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China Mulls Mixing Different COVID-19 Vaccines To Improve Efficacy Of Jabs

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="China Mulls Mixing Different COVID-19 Vaccines To Improve Efficacy Of Jabs" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2021-04/447iq0po_china-vaccine-reuters-650_625x300_10_April_21.jpg" title="China Mulls Mixing Different COVID-19 Vaccines To Improve Efficacy Of Jabs" /></div>
China has administered around 161 million doses since vaccinations began last year. (Representational)
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Beijing:
China is considering the mixing of different Covid-19 vaccines to improve the relatively low efficacy of its existing options, a top health expert has told a conference.
Authorities have to "consider ways to solve the issue that efficacy rates of existing vaccines are not high", Chinese media outlet The Paper reported, citing Gao Fu, the head of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
His comments mark the first time a top Chinese expert has publicly alluded to the relatively low efficacy of the country's vaccines, as China forges ahead in its mass vaccination campaign and exports its jabs around the world.
China has administered around 161 million doses since vaccinations began last year -- most people will require two shots -- and aims to fully inoculate 40 percent of its 1.4 billion population by June.
But many have been slow to sign up for jabs, with life largely back to normal within China's borders and domestic outbreaks under control.
Gao has previously stressed the best way to prevent the spread of Covid-19 is vaccination, and said in a recent state media interview that China aims to vaccinate 70 percent to 80 percent of its population between the end of this year and mid-2022.
At the conference in Chengdu on Saturday, Gao added that an option to overcome the efficacy problem is to alternate the use of vaccine doses that tap different technologies.
This is an option that health experts outside China are studying as well.
Gao said experts should not ignore mRNA vaccines just because there are already several coronavirus jabs in the country, urging for further development, The Paper reported.
Currently, none of China's jabs conditionally approved for the market are mRNA vaccines, but products that use the technology include those by US pharma giant Pfizer and German start-up BioNTech, as well as by Moderna.
China has four conditionally approved vaccines, whose published efficacy rates remain behind rival jabs by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, which have 95 percent and 94 percent rates respectively.
China's Sinovac previously said trials in Brazil showed around 50 percent efficacy in preventing infection and 80 percent efficacy in preventing cases requiring medical intervention.
Sinopharm's vaccines have efficacy rates of 79.34 percent and 72.51 percent respectively, while the overall efficacy for CanSino's stands at 65.28 percent after 28 days.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/china-mulls-mixing-different-covid-19-vaccines-to-improve-efficacy-of-jabs-2410976">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/china-mulls-mixing-different-covid-19-vaccines-to-improve-efficacy-of-jabs-2410976</a>

news world China Mulls Mixing Different COVID-19 Vaccines To Improve Efficacy Of Jabs

China has administered around 161 million doses since vaccinations began last year. (Representational) Beijing: China is considering th...

US Dials Down Tension Over Warship Passage Through India's Exclusive Zone

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New Delhi had expressed its concern to Washington.
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New Delhi:
The United States has sought to dial down differences with India on the passage of a US warship through India's Exclusive Economic Zone in the Arabian Sea, which had taken place without New Delhi's permission on April 7.  
John F Kirby, the Pentagon Press Secretary, has said that the Destroyer USS John Paul Jones conducted "innocent passage" through waters off the Maldives, indicating that military manoeuvres had not been carried out.  
Earlier, in a statement, the government had said the United Nation's Convention on the Law of the Sea does not authorise other states to carry out military exercises of manoeuvres on the continental shelf or "Exclusive Economic Zone".  
"The Government of India's stated position on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea is that the Convention does not authorise other States to carry out in the Exclusive Economic Zone and on the continental shelf, military exercises or manoeuvres, in particular those involving the use of weapons or explosives, without the consent of the coastal state," <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/us-navy-conducts-freedom-of-navigation-operation-inside-indias-exclusive-economic-zone-without-consent-says-consistent-with-international-law-2409697" target="_self">the Ministry of External Affairs had said</a>. 
"The USS John Paul Jones was continuously monitored transiting from the Persian Gulf towards the Malacca Straits. We have conveyed our concerns regarding this passage through our EEZ to the Government of USA through diplomatic channels," it added. 
New Delhi had expressed its concern to Washington after the US Seventh Fleet referred to India's maritime claims as being excessive. 
The statement was unusual since New Delhi and Washington, both members of the Quad grouping, are both committed to protecting freedom of navigation in international waterways with a specific concern on China's maritime expansionism. 
The Quad grouping consists of the US, India, Japan, and Australia, and is viewed as a buffer against an increasingly assertive Beijing.
A statement by the US 7th Fleet Public Affairs had earlier said, "On April 7, 2021 (local time), the USS John Paul Jones asserted navigational rights and freedoms approximately 130 nautical miles west of the Lakshadweep Islands, inside India's exclusive economic zone, without requesting India's prior consent, consistent with international law. India requires prior consent for military exercises or manoeuvres in its exclusive economic zone or continental shelf, a claim inconsistent with international law.
In response to a query from NDTV on whether the Indian Navy attempted to contact the US Navy ship involved in the operation, a US Navy Spokesperson had said, "All interactions during the freedom of navigation operation were in accordance with international law." 
 
