KATHMANDU: Nepal has secured the 108th position with 35 points among 180 countries and territories in the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) by Transparency International.
The annual report, a key publication of the global anti-corruption group based in Berlin, revealed a modest improvement for Nepal, marking a two-position climb from its 110th rank in 2022.
Denmark claims the top spot in the CPI 2023 with an impressive 90 points, followed closely by Finland with 87 points and New Zealand with 85 points.
On the other end of the spectrum, Somalia, Venezuela, and Syria find themselves at the bottom...
KATHMANDU: Nepal has secured the 108th position with 35 points among 180 countries and territories in the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) by Transparency International.
The annual report, a key publication of the global anti-corruption group based in Berlin, revealed a modest improvement for Nepal, marking a two-position climb from its 110th rank in 2022.
Denmark claims the top spot in the CPI 2023 with an impressive 90 points, followed closely by Finland with 87 points and New Zealand with 85 points.
On the other end of the spectrum, Somalia, Venezuela, and Syria find themselves at the bottom...
June 2: Drug traffickers have found new ways of smuggling crystal methamphetamine, known as ice, out of South East Asia to high-paying customers outside the region, according to a UN report.
Criminal gangs are moving more drugs by sea to evade land patrols in Thailand and China,
JUNE 28: The population grew to 25.5 million in the 2021 survey - up 2.1 million from 2016 - and average incomes were slightly higher.
The census also revealed trends that will help shape the country's future. Here are five.
Australia is becoming less religious
For the first time, fewer than half of Australians (44%) identify as Christian, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) said. Just over 50 years ago, the proportion was about 90%.
Although Christianity remains the biggest religion, it is closely followed by those with no religion at all. That cohort has increased to 39%, up by almost 9%.
Hinduism and Islam are the fastest growing religions in Australia, but each are followed by only around 3% of the population.
But it's also becoming more diverse
Modern Australia has been built on immigration. And now - in another first - more than half of people were born overseas or have a parent who was.
Migration has slowed during the pandemic, but more than a million people have moved to Australia since 2016. Of those, almost a quarter were from India.
India has overtaken China and New Zealand to become the third-largest country of birth, behind Australia and England.
One in five people speak a language other than English at home - most commonly Chinese or Arabic - an increase of almost 800,000 since 2016.
The Indigenous population is larger
The number of people who identified as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander jumped by a quarter from the last census.
Births contributed to the growth but people are also becoming more comfortable with identifying themselves as Indigenous, the ABS says.
Indigenous Australians now number 812,728 - about 3.2% of the population.
he data shows there are 167 active Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander languages, spoken by more than 78,000 people across Australia.
Estimates of Indigenous population size before Europeans arrived in 1788 range from 315,000 to more than one million people. It sharply declined from that point due to new diseases, violence, displacement and dispossession.
Millennials now have the numbers
Another key finding is that Australia is on the cusp of a significant generational shift.
Baby Boomers - those born between 1946 and 1965 - have previously been the country's largest generation. Now Millennials - born between 1981 and 1995 - have caught up.
Each generation accounts for 21.5% of the population.
That's likely to hugely inform policies on issues such as housing and aged care, experts say.
Home ownership is stagnant, but caravans are increasingly popular
A similar share of Australians to 25 years ago are buying houses, but fewer are paying them off.
The number of people with a mortgage has doubled since 1996, with property prices skyrocketing since.
Australian cities now rank among the worst globally for housing affordability, according to a 2022 report.
But the census also revealed that more people are turning to alternative dwellings - something likely spurred on by the pandemic.
The number of caravans - popular with domestic tourists - jumped by 150%. Australians now own 60,000 caravans and almost 30,000 houseboats.
MARCH 11: Their report comes two years to the day from when the World Health Organization first declared the pandemic.
The Covid-19 excess mortality team at the US's Washington University studied 191 countries and territories for what they call the true global death figure.
Some deaths were from the virus, while others were linked to the infection.
