The US Government, through its aid agency USAID, has announced a grant of an additional USD 3 million to India to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. In coordination with the Indian government, the USAID is providing these funds to the Partnerships for Affordable Healthcare Access and Longevity (PAHAL) project, an innovative financing platform of IPE Global, USAID said in a statement on Wednesday. US Ambassador to India, Kenneth Juster, stated: "This additional funding to support India in its continuing efforts to combat COVID-19 is yet another example of the strong and enduring partnership between the United States and India."

To date, the USAID has provided USD 5.9 million to assist India in responding to the COVID-19 outbreak. This assistance will help India slow the spread of COVID-19, provide care for the affected, disseminate essential public health messages to communities, and strengthen case finding and surveillance. Through the PAHAL project, the USAID will support the National Health Authority to establish a financing facility that can mobilize resources from the private sector to assist over 20,000 health facilities enrolled under Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY), India's health insurance scheme for 500 million poor and vulnerable people.

During the talks on April 04, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump had agreed to deploy the full strength of the India-US partnership to combat the coronavirus pandemic. Early this month, India, at the request of President Donald Trump, had exported 35.82 lakh tablets of hydroxychloroquine to the US along with active pharmaceutical ingredient or API required in the manufacturing of the drug.

Trump had thanked India for its decision to export hydroxychloroquine to fight coronavirus and lauded Prime Minister Modi for his "strong leadership" in helping "not just India, but humanity" in this fight.

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A six-year-old boy has been cheering up his neighbours with one joke at a time amid the distressful Coronavirus pandemic and the agonizing lockdown that followed, by putting up a joke stand outside his home in Saanich, a town in Canada's British Colombia.

A picture of Callaghan McLaughlin, sitting at his 'Drive-by, walk-by joke stand' with a wide smile was shared by his mother Kelsea on Instagram, where he has earned praises for his adorable efforts to make people smile. His mother requests in the caption to listen to a joke from him.

According to the CBC, Callaghan only knows 16-17 jokes which he learned from a joke book his mother gave him, and with these jokes, he does the best he can to make people have a hearty laugh.  The mother-son duo missed interacting with their neighbours due to the lockdown and came up with this idea that helps people cheer up.

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

Please drive by and hear a joke from this kid 🥰 . . . #driveby #walkby #kidhumour #togetheryetapart #cadborobay

A post shared by Kelsea Murray-Roxburgh (@kelseamclaughlin) onApr 14, 2020 at 9:00am PDT

The post shared on Instagram received 188 likes with many users lauding him for his adorable effort to bring a smile on the faces of people. One user said, "What a sweet thing to do. You are a blessing." Another user said, "This is actually amazing! Well done Callaghan." A user commented, "This is so precious."

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Almost 1.6 billion workers in the informal economy, nearly half of the global workforce, face an immediate danger of losing their livelihoods due to the continued sharp decline in working hours because of the COVID-19 outbreak, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) has said. Over 430 million enterprises in hard-hit sectors such as retail and manufacturing risk "serious disruption", the UN agency added. The findings appear in the ILO Monitor third edition released on Wednesday.

Globally, there are some 3.3 billion workers. Two billion have jobs in the informal economy, the most vulnerable workers in the labour market. ILO said 1.6 billion in the informal economy "have suffered massive damage to their capacity to earn a living" as a result of the economic meltdown triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Due to lockdowns or because they work in hard-hit sectors, these workers globally have seen a 60 per cent drop in income during the first month of the crisis. This translates into a over 80 per cent decline in Africa and the Americas, 70 per cent in Europe and Central Asia, and 21.6 per cent in Asia and the Pacific, the ILO said.

The ILO called for "urgent, targeted and flexible measures" to support both workers and business, particularly smaller enterprises and those in the informal economy.

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With the Coronavirus outbreak wreaking havoc across the globe with millions of people being infected and scores of lives claimed, government have made wearing face masks mandatory for people. The decision has made face masks a prized commodity for people.