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/us-dials-down-tension-over-warship-passage-through-indias-exclusive-zone-2410961">https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/us-dials-down-tension-over-warship-passage-through-indias-exclusive-zone-2410961</a>

news world US Dials Down Tension Over Warship Passage Through India's Exclusive Zone

New Delhi had expressed its concern to Washington. New Delhi: The United States has sought to dial down differences with India on the p...

"Wright Brothers Moment": NASA's Mars Helicopter Prepares For 1st Flight

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="'Wright Brothers Moment': NASA's Mars Helicopter Prepares For 1st Flight" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2021-04/t9bsnag8_nasas-ingenuity-helicopter-afp-650_625x300_11_April_21.jpg" title="'Wright Brothers Moment': NASA's Mars Helicopter Prepares For 1st Flight" /></div>
Ingenuity helicopter seen on Mars as viewed by Perseverance rover's rear Hazard Camera on April 4, 2021
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They landed a car-size rover on Mars, and the brilliant, if cheeky, engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory even snuck a coded message into the parachute used to slow it down for a soft landing that read, "Dare Mighty Things."
Now comes what the space agency says will be a "Wright brothers" moment on Mars: the first powered flight of an aircraft on another planet.
It won't fly far, just to the height of a basketball rim and down, a short hop that should take about 40 seconds. But the autonomous flight of a tiny helicopter called Ingenuity would mark a first in interplanetary travel, demonstrate a new technology and pave the way for scientists and explorers to more quickly traverse the surface of the Red Planet.
Originally expected to happen as early as Sunday, the flight was postponed until no earlier than Wednesday after a problem during a test of spinning the rotor blades at full power. In a statement Saturday, NASA said, "The helicopter is safe and healthy and communicated its full telemetry set to Earth." But it is diagnosing the problem before running another test.
The flight will be a technology demonstration add-on to the main feature of the mission - the Perseverance rover, a four-wheeled vehicle designed to explore the landscape of a crater that once held water and could yield clues about the possibility of ancient life there.
The rover is outfitted with all sorts of cameras and sensors that can zoom in on rock formations and collect data about the planet's landscape and climate. "Reading the geological history embedded in its rocks will give scientists a richer sense of what the planet was like in its distant past," NASA said.
Perseverance carried Ingenuity with it, a tiny offspring clinging to the under-carriage of the rover during the seven-month, 300-million-mile journey, the white knuckled landing through Mars's atmosphere and the frigid Martian nights since.
Now it's almost ready for its first flight.
"It could be an amazing day," Tim Canham, NASA's Ingenuity operations lead, told reporters Friday. "We're all nervous, but we have confidence that we put in the work and the time and we have the right people to do the job."
