08-02-2021

Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) started vaccinating against the corona virus as part of a
nationwide vaccination program against the corona virus (Covid-19).Additional Director
General (Medical) of BGB, Brigadier General Dr. Md. Nazrul Islam Khan was the 1st BGB
member to be vaccinated against the corona virus invented by Oxford-AstraZeneca in the
United Kingdom at the training ground of BGB Headquarters, Border Guard Hospital,
Pilkhana, Dhaka on Sunday.
Photo: Courtesy
Oxford/AstraZeneca jab effective
against UK Covid variant, study finds
LONDON : The COVID-19 vaccine developed
by Oxford University and produced
by AstraZeneca has shown efficacy
against the UK variant of the coronavirus,
according to an ongoing study by
researchers.
Oxford University scientists who developed
the ChAdOx1-nCoV19 vaccine have
found that it remains effective against at
least one of the new variants of the disease,
called the B.1.1.7 'Kent' coronavirus
strain after the south-east England region
where it was first discovered late last year.
"Data from our trials of the ChAdOx1
vaccine in the United Kingdom indicate
that the vaccine not only protects against
the original pandemic virus, but also protects
against the novel variant, B.1.1.7,
which caused the surge in disease from
the end of 2020 across the UK," said
Andrew Pollard, Professor of Paediatric
Infection and Immunity, and Chief
Investigator on the Oxford vaccine trial.
However, in related findings,
we`ÿ r/Rb- 603 (2)/7/2/21
GD- 212/21 (4x3)
AstraZeneca said it is yet to be fully determined
whether the vaccine protects
against severe disease caused by the highly
transmissible coronavirus variant
found in South Africa.
Following the pre-print study of a small
sample, due to be published next week,
the company expressed confidence that
the vaccine would offer protection against
serious cases because it created neutralising
antibodies similar to those of other
coronavirus vaccines.
"All viruses accumulate mutations over
time, and for influenza vaccines, there is a
well-known process of global viral surveillance,
and selection of strains for an annual
update of the vaccines," explained
Sarah Gilbert, Professor of Vaccinology,
and Chief Investigator on the Oxford vaccine
trial.
Prof Gilbert said that coronaviruses are
less prone to mutation than influenza
viruses. It is always expected that as the
pandemic continues, new variants will
begin to become dominant amongst the
viruses that are circulating and that eventually
a new version of the vaccine, with
an updated spike protein, would be
required to maintain vaccine efficacy at
the highest level possible, she said.
"We are working with AstraZeneca to
optimise the pipeline required for a strain
change should one become necessary,"
Gilbert said.
"This is the same issue that is faced by
all of the vaccine developers, and we
will continue to monitor the emergence
of new variants that arise in readiness
for a future strain change," she said.
Between October 2020 and mid-
January 2021, the researchers used
swabs taken from volunteers with both
symptomatic and asymptomatic infection
enrolled in phase II/III vaccine
efficacy study to work out which strain
of the coronavirus they had been infected
with after receiving either the vaccine
or the control.
Egypt releases Al-Jazeera
journalist detained since 2016
CAIRO : Egyptian authorities on Saturday freed an Al-Jazeera
journalist after more than four years in detention, his family
lawyer said.
Mahmoud Hussein walked free from a police station Saturday
afternoon, a few days after a court ordered his conditional release
pending investigations into charges of publishing false information
and belonging to a banned group, lawyer Gamal Eid said,
reports UNB.
The lawyer said Hussein will have to report to a nearby police
station twice a week.
The journalist's daughter, el-Zahraa Hussein, confirmed the
news in a Facebook post, saying her father had arrived home. Al-
Jazeera also reported his release.
Hussein, an Egyptian working for the Qatar-based satellite network,
was detained at the Cairo airport in December 2016, when
he arrived on a family vacation from Doha, the network said.
