Author: News Desk

The potential for COVID-19 to spread through airborne transmission by lingering in the air is being underplayed by the World Health Organization, a group of scientists have said. In an open letter due to be published this week, 239 scientists from 32 countries call for greater acknowledgement of the role of airborne spread of COVID-19 and the need for governments to implement control measures. WHO guidance states that the virus is transmitted primarily between people through respiratory droplets and contact. Aerosol transmission involves much smaller particles that can remain in the air for long periods of time and can be transmitted…

The Indian Government has approved one more direct Air India Flight from Bahrain to Bhubaneswar via Delhi AI 0940 on 11th July 2020 at 1.05 pm at a reduced price of BD 126/- per ticket (20th June 2020 flight it was BD 146/-) to repatriate the remaining stranded Odias in Bahrain under the Vande Bharat Mission. The flight capacity is 150 passengers. This is in addition to the Air India flight on 20/6/2020 which has already repatriated 142 Odias from Bahrain. Founder of Bahrain Odia Samaj Dr. Arun Kumar Praharaj was happy that their consistent efforts to help the stranded…

The death toll from a massive explosion in a fireworks factory in Turkey has increased to six. The governor of Sakarya in northwest Turkey announced two new deaths and said rescue teams were still searching for one more person after Friday’s explosion. The governor, Cetin Oktay Kaldirim, was quoted by Turkey’s official Anadolu news agency. Earlier Sunday, the governor said six people were still hospitalized from the explosion, including one person in critical condition. Some 114 people workers been treated and released. The cause of the blast at the factory, which is away from residential areas, was under investigation. A…

Bali conducted mass prayers on Sunday as the Indonesian resort island prepares to reopen to tourists shut out due to the COVID-19 pandemic. More than a thousand people attended a prayer at Besakih Hindu temple in the town of Karangasem, expressing gratitude for the handling of the new coronavirus on the island and seeking blessings for the start of a “new normal”. Bali has reported 1,849 coronavirus infections and 20 deaths so far, while Indonesia as a whole has recorded 63,749 cases and 3,171 deaths since early March. The idyllic Southeast Asian island will gradually reopen this month for domestic…

Saudi Arabia has reported 3,580 new cases and 58 deaths from coronavirus, taking the total cases to 209,509. Saudi Arabia is holding the 13th position for most coronavirus cases worldwide. The death toll raised to 1,916 after reporting the new deaths. Meanwhile, 1,980 patients fully recovered from the virus, bringing the total recoveries to 145,236. In line with recent trends, the majority of the new cases are in Riyadh (332), followed by Taif (271) and Khamis Mushait (242). https://twitter.com/media_ksa/status/1279758469910888448?s=20

The commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration on Sunday declined to defend President Donald Trump’s unfounded claim that 99% of coronavirus cases are “totally harmless” and repeatedly refused to say whether Trump’s remark is true or false. “I’m not going to get into who is right and who is wrong,” Dr. Stephen Hahn, a member of the White House coronavirus task force, told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union.” During his remarks Saturday at the White House Independence Day event, Trump claimed without evidence that 99% of coronavirus cases “are totally harmless.” The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention…

The northwestern Spanish region of Galicia imposed restrictions on about 70,000 people on Sunday following a COVID-19 outbreak, a day after Catalonia also introduced a local lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus. People living in A Marina along Spain’s northern coast in the region of Lugo will not be able to leave the area from midnight on Sunday until Friday, two days before regional elections in Galicia on July 12. The regional government said people will be allowed to move around A Marina but only those who need to travel for work will be allowed to leave or…

The number of people killed in protests in Ethiopia following the slaying of a popular singer has jumped to 156 from the initial tally of 80, a senior regional security official told on Sunday. The protests were sparked by the assassination of musician Haacaaluu Hundeessaa on Monday night and spread from Addis Ababa to the surrounding Oromia region. Jibril Mohammed, head of the Oromia Security and Peace Bureau, said the 156 are those who died just in the Oromia region, which was the worst hit by the protests. He said more deaths might be reported due to the number of…

Saudi government initiatives to support the financing of the private sector to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus oubreak have exceeded 51 billion riyals ($13.60 billion), the central bank said on Sunday.

Iran recorded its highest number of deaths from COVID-19 within a 24-hour period, official health ministry figures showed on Sunday. The 163 deaths reported on Sunday exceed the previous record from last Monday, when the health ministry reported 162 deaths in a day. The Islamic Republic has recorded a total of 11,571 deaths and 240,438 infections from the coronavirus, health ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari said in a statement on state TV. There have been 201,330 recoveries, she said. The number of new daily infections and deaths has increased sharply in the last week following the gradual lifting of restrictions…