Ingenuity is a sprite of a helicopter, just four-pounds, with four pointy legs, two rotor blades that whirl at blinding speed in opposite directions, a solar panel and a fuselage packed with avionics designed to help it navigate the thin Martian atmosphere - another marvel to emerge from the labs at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
It's no easy feat, flying a helicopter on Mars. The reduced gravity - about one-third of Earth's - will help it take off and stay aloft. But the paucity of the Martian atmosphere, just 1% of the density of Earth's, doesn't give the blades much to chew on as they try to gain purchase for liftoff.
"That's the equivalent of about 100,000 feet of altitude on Earth, or three times the height of Mount Everest," said MiMi Aung, NASA's Ingenuity project manager. "We don't generally fly things that high."
Commercial airliners fly at about 35,000 feet above the Earth, she noted, adding: "There were some people who doubted we could generate enough lift to fly in that thin Martian atmosphere."
The twin blades can spin incredibly fast, 2,400 rotations per minute, and were designed to propel the drone-like Ingenuity off the ground. "Those blades are not something off the shelf," she said. "They are really fine-tuned to maximize the lift that we can generate in such a thin atmosphere."
If successful, Ingenuity's flight would come nearly 120 years after the Wright brothers' first flight of a plane above the beach in North Carolina. Nothing like Kitty Hawk, Ingenuity's airfield is a dusty, rock-strewn, barren strip of land that is flat enough, NASA hopes, for takeoff and landing.
Designed as a test vehicle, Ingenuity is "in the long tradition of experimental aircraft that started with the Wright brothers, who were able to bring aerial mobility as a dimension for us to be able to travel here on Earth," NASA's Bob Balaram, the chief engineer of the Mars helicopter project, said in a news briefing last month. "In the same way, we are hoping that Ingenuity also allows us to expand and open up aerial mobility on Mars."
As a tribute to the Wright brothers, Ingenuity has a postage-stamp-size bit of fabric from the brothers' aircraft attached to a cable under the solar panel.
In 1903, the Wright brothers' first flight went about 120 feet. Ingenuity's first flight won't go that far. Initially it plans to lift off, rise to about 10 feet, hover for some 30 seconds and come back down.
If all goes according to plan, the helicopter could make as many as five flights, each one more ambitious than the last. The second, for example, would fly slightly higher, to 16 feet, and then horizontally for a little bit before returning to the landing site.
The Perseverance rover will assist in Ingenuity's flight, attempting to document it and relay signals back to Earth.
Ingenuity is a side benefit to the mission, a technology demonstration that could pave the way for more aircraft on Mars in the future that "could provide a supporting role as robotic scouts, surveying terrain from above," NASA said.
"It's a high-risk, high-reward approach that allows us to test capabilities we can improve on later, which could also advance science on future missions," said Lori Glaze, director of NASA's planetary science division.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/wright-brothers-moment-nasas-mars-helicopter-prepares-for-first-flight-2410942">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/wright-brothers-moment-nasas-mars-helicopter-prepares-for-first-flight-2410942</a>