Traffic in California came to brief halt after drivers had stopped to pick up face masks that were littered on the road. Although it is not clear how the masks ended up spilled on the highway, CBS reported that a man was spotted throwing boxes of masks on the road from a white truck.

The California Highway Patrol-Hayward posted pictures of the incident on their Facebook page where scores of masks were found lying on the southbound lanes of Interstate 880. “Multiple individuals stopped in lanes and stepped out of their vehicles to pick up masks,” read the post, adding that debris has been cleared and the lanes were opened.

The post also appealed drivers not to step out of their vehicle on an active freeway. Many users commenting on the post criticized the driver who reportedly threw the mask on the road, instead of donating it. One user said, “Just terrible! That person has no respect.” Another user said, “The highway does not have a need for medical masks. Therefore, I would have donated to an entity that did! A user said, “What a waste of something necessary now.”

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China, where the deadly coronavirus first emerged in December last, reported just one COVID-19 case, the National Health Commission (NHC) said on Saturday. The death toll remained at 4,633 with no new fatality. As of Friday, the total confirmed cases on the mainland were 82,875. As many as 77,685 patients have been recovered, the NHC said.

One new imported coronavirus case was reported on Friday with no new local infection, it said. China has reported a total of 1,671 imported COVID-19 cases, including seven in critical condition. The Hubei province and its capital Wuhan, the epicentre of the virus, have not reported any coronavirus case for 28 consecutive days since April 4, local health commission said on Saturday. Hubei also lowered its COVID-19 emergency response from the highest level to the second-highest on Saturday.

The lowering of the emergency level shows a major breakthrough in Hubei's prevention and control against the coronavirus, Hubei Vice-Governor Yang Yunyan told media. Meanwhile, 20 new asymptomatic cases were reported on Friday, taking the total number of such patients to 989. Asymptomatic cases refer to people who are tested COVID-19 positive but develop no symptoms such as fever, cough or sore throat. However, they pose a risk of spreading the disease to others.

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Australian flag carrier, Qantas on Tuesday extended international flight cancellations till the end of July, but said that it was in a strong position to endure disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The company said that domestic flights would be cancelled till the end of June and international services until the end of July, adding that domestic and trans-Tasman services could be quickly reinstated should restrictions ease in coming weeks, reports Xinhua news agency.

"Australia has done an amazing job of flattening the curve and we're optimistic that domestic travel will start returning earlier than first thought, but we clearly won't be back to pre-coronavirus levels anytime soon," Group CEO Alan Joyce said.

"With the possible exception of New Zealand, international travel demand could take years to return to what it was."

The company, which includes budget branch Jetstar, also revealed it had secured a further A$550 million ($354 million) in debt funding, placing it in a stronger position to endure the COVID-19 crisis.

According to Qantas, by reducing expenditure and borrowing against its fleet of aircraft, the company could survive several recovery scenarios, including one where current travel restrictions persisted until December 2021.

The reduction in expenditure is largely due to the standing down of more than 25,000 staff who were forced to use leave entitlements before receiving delayed financial assistance from the government.

"The impact of this stand down is deeply regrettable but has been greatly softened by the Australian Government's JobKeeper program, which the Group commenced paying several weeks ahead of the official payment start date," the airline said in a statement.

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Four top Republican senators have urged President Donald Trump to suspend all new guest worker visas for 60 days and certain categories of new guest worker visas, including the H-1B, for at least a year or until unemployment figures return to normal levels in the US amidst the coronavirus pandemic. The pandemic, which has so far claimed 76,000 lives and infected over 1,256,000 in the US, has ravaged the labour market, and 1 in 5 American workers have filed for first-time unemployment benefits since mid-March, when the lockdown hit businesses across the country, the world's largest economy.

