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‘India needs better network to avoid blood wastage’

On the occasion of World Blood Donor Day, the health professionals underscored the need to highlight the shortcomings and improve infrastructure and network of blood banks across India…reports Asian Lite News

Covid-19 pandemic exposed blood shortage across many Indian states, and this situation arose despite many good Samaritans repeatedly stepping forward to donate their blood.

On the occasion of World Blood Donor Day, the health professionals underscored the need to highlight the shortcomings and improve infrastructure and network of blood banks across India.

According to some reports, India needs 15 million units of blood each year but manages to collect only 11 million units, a deficit of 4 million units. It is also estimated that nearly 12,000 individuals die in India each day, due to non-availability of quality blood. While this is one side of the coin, the other side indicates that India wastes about 6.5 lakh units of blood and blood components each year, due to lack of proper storage facilities.

Many doctors are raising their voices on the urgent need to address this major concern in the society.

Women suffering from bleeding during pregnancy or at childbirth, women and children suffering from anemia due to malnutrition, victims of trauma, etc., all need blood or/and blood-related products like plasma or platelets.

“Each day India needs large quantities of blood to treat many patients undergoing surgery or getting treatment for various forms of cancers. While there is a shortage of quality blood in the country, large quantities of it gets wasted when it cannot be transfused to a patient, within the right time, and in the right means. Key factors leading to donated blood wastage lack of proper storage facilities, leakages, contamination, testing delays due to manpower issues etc. All these problems can be addressed and must be resolved to ensure we emerge into a healthy India,” said Dr. Pradeep Panigrahi, Medical Director, SLG Hospitals.

“Some reports suggest that India does not have even a single well-managed blood bank in at least 63 districts as of September 2020. This lack of blood banks facility also adds to the healthcare delivery burden, resulting in loss of lives in emergency situations like trauma/accidents. Many individual hospitals are striving hard to ensure there is a proper supply of quality blood to those in need; but the network of blood banks must grow in numbers to ensure we address this concern,” observes Dr Satwinder Singh Sabharwal, COO, Aware Gleneagles Global Hospital.

Highlighting the need for a policy, Dr Kishore B. Reddy, Managing Director, Amor Hospitals said: “State and Union Governments have enhanced allocations to the healthcare sector in their annual budgets and are striving hard to improve the last mile delivery of quality healthcare services.” He believes the state and the union governments should bring out a policy that will ensure creation of more blood banks, even in remote parts of the country. This, he said, will ensure supply of safe blood and also ensure blood transfusion related risks are addressed well.

A staff member of Hengyi Industries Sdn Bhd has physical examination before participating in a blood donation in Bandar Seri Begawan, capital of Brunei

“While there are many kind-hearted Samaritans who step forward to donate their blood on a regular basis, there is a need to enhance awareness on blood donation, which is a healthy practice. There is always a dearth of rare blood groups like AB negative, A negative, B negative, AB positive, and Bombay blood group; and there should a special focus on ensure people with these rare groups consider donating their blood regularly, concluded Dr Sailesh Singhi, Senior Hematologist and Blood bank Incharge, Century Hospital.

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-Top News UK News

Job vacancies hit record high amid worker shortages

Though there’s a shortfall in workers, the statistics agency said the number of workers on payroll in the U.K. rose to a record 29.2 million in September as the British economy bounced back following the lifting of restrictions…reports Asian Lite News.

Job vacancies in the UK rose to a record high of nearly 1.2 million, official figures showed Tuesday, a further sign that the British economy is experiencing worker shortages in an array of sectors as a result of the coronavirus pandemic and Britain’s departure from the European Union.

Following weeks of long lines at gas stations as motorists struggle to fill up their cars amid a shortage of truck drivers to deliver the fuel and empty shelves at supermarkets, the Office for National Statistics pointed to shortages across the whole economy, including hospitality and transport.

It’s become increasingly evident in recent weeks that the British economy is experiencing shortages of labor, and not just of truck drivers. The causes are widespread but it’s clear that the combination of Brexit and the pandemic prompted many EU workers to leave the U.K. and head home.

The Institute for Employment Studies estimates that the U.K. has a shortfall of 900,000 workers between the number of people in the labor market now and what would have been expected based on pre-pandemic trends.

“This is being driven by large falls in participation for older people and young people, alongside continued wide employment gaps for disabled people and those with health conditions,” said IES director Tony Wilson.

Though there’s a shortfall in workers, the statistics agency said the number of workers on payroll in the U.K. rose to a record 29.2 million in September as the British economy bounced back following the lifting of restrictions.

The International Monetary Fund forecast Tuesday that the U.K. will grow by 6.8% this year, more than any other Group of Seven industrial nation, and by a still-high 5% next. That means the economy will have recouped the 9.8% output lost during 2020 after the pandemic struck some time next year.

The increase in hiring and vacancies should help workers returning to the jobs market following the end of a salary support program at the end of last month, which the government introduced at the outset of the pandemic to keep a lid on job losses.

For much of the time that the Job Retention Scheme was in place, the government paid 80% of the salaries of those workers unable to work because of lockdown measures. At its peak, it helped support over 11 million people, but with many workers returning to their former jobs following the reopening of the economy, that fell to a little more than 1 million.

The unemployment figures provided further evidence that the program did what it was intended to. The statistics agency found that the U.K.’s rate of unemployment also fell further to 4.5% between June and August, down from 4.6% in the quarter to July.