news world "Wright Brothers Moment": NASA's Mars Helicopter Prepares For 1st Flight

Ingenuity helicopter seen on Mars as viewed by Perseverance rover's rear Hazard Camera on April 4, 2021 They landed a car-size rover...

Egypt Unveils 3,000-Year-Old "Lost" City Near Luxor

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="Egypt Unveils 3,000-Year-Old 'Lost' City Near Luxor" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2021-04/s830q6kc_egypt-largest-lost-city_625x300_11_April_21.jpg" title="Egypt Unveils 3,000-Year-Old 'Lost' City Near Luxor" /></div>
Spaces include workshops for drying meat, making clothes and sandals, among others.
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Luxor:
Archaeologists Saturday showed off their finds at what they say is the "largest" ancient city ever found in Egypt, dating to a golden age of the pharaohs 3,000 years ago.
At the site near Luxor, home of the legendary Valley of the Kings, workers carefully carried ancient pots and showed human and animal remains dug up from the earth as members of the media toured around curved brick walls and rudimentary streets.
"This is a large city that was lost. It was connected with the god Aton and Amenhotep III," famed Egyptologist Zahi Hawass enthusiastically told reporters Saturday.
"We found three major districts: one for administration, one for workers to sleep in and another for industry," he said.
Spaces include workshops for drying meat, making clothes and sandals, and crafting amulets and small statues.
Mostafa Waziri, head of the country's Supreme Council of Antiquities said the site was not limited to buildings.
"We can see... economic activity, workshops and ovens," he said.
Hawass had announced earlier this week the discovery of a "lost golden city", and the archaeological team said the find was "the largest" ancient city ever uncovered in Egypt.
"We found one portion of the city only," Hawass told AFP Saturday. "The city extends to the west and the north."
Jewellery, "golden fish"
The team began excavations in September between the temples of Ramses III and Amenhotep III near Luxor, some 500 kilometres (300 miles) south of Cairo.
Amenhotep III inherited an empire that stretched from the Euphrates River in modern Iraq and Syria to Sudan and died around 1354 BC, ancient historians say.
He ruled for nearly four decades, a reign known for its opulence and the grandeur of its monuments, including the Colossi of Memnon -- two massive stone statues near Luxor that represent him and his wife.
Betsy Bryan, professor of Egyptian art and archaeology at Johns Hopkins University, had said in a statement this week that the find was the "second most important archaeological discovery since the tomb of Tutankhamun" nearly a century ago.
"The archaeological layers have laid untouched for thousands of years, left by the ancient residents as if it were yesterday," the team's statement said.
Archaeologists have unearthed items of jewellery, coloured pottery vessels, scarab beetle amulets and mud bricks bearing seals of Amenhotep III.
Hawass said "a large fish covered in gold" may have been venerated.
"Fantastic discovery"
Jose Galan, head of a separate Spanish archaeological mission near the Valley of the Kings, told AFP Saturday that the site was "a fantastic discovery".
"We are used to discoveries related to temples and tombs so we know about religious life and funerary habits. But we don't know much about settlements," he said.
The team have said they were optimistic that further important finds would be revealed, noting the discovery of groups of tombs reached through "stairs carved into the rock", a similar construction to those found in the Valley of the Kings.
But since the announcement, some scholars have disputed that Hawass and his team have succeeded where others had failed by locating the city.
Egyptologist Tarek Farag posted Friday on Facebook that the area was first excavated more than a century ago by a team from New York's Metropolitan Museum.
Waziri dismissed these concerns, saying previous digs had taken place further afield to the south the site.
After years of political instability following the 2011 Arab Spring uprising, which dealt a severe blow to its tourism industry, Egypt is seeking to bring back visitors, in particular by promoting its ancient heritage.
Last week, the mummified remains of 18 ancient kings and four queens were transported across Cairo from the Egyptian Museum in iconic Tahrir Square to the new National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation, in a procession dubbed the "Pharaohs' Golden Parade" watched by millions.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/egypt-unveils-3-000-year-old-lost-city-near-luxor-2410936">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/egypt-unveils-3-000-year-old-lost-city-near-luxor-2410936</a>

news world Egypt Unveils 3,000-Year-Old "Lost" City Near Luxor

Spaces include workshops for drying meat, making clothes and sandals, among others. Luxor: Archaeologists Saturday showed off their fin...

21 Miners Trapped After Coal Mine Accident In China: Report

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="21 Miners Trapped After Coal Mine Accident In China: Report" src="https://i.ndtvimg.com/i/2016-12/coal-mine-china-afp_650x400_51480823178.jpg" title="21 Miners Trapped After Coal Mine Accident In China: Report" /></div>
Rescue work is underway, the newspaper report said. (Representational)
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Eight miners have been rescued and 21 remain trapped in a coal mine that flooded in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, state-backed newspaper China Daily reported on Sunday citing local authorities.
The accident occurred on Saturday evening when 29 miners were working at the mine in Hutubi county, in the Changji Hui autonomous prefecture, the report said.
Rescue work is underway, the newspaper said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/21-miners-trapped-after-coal-mine-accident-in-china-report-2410933">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/21-miners-trapped-after-coal-mine-accident-in-china-report-2410933</a>

news world 21 Miners Trapped After Coal Mine Accident In China: Report

Rescue work is underway, the newspaper report said. (Representational) Eight miners have been rescued and 21 remain trapped in a coal mi...

Michigan’s governor emphasizes voluntary efforts to curb the most severe coronavirus outbreak in the US