1/5th workforce out of work

The letter to president Trump, dated May 7, has been signed by Senators Ted Cruz, Tom Cotton, Chuck Grassley and Josh Hawley. "More than 33 million Americans have filed for unemployment coverage just since mid-March, and approximately one-fifth of the American workforce is currently out of work. "This is a stunning difference compared with the historically-low nationwide unemployment rate of just 3.5 per cent in February this year," the senators said in their letter.

"To protect unemployed Americans in the early stages of economic recovery, we urge you to suspend all non-immigrant guest worker visas for the next 60 days," the senators said.

'Suspend EB-5 visa too'

"That suspension should, at a minimum, include H-2B visas (non-agricultural seasonal workers), H-1B visas (specialty occupation workers) and the Optional Practical Training programme (extension of foreign student visas after graduation). We also urge you to suspend the EB-5 immigrant visa programme, effective immediately," the lawmakers wrote. The H-1B work visa for foreign technology professionals is highly popular among Indians and a large number of Indians also opt for the EB-5 investors visa.

Worst monthly record

The US unemployment rate hit 14.7% in April, the highest rate since the Great Depression, as 20.5 million jobs vanished in the worst monthly loss on record. The figures are stark evidence of the damage the coronavirus has done to a now-shattered economy.

The collapse of the job market has occurred with stunning speed. The government's report Friday noted that many people who lost jobs in April but didn't look for another one weren't even counted in the unemployment rate. The impact of those losses was reflected in the drop in the proportion of working-age Americans who have jobs: Just 51.3%, the lowest on record.

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[Source: Research & Innovation] ‘For Europe to come out stronger after the Corona crisis, we need to already direct our investments towards game-changing innovations that create a sustainable and human centric digital future’, according to the vision statement of the European Innovation Council Advisory Board published today.

[Source: Research & Innovation] A total of 117 innovative solutions to tackle the coronavirus have been selected as winners of the European Innovation Council-led #EUvsVirus Hackathon.

[Source: Research & Innovation] The European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator Pilot will work with an extra €150 million to support game-changing innovations to tackle the coronavirus crisis. The additional budget, approved by the European Commission today, will fund the best start-ups and SMEs who applied under the March cut-off.

Coronavirus vaccine: World leaders and organisations, except the United States, have already pledged $8 billion to research, manufacture and distribute a possible vaccine and treatments for COVID-19 apart from the individual efforts taken by the countries and its pharmaceutical firms

COVID-19 will lead to fundamental, and possibly, permanent behavioural changes in the way people shop, consume media and how they regard the brands they do business with, said Prabhu Ram of CMR

Engineers have done preliminary work and talked to smartphone operating system makers Apple Inc and Google about possibly adopting technology the companies plan to release jointly this month to make tracing easier

According to a PTI report, all state governments except Maharashtra have been paying for the railway costs to ferry passengers to their native places

Kerala coronavirus cases: With May 8 being the 100th day of COVID-19 outbreak in India, Kerala reported only one new case in 24 hours, state CM Pinarayi Vijayan said on Friday

UK COVID-19 news: The death comes as Britain prepares for some easing in the strict lockdown measures in place to curb the spread of the deadly virus as it is believed that Britain is past the peak of the pandemic

Globally, efforts are underway to develop a vaccine to treat Covid 19 which has stalled economic activity and led to death of over 2.77 lakh people across the world

Under complete lockdown less than a quarter of India's $2.8 trillion economy is functional. We are expected to lose over Rs 32,000 crore ($4.5 billion) every day during the lockdown

A cluster-based approach to lending is likely to be the best strategy for optimal results in the shortest possible time to accelerate credit flow to the MSME sector

Adar Poonawala, CEO of Serum Institute of India, says he is taking the risk of initiating production even before the vaccine has reached advanced clinical trials

While marketing and promotional activity is not an immediate priority for advertisers struggling to re-build their own businesses, revenues will remain subdued through the middle of 2021

With most auto-stocks down by nearly 40-70% since February 2020, the post-COVID-19 scenario might see consumers move away from all forms of shared mobility to more personal forms of transport