Wages rose steeply again, with average weekly earnings up 7.2% with bonuses or 6% without bonuses in the three months to August. However, the agency stressed that the figures continue to be skewed by the impact of the pandemic on wages a year ago.

With inflation set to hit 4% in the coming months and productivity levels low, there are worries that wages will soon be running below price rises, further pressuring household incomes at a time when the tax burden is at its highest level in decades.

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-Top News China

Vax Shortages Hit China

Vax Shortages and ineffectiveness haunt China’s internal as well as global vaccine programme …. Writes Dr Varun Sharma

The government and state-run media in China were jubilant after the figures showed the country, which is criticised for the Covid-19 pandemic, exported over 114 million doses of vaccine. It was seen as vaccine diplomacy to build political influence with individual country. China however has hit a snag. China is witnessing a sudden shortage of vaccines to be distributed in the country as well as abroad. And to make the problem worse, many countries have reported low effectiveness of China- manufactured vaccines, showing reluctance. Now the doubts about Covid-19 vaccines could dent China’s diplomacy efforts.

A shipment of China-manufactured Covid-19 vaccine Sinovac arrived in Singapore in March 2020, which Chinese Embassy said would contribute to Singapore’s efforts to defeat the virus and restore normal order of life and economic development. However, the Chinese vaccines are still in a storage facility as Singapore government has decided not to use them owing to lack of transparency in clinical trials. Instead, it has gone ahead with Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines.

In Kyrgyzstan too, many people including doctors have refused to use Chinese vaccines and instead expressed desire to use Russian ones.

A top Chinese official recently accepted that China- manufactured vaccines did have very high protection rates. Gao Fu, Director of the China Centers for Disease Control, said: “The protection rates of existing vaccines are not high. It’s now under formal consideration whether we should use different vaccines from different technical lines for the immunization process.”

Also read:How China lends to trap developing countries

The rare admission by top Chinese bureaucrat took social media storm. And as expected, Chinese authorities censored online discussions. Also, the state-run news outlet Global Times carried an interview of Gao Fu, who then called it “a complete misunderstanding”.

While Chinese vaccines Sinopharm and Sinovac have met the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) requirements, China has not released the data of clinical trials with public.

Health regulators dodged the question when asked by a reporter about when the data would be released. There have always been global concerns about Chinese ways of conducting research. In July 2020, questions were raised over fraudulent data in research papers by Chinese-authors since they had used have reused identical sets of images.

A YouGov survey revealed that the most of 19,000 people from across 17 countries were distrustful of the vaccines from China.

Inside China too, the vaccination programme is marred by ineffective and inadequate vaccine jabs. Although China was the first country to start vaccinating its nationals, its progress has been quite disappointing. There are just 2.9 doses per resident. 1 According to a survey conducted in February 2020, health professionals are among the most hesitant people among Chinese to take vaccine as 72 percent of them showed lack of confidence.

Also read:‘India ready to combat China’s cyber attacks’

“Initially, we know so little about the vaccine, and there’s a lack of evidence to support its safety and efficacy,” a Beijing-based doctor told Financial Times on condition of anonymity. China has ambitious plans of vaccinating 560 million people – 40 percent of its population — by the end of June 2020.2 However, sudden shortage of jabs has derailed the plans. Now, the government in Beijing has asked all local authorities in China to stop compulsory vaccination drives. Again, the Global Times has come up with rebuttal. It said the reports of vaccine shortage was wrong interpretation by the western media of measures to adjust China’s local vaccination programs.

The underperformance of Chinese vaccines could be due to manufacturing issues and vaccine export diplomacy. There have been concerns over safety and side-effects of vaccines produced in China. In the past too, average Chinese people refused to get themselves or their children vaccinated owing to safety issue. There is one more major factor—sale of fake Covid-19 vaccines.

Chinese agencies busted several fake vaccine networks, one of which was found to have produced about 58,000 of fake concoctions. It does have negative impact on the countries that are buying Chinese vaccines. Interpol came across smuggling of such fake Chinese vaccines to South Africa in March this year. These are some of the concerns people have before they tend to get Chinese vaccine jabs.

Also read:India, China agree to resolve outstanding issues

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-Top News Arab News USA

Palestine hit by Arab funding shortage

“The Arab countries and US haven’t sent any financial aid during 2020 until now”, said Prime Minister Mohammed Ishtaye…reports Asian Lite News

Palestine has not received financial aid from any Arab country for more than one year, Prime Minister Mohammed Ishtaye said.

“Due to lack of Arab funds, the deficiency in the Palestinian budget climbed to $1 billion,” Xinhua news agency quoted Ishtaye as saying at a press conference here on Wednesday.

“The Arab countries haven’t sent any financial aid during 2020 until now. In addition, the US has suspended its financial support, which amounted to $500 million,” he said.

At the conference on the coronavirus crisis in Palestine, Ishtaye said the government is ready for austerity and reducing its running cost.

“This will not be at the expense of the health, the safety and security of the citizen and the education in Palestine,” he said.

The Prime Minister added the economic establishments, whether it is large, medium, or small, have all been affected by the repercussions of coronavirus crisis.

“The unemployment rate in the West Bank rose to 19 per cent, while the situation in the Gaza Strip is much worse,” Ishtaye said.

Also read:Palestine Accuses Israel with Manipulating Elections