The Sindh government has extended restrictions and standard operating procedures (SOPs) for commercial, business and social activities until May 16, 2021. They include:

• Broader lockdowns to be enforced in areas with more than eight per cent positivity rate
• Only outdoor dining to be allowed at restaurants until 10pm, and thereafter only take away and home delivery.
• All businesses including markets, shopping malls, marriage halls, etc., to remain open between 6am and 8pm. They will remain closed on Fridays and Sundays (except essential services)
• All kinds of indoor and outdoor gatherings to remain banned
• Complete ban on indoor and outdoor marriage functions
• Intercity public transport to operate at 50pc capacity

France will suspend all flights to and from Brazil in a bid to prevent the spread of the coronavirus variant first detected there, Reuters quoted French Prime Minister Jean Castex as saying in parliament.

“We take note that the situation is getting worse and we have decided to suspend all flights between France and Brazil until further notice,” Castex said.

Several leading French doctors have been calling on the government for days to stop all air traffic with Brazil.

A month ago, Health Minister Olivier Veran said that around 6 per cent of Covid-19 cases in France were from the more contagious variants first found in Brazil and South Africa.

Norway will start to unwind some restrictions related to the Covid-19 pandemic and allow more people to gather in private homes and at events from Friday, Reuters quoted Prime Minister Erna Solberg as saying on Tuesday.

The easing of rules at the national level will not affect those in areas where infection rate is the highest, such as in the capital region, she said.

“The infection numbers are now down. Hospitalisations are fewer. The measures look to have had an effect,” Solberg told a news conference.

Norway has had some of Europe’s lowest rates of infections and deaths since the start of the pandemic, but imposed stricter measures after a rapid increase in hospitalisations in March led by more contagious variants of the coronavirus.

Sindh has reported 366 new cases of the coronavirus and no additional deaths in the last 24 hours, according to an update from Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah.

This has taken the provincial caseload to 269,839, while the death toll stands at 4,530.

As per the update, 583 more people recovered from the virus in Sindh, where 10,176 tests were conducted.

United States infectious disease official Anthony Fauci said AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine had good efficacy, but safety concerns needed to be straightened out and it might not be needed for Americans because of supplies of other shots.

“I think that the AstraZeneca vaccine from a standpoint of efficacy is a good vaccine, and if the safety issue gets straightened out in the European Union ... the efficacy of that vaccine is really quite good,” he told BBC radio.

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Pakistan has recorded 118 coronavirus deaths during the last 24 hours, the highest single-day death toll since June 25, 2020 when 123 fatalities were reported.

The highest number of deaths during the last 24 hours were reported in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa which recorded 74 fatalities. Meanwhile, Punjab has the highest overall death toll at 7,062. So far, Pakistan has reported 15,619 Covid-19 deaths.

Region-wise breakdown of deaths reported so far:

• Punjab: 7,062
• Sindh: 4,530
• Khyber Pakhtunkhwa: 2,683
• Islamabad: 617
• Azad Jammu and Kashmir: 407
• Balochistan: 217
• Gilgit-Baltistan: 103

India’s health ministry said its drug regulator had found that safety and immunogenicity data from a local trial of Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine was comparable to that of a late-stage trial done in Russia.

The vaccine has now been “recommended for grant of permission for restricted use in emergency situations subject to various regulatory provisions”, the ministry said, commenting on the approval earlier confirmed by the drug’s marketing agencies, according to Reuters.

The vaccine can now be imported, it said.