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Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is declining to order state-wide lockdowns in response to her state experiencing <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/tommybeer/2021/04/07/michigan-dealing-with-the-worst-covid-outbreak-in-the-country-heres-why/?sh=4cabf3867a1c">the most severe Covid-19 outbreak in the country</a>, opting instead to <a href="https://www.metrotimes.com/news-hits/archives/2021/04/09/whitmer-calls-for-voluntary-actions-as-covid-19-surges-because-we-all-know-how-good-people-are-at-making-responsible-decisions">recommend</a> that people take “personal responsibility” and “voluntarily” take a break from spaces where transmission is more likely.
The decision to refrain from instituting mandatory restrictions is a striking development for a Democratic governor who last year garnered national attention for swiftly instituting and standing by social distancing laws even in the face of <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/10/10/922610152/the-boiling-resentment-behind-the-foiled-plan-to-kidnap-gov-whitmer">militant right-wing protests</a> and a kidnapping attempt against her. This time around, even as her state is experiencing a full-blown crisis, she’s taking a softer approach in what may be a political calculation about her reelection prospects next year.
Michigan has recently become the newest <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html">coronavirus epicenter of the US</a>. Case rates have <a href="https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2021/04/07/cdc-director-advocates-stronger-restrictions-michigan/7123032002/">risen 375 percent since late February</a>, and Michigan is home to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/09/us/michigan-covid-vaccine.html">16 of the 20 metro areas</a> with the nation’s highest recent number of cases. Sixteen Michigan hospitals are operating at <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/tommybeer/2021/04/07/michigan-dealing-with-the-worst-covid-outbreak-in-the-country-heres-why/?sh=4cabf3867a1c">over 90 percent capacity</a>. Experts say that the surge is due to a combination of the enhanced contagiousness of the <a href="https://www.vox.com/22213033/covid-19-mutation-variant-vaccine-uk-south-africa">B.1.1.7 variant</a> and relaxed restrictions.
But Whitmer has taken a decidedly incremental approach on reinstating distancing rules as her state is overwhelmed by new cases. At a press conference on Friday, she took a position that indicated a reluctance to reinstate full-blown lockdowns.
“We all have to step up our game for the next two weeks to bring down rising cases,” she said. “And that’s why I’m calling on high schools to voluntarily go remote for two weeks past spring break, I’m calling on youth sports to voluntarily suspend games and practices for two weeks, and I’m strongly encouraging all Michiganders to avoid dining indoors and avoid gathering with friends indoors for two weeks.”
“Policy alone won’t change the tide. We need everyone to step up and to take personal responsibility,” she said.
Whitmer emphasized that she wasn’t making restrictions mandatory, but didn’t rule out future restrictions.
Her actions in this situation stand in contrast to her use of state of emergency executive orders and stay-at-home orders last spring to bring down the rate of cases in her state — a response that was <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/10/10/922610152/the-boiling-resentment-behind-the-foiled-plan-to-kidnap-gov-whitmer">popular</a> but also elicited vociferous push-back from conservative activists and the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/10/us/coronavirus-michigan-gretchen-whitmer.html">state’s Republican-controlled legislature</a>.
A <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/10/us/coronavirus-michigan-gretchen-whitmer.html">growing number of public health officials</a> and experts are calling on Whitmer to take more aggressive action, and it is possible that she will do so at some point in the future. But for now, there are a few factors that could be playing a role in her resistance to issuing mandated actions.
One is the issue of efficacy. A great deal of <a href="https://healthpolicy.usc.edu/article/survey-results-show-evidence-americans-are-feeling-covid-fatigue-engaging-in-less-protective-behaviors/">polling data</a> shows that fatigue with Covid-19 restrictions is a very real phenomenon, and that even many months ago people were reporting a decline in compliance with rules. Whitmer might be concerned that with the spread of the vaccine, better weather, the relaxation of restrictions in other states, and growing optimism, it could be difficult to achieve compliance with mandatory restrictions. There could be a concern that making rules required will make people resentful while not significantly improving health outcomes.
Another factor is political calculation. She may fear backlash and disapproval at a time when people are sick of restrictions, something of concern to her as she approaches reelection next year — in a state where Republicans control the legislature and have wasted no opportunities to <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/10/9/21509239/gretchen-whitmer-kidnapping-plot-wolverine-michigan-governor">paint her past Covid-19 restrictions as tyrannical</a>.
Political observers believe Whitmer’s management of the pandemic will play a pivotal role in determining her reelection — and the reality is that perception of the virus is different now than it was a year ago.
But some public health experts say that trying to take what seems like a moderate position on social distancing during a crisis-level surge is a dangerous mistake.
“What it looks like happened is she tried to be fair and meet us in the middle,” Debra Furr-Holden, a Michigan State University epidemiologist whom Whitmer appointed to a coronavirus task force, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/10/us/coronavirus-michigan-gretchen-whitmer.html">told the New York Times</a>. “And what I think we’ve learned — and I hope other states will get the message — is that there really isn’t a lot of middle ground here. We just have to tighten up and hold tight.”
 
 
source <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/4/10/22377449/michigan-coronavirus-covid-whitmer">https://www.vox.com/2021/4/10/22377449/michigan-coronavirus-covid-whitmer</a>

vox Michigan’s governor emphasizes voluntary efforts to curb the most severe coronavirus outbreak in the US

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is declining to order state-wide lockdowns in response to her state experiencing the most severe Covid-19 ou...