USA

A senior US government official has indicated that COVID-19 vaccinations in the country might begin in early December. Reportedly, the advisory meeting of the Food and Drugs Administration will be held from December 8-10 and the vaccination will start on "Day Two of the approval". The meeting will discuss two potential vaccines, 'Prizer and BioNTech', that have claimed efficacies of over 95%. Both the vaccines have completed the final stage… read-more

Decreasing the strain on National testing capabilities the US government gave a green flag to self-testing COVID kit in the US. The test kit prepared by Lucira Health Inc. was given an emergency authorization on November 17 by the Food and Drug Administration. The test provides results in less than 30 minutes and is completely self-controlled. However, due to human error and false reports self-testing kits are not used widely.

President-elect Joe Biden on November 9 announced his 13-member COVID-19 task force, which will be jointly led by Indian-American Dr Vivek Murthy. Two more Indian-origin doctors will also be part of the task force: Atul Gawande and Celine Gounder. The team will consult with officials and recommend Biden on steps to curb COVID-19 spread. It will also reach out to the communities facing deprivation as Biden sees the pandemic an important battle… read-more

United States’ Secret Service have erected makeshift, non-scalable walls around the White House complex, fearing violence ahead of the elections on November 3. Also the stores across major cities have put protective covers on windows and hired extra services to ensure safety from vandalism. The fear comes after supporters of both warring sides, including the ‘Black Lives Matter' protestors asked to gather in Washington DC on Vote count night… read-more

Armenia and Azerbaijan on October 30 agreed to defuse Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Both the countries agreed to exchange dead bodies of soldiers and share list of detained war prisoners. The peace-formula was devised by members of OSCE Minsk Group - France, Russia and US - with foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan at a meeting in Geneva. Both the countries have been fighting over the contentious region for over 25 years.