Since the 2013 ouster of Muslim Brotherhood President
Mohamed Morsi, Egyptian authorities and pro-government
media have portrayed the Al-Jazeera network as Egypt's national
enemy for its sympathy toward Islamists, especially the outlawed
Muslim Brotherhood group.
The network, especially its Arabic service, and its staff have been
embroiled in the wider political rift between Cairo and Doha.
Egyptian authorities have blocked Al-Jazeera's news website since
2017, along with dozens of other news sites deemed too critical of
the government. Hussein's release came a month after Egypt,
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain ended their
dispute with Qatar, which started in 2017 and included the four
countries severing their diplomatic diplomatic and economic ties
with energy-rich Qatar.
On-the-loose tiger
captured alive
after Indonesia
zoo escape
PONTIANAK : An escaped
tiger that killed a keeper at a
zoo on Borneo island has
been captured alive after a
day on the loose, police said,
reports BSS.
The white Bengal tiger was
found wandering in a jungle
surrounding Sinka Zoo in
the town of Singkawang,
West Kalimantan on
Saturday, following its
escape through a hole.
Another tiger that broke
free was shot dead earlier.
"We found and captured
the second tiger by sedating
it with a tranquillizer," local
police chief Prasetiyo Adhi
Wibowo told journalists late
Saturday.
Telegram, the
world's most
downloaded app!
NEW DELHI : It's official.
Telegram is now the world's
most downloaded app on
Google Play Store. It's also
now the most preferred
instant messaging app for
Indians, reports UNB.
Telegram was downloaded
over 63 million times in
January this year, with 24%
of the total downloads coming
from India alone, according
to the latest report by the
US-based mobile analytics
firm, Sensor Tower. The
downloads have also helped
Telegram move from the
ninth spot to the top position
on Google Play Store.
"Telegram was the most
downloaded non-gaming
app worldwide for January
2021, with more than 63 million
installs, 3.8 times its
downloads in January 2020.
The countries with the largest
number of Telegram installs
were India at 24 percent, followed
by Indonesia at 10 percent,"
the Sensor Tower
report said.
In fact, Indians have started
migrating to Telegram as
well as Signal, another
instant messaging app, since
WhatsApp late last year
rolled out notifications
informing users about an
update in its Terms of Service
that would pave the way for
the app to share data with its
parent company Facebook.
Both Signal and Telegram
claim to have "state-of-theart
end-to-end encryption" as
part of their services and are
free to download. Ironically,
Signal is headed by Brian
Acton, one of the co-founders
of WhatsApp. Signal has features
like voice calling, video
calling, stickers support and
the person-to-person chat
interface, similar to that of
Apple's iMessage.
"Though WhatsApp is a
household name in India,
it's clear now that people
have started migrating to
other more privacyfocused
messaging apps.
So, it's privacy over convenience,
for Indians, particularly
the urban class,"
Delhi-based technology
expert Rahul Gaba told
UNB last month.
KCC mayor inaugurates
corona vaccination
program in Khulna
TitashChakraborthey,
Khulna Correspondent:
Khulna City Corporation
Mayor Talukder Abdul
Khaleq inaugurated the
corona vaccination program
in Khulna on Sunday
morning by being the first
to receive the vaccine at
Khulna Medical College
Hospital.
In Khulna district, 29
teams are working for 13
centers in the metropolis
and a total of 29 teams are
working in each of the three
upazilas. Each team has
two vaccinators and four
volunteers. Vaccination
will be given every day
from 8 am to 4 pm. On an
average, six to six and a half
thousand people a day will
be vaccinated at one hundred
and fifty people in
each center.
During the time, Khulna
Divisional Commissioner
Md. Ismail Hossain NDC,
Deputy Commissioner
Mohammad Helal Hossain,
Khulna District Council
Chairman Sheikh Harunur
Rashid, Medical College
Principal Prof. Dr. Md.
