Author: News Desk

German authorities are bringing back local lockdown measures after an outbreak linked to a meatpacking plant. More than 1,300 employees of the Tönnies meatpacking plant have now tested positive for the virus. North Rhine-Westphalia state premier Armin Laschet said restrictions will return in the Gütersloh district, home to about 360,000 people. Germany struggles to impose local lockdowns as coronavirus infections spike It is the first return of containment measures since Germany began lifting its lockdown in May. Mr Laschet said the lockdown would last until 30 June, and described the move as a “preventative measure”. Germany was widely praised for…

Saudi Arabia will allow around 1,000 pilgrims residing in the kingdom to perform the hajj this year, a minister said Tuesday, after it announced the ritual would be scaled back due to coronavirus. “The number of pilgrims will be around 1,000, maybe less, maybe a little more,” Hajj Minister Mohammad Benten told reporters. “The number won’t be in tens or hundreds of thousands” this year, he added. Saudi Arabia limits the number of Hajj pilgrims amid COVID-19 The pilgrimage, scheduled for the end of July, will be limited to those below 65 years of age and with no chronic illnesses,…

Kuwait has reported 742 new coronavirus cases, the majority of the cases are from citizens which is 385, taking the total confirmed cases in the country to 41,033, according to the Ministry of Health. 4 patients died of the coronavirus in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of deaths to 334. 534 new recoveries have been reported in the country, raising the total recoveries to 32,304. Kuwait has done 3,645 NP swab tests in the past 24 hours, as the country ramps up its efforts to test more people and detect cases early, according to the health ministry.…

UAE records 380 cases, and 2 fatalities from coronavirus in the past 24 hours, taking the total cases in the country to 45,683, according to the Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHAP). The new death takes the total fatalities to 305. Dubai conducts more than 600,000 COVID-19 tests 657 new recoveries were also announced, bringing the total recoveries to 33,703. This means over 72 percent of the confirmed cases have fully recovered from the virus. The new cases were found after conducting more than 40,000 coronavirus tests across the country. Dubai to allow foreigners to enter from July 7 Abu Dhabi…

South Africa’s coronavirus cases have surpassed 100,000 as the country makes up close to one-third of all recorded infections on the African continent. The latest daily update shows a worrying new trend as Gauteng province, home to South Africa’s economic hub of Johannesburg, has a higher number of new cases than the hotspot of Western Cape province centered on the city of Cape Town. Global cases of the novel coronavirus surpassed 9 million on Monday Virus cases in Gauteng, which also contains the capital, Pretoria, now make up more than one-fifth of South Africa’s total. South Africa continues to loosen…

Oman has registered 3 deaths and 1,318 new cases of coronavirus, most of the new cases are from citizens by 853 and the rest 465 from foreigners, taking the total cases to 32,394. The death toll reached 140 after reporting the new deaths. Meanwhile, 871 new recoveries were announced, bringing the total to 17,279. 3,940 tests were conducted in the past 24 hours, across the sultanate.

Cities, states and nations have been turning to sugar taxes as a potential way to improve public health in their communities, but the jury has been out on how best to implement the fine. Taxes on sugary drinks, a new study has revealed, can lead to major health gains and reductions in health care costs — but just how much of a benefit they provide can vary by the design of the tax. Many sugar-sweetened beverage taxes are volume-based, meaning the tax may be 2 cents per ounce of the beverage’s overall volume, for instance, or 3 cents per teaspoon of sugar,…

Finally, 142 Odia expat workers and families have arrived at the Biju Patnaik International Airport Bhubaneswar from Bahrain. These workers were stranded without any jobs in the Kingdom of Bahrain because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of the visitors who visited Bahrain to meet their near and dear ones also were happy that after all-most three and half months they returned to their motherland by Air India Flight AI 0940 under the Indian PM Narendra Modi’s Vande Bharat Mission which took off from Bahrain International Airport. The Embassy of India had been working towards facilitating the comeback of Odia migrants…

While scientists have succeeded at restoring some coral reefs, humans alone can’t save all the reefs that are dying across the globe, a NOAA reef restoration manager said this month. Even in the best of conditions, human divers can spend only three or four hours per day working under water, said Tom Moore, coral reef restoration program manager for the National Oceanic And Atmospheric Administration. And those best conditions are rare. That’s not enough to halt the collapse of one of the planet’s most crucial ecosystems, Moore said at the EarthxOcean conference: half the world’s coral reefs have died and the rest…

The Taliban killed at least 291 Afghan security personnel over the past week, a top government official said Monday, accusing the insurgents of unleashing a wave of violence ahead of potential talks. The previous week was the “deadliest” in the country’s 19 years of conflict, said Javid Faisal, spokesman for the National Security Council, even as the insurgents dismissed the latest figures. The Taliban carried out 422 attacks in 32 provinces during that time, killing 291 security force personnel and wounding 550 others, Faisal said on Twitter. “Taliban’s commitment to reduce violence is meaningless, and their actions inconsistent with their…