team member Dr AZM Zahid Hossain.