Once the menace of COVID-19 pandemic is over, a new ecopolitical order will emerge which will be more focussed on human development, infrastructure around health and education, climate preservation and most importantly on people

Companies' success in the next 18 months won't be determined by their growth or profitability, but merely by their ability to survive and not run out of cash

Among patients given hydroxychloroquine, 32.3% ended up needing a ventilator or dying, compared with 14.9% of patients who were not given the drug

The company has also resumed operations at its global research and development hub located in Mysore, Karnataka

According to figures declared by the Pharmaceutical Export Promotion Council of India (Pharmexcil), pharmaceutical exports registered a growth of 11.21 percent during the first quarter of FY20

Coronavirus impact: IndiGo CEO Ronojoy Dutta told the employees that they are left with no option but to implement pay-cuts. The airline had earlier rolled back its decision to cut pay

The findings, published in the Lancet medical journal, showed that on average, people who got the triple drug reached the point of no detectable virus five days earlier than those in the control group - at 7 days versus 12 days

Experts believe there was already a visible turnaround in the pharma sector, both on the domestic as well as on the exports side even before any traces of COVID-19

The crisis served as a wake-up call for banks whose digital operations were growing at a snail's pace. They have started embracing the change

Coronavirus news: Fears ran amok that Franklin Templeton closing its six debt mutual fund schemes may trigger outflows from debt mutual funds. However, net outflows were only seen in credit risk and medium duration categories

Lack of emergency funds will force you to either go for distress selling of your investments or high-cost borrowing, which will jeopardise all your future goals. One should ideally have an emergency fund which can take care of at least 6 months of expenses

When you approach a lender for loan against mutual fund, it fixes a loan-to-value (LTV) ratio against it. It varies from one lender to another as per risk involved in the MF scheme and regulatory caps fixed by the RBI

Highlights: Staying indoors during COVID-19 lockdown can wreak havoc on your child's mental health Keeping

Highlights: COVID-19 can stick on to kids' toys and play equipment Parents must advice your naughty little

Drugs approved by U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) may hold promise in fighting the new infection known as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), stated UTSW scientists.

Remdesivir is highly effective in stopping the replication of coronavirus, according to new research published in the iJournal of Biological Chemistry/i by scientists at the University of Alberta.

Highlights : Coronavirus cases have crossed over 50,000 in India, despite being under strict lockdown Social distanc

The OECD has said that it is continuing to forge ahead with the development of new international tax rules for the digitalized economy.

Coronavirus pH varies from 5.5 to 8.5 is a myth, as the World Health Organization (WHO) hasn't released any data on the coronavirus' pH level. However,

There is a link between the high level of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome CoronaVirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) lethality and the atmospheric pollution in Northern Italy, reports a new study.

"In the water sector we always say 'Don't waste a good crisis'," said Inga Jacobs-Mata, the South African representative from non-profit research group the International Water Management Institute (IWMI).

“In the water sector we always say 'Don't waste a good crisis'," said Inga Jacobs-Mata, the South African representative from non-profit research group the International Water Management Institute (IWMI).

Today, many people lack access to the most basic weapons to shield themselves from COVID-19: water and soap.

Take a look at the satellite map below. That vast swathe of orange and red across northwestern India and Pakistan depicts crops that have ripened in the last couple of weeks.

Across drought-hit southern Africa, COVID-19 has spurred governments to dispatch water tankers, drill boreholes and repair taps - solutions experts and residents of thirsty slums and villages say must last long after the pandemic has passed.

COVID-19 has brought along with it a set of side effects, from Mysophobia (the constant overdrive to wash hands and be careful of contamination) to clinical

Some people are falling prey to coronavirus due to the Nocebo effect, the harmless thing that causes harm because people 'believe' its harmful. Achal

PanicMechanic, the new mobile app has been developed to help attack sufferers during the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The app adapts biofeedback-like