Abdul Ahad, Khulna
Medical College Hospital
Director Dr. ATM Manzur
Morshed,Police Super SM
Shafiullah, Civil Surgeon
Dr. Niaz Mohammad,
Medical College Vice
President Dr. Mehedi
Newaz, KCC Chief Health
Officer KM Abdullah,
General Secretary of
MohanagarAwami League
MDA Babul Rana and other
government officials and
political leaders were present.
.
MONDAY, feBrUArY 8, 2021
11
Calls grow for US to rely on
rapid tests to fight pandemic
WASHINGTON : When a Halloween party
sparked a COVID-19 outbreak at North
Carolina Agricultural and Technical State
University, school officials conducted rapid
screening on more than 1,000 students in a
week, including many who didn't have symptoms.
Although such asymptomatic screening isn't
approved by regulators and the 15-minute
tests aren't as sensitive as the genetic one that
can take days to yield results, the testing director
at the historically Black college credits the
approach with quickly containing the infections
and allowing the campus to remain
open, reports UNB.
"Within the span of a week, we had crushed
the spread. If we had had to stick with the PCR
test, we would have been dead in the water,"
said Dr. Robert Doolittle, referring to the polymerase
chain reaction test that is considered
the gold standard by many doctors and Food
and Drug Administration regulators. With
President Joe Biden vowing to get elementary
and middle school students back to the classroom
by spring and the country's testing system
still unable to keep pace with the spread of
COVID-19, some experts see an opportunity
to refocus U.S. testing less on medical precision
than on mass screening that they believe
could save hundreds of thousands of lives. As
vaccines slowly roll out, they say the nation
could suppress the outbreak and reopen much
of the economy by easing regulatory hurdles
to allow millions more rapid tests that, while
technically less accurate, may actually be better
at identifying sick people when they are
most contagious.
"Our whole testing approach, which has
failed, has tried to tackle this pandemic as
though it's a bunch of little medical problems,"
said Dr. Michael Mina, a Harvard University
testing specialist. "Instead, we need to take a
big step back and say, 'Wait, this isn't a lot of
medical problems, it's an epidemic. And if we
resolve the epidemic, we resolve the medical
problems.'"
Palestinian leader's path to
elections is fraught with peril
RAMALLAH, West Bank : Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas' call for elections has thrown
his political future into peril, forcing him to
negotiate competing demands to engage with a
friendlier U.S. administration, mend the rift with
his militant Hamas rivals and keep his unruly
Fatah movement from breaking apart, reports
UNB.
The presidential decree issued last month,
calling for what would be the first Palestinian
elections in 15 years, stemmed from negotiations
launched with Hamas last year aimed at
shoring up ranks in the face of unprecedented
crises.
The Trump administration had cut off all aid
and proposed a Mideast plan that overwhelmingly
favored Israel and would have allowed it to
annex parts of the occupied West Bank. A U.S.-
brokered normalization agreement between
Israel and the United Arab Emirates last summer
put annexation on hold but left the
Palestinians increasingly isolated in the region.
So Abbas embarked on talks with Hamas, the
Islamic militant group that seized Gaza from his
forces in 2007. Those discussions culminated in
the presidential decree calling for legislative elections
on May 22 and presidential elections on
July 31.
It's far from clear the elections will actually be
held. Doing so will require an agreement
between Abbas's secular Fatah movement and
Hamas, which have been bitterly divided for
more than a decade despite multiple attempts at
reconciliation. The two sides plan to meet in
Cairo this week.
The outcome of the talks will largely depend
on the 85-year-old Abbas. He has spent decades
nonviolently seeking a Palestinian state in the
West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, territories
seized by Israel in the 1967 war.
Khulna City Corporation Mayor Talukder Abdul Khaleq received the first
corona vaccine at Khulna Medical College Hospital in the district on
Sunday.
Photo: Titash Chakraborthey
gywRee‡l©i A½xKvi
b`x ivL‡ev cwi®‹vi