This is because catching Covid might worsen other pre-existing medical conditions, such as heart or lung disease, for example.
The measure used is called excess deaths - how many more people have been dying than would be expected compared to recent years, before the pandemic hit.
To calculate this, the researchers gathered data through searches of various government websites, the World Mortality Database, the Human Mortality Database, and the European Statistical Office.
Rates of excess deaths are estimated to have varied dramatically by country and region, but the overall global rate calculated in the study is 120 deaths per 100,000 people.
That would mean about 18.2 million deaths have happened because of Covid in the two years between the start of 2020 and the end of 2021 - three times as many as the official 5.9 million that have actually been recorded.
Excess death estimates were calculated for the full study period only, and not by week or month, because of lags and inconsistencies in reporting of Covid death data that could drastically alter the estimates, the investigators stress.
According to the research, which is published in The Lancet, the highest rates were in lower income countries in Latin America, Europe and sub-Saharan Africa. But deaths were also fairly high in some high-income countries, such as Italy and parts of the US.
The five countries with the highest estimated excess death rates were:
-Bolivia
-Bulgaria
-Eswatini
-North Macedonia
-Lesotho
The five with the lowest were:
-Iceland
-Australia
-Singapore
-New Zealand
-Taiwan
For the UK, the estimated total number of Covid-related deaths in 2020 and 2021 was similar to official records at about 173,000, with an excess mortality rate of 130 people per 100,000.
Lead author Dr Haidong Wang, from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, said: "Understanding the true death toll from the pandemic is vital for effective public health decision-making.
"Studies from several countries, including Sweden and the Netherlands, suggest Covid was the direct cause of most excess deaths, but we currently don't have enough evidence for most locations.
"Further research will help to reveal how many deaths were caused directly by Covid, and how many occurred as an indirect result of the pandemic."
The researchers predict that excess mortality linked to the pandemic will decline, thanks to vaccines and new treatments.
But they warn that the pandemic is not yet over. And new, dangerous variants of the virus could emerge.
With inputs from BBC
KATHMANDU, May 21: The entire South Asia is currently battling with raging second COVID-19 wave. India, the largest country in the region and the second most populous country in the world, is counting the daily infections six digits. Here in Nepal, the total infections have so far reached around 120,000 since the outbreak of second wave.
According to the Ministry of Health and Population, the country recorded 488,654 positive cases of coronavirus and 366,946 have been recovered till Thursday.
The number of people succumbing to the virus is 5,847.
Health experts believe that the second wave’s virus variant is highly contagious than the one in the first wave. The government has implemented a prohibitory order for more than three weeks to break the chain of the virus transmission.
So far, three types of COVID-19 variants are detected in the country and the latest (third) variant B.1.617.2 is said to be highly aggressive. Amidst this, the government had brought one million doses of the Covishield vaccine and 800 doses of Vero Cell from India and China respectively. The vaccines were provided by the neighbours on grants.
Though the government has further signed an agreement with India to procure two millions doses of Covishield manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, it could get only one million doses and the arrival of remaining quantity is unlikely for the time being when India itself is suffering the devastating effect of the pandemic.
The government has appealed to international support and cooperation for help in its fight against the virus. It has called on chiefs and representatives of diplomatic missions here to facilitate for getting the vaccines. On Thursday, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli urged the UK ambassador for help obtain the vaccine.
To date, only 2.13 million people have received the first shot of anti COVID-19 vaccines while 426,510 are totally vaccinated or got the booster dose.
The Serum Institute of India has said it is not able to supply vaccines to Nepal before the mid-January of next year. This is the Institute’s response to Bangladesh as well.
The government is preparing to bring vaccines from China and people have been asked to fill up the online form so that it could reach to the aspiring population easily after the arrival of the vaccines.
Infections and death rate are high in the country. Hospital beds are not easily available during emergency while hospitals are grappling with the short supply of oxygen gas and amidst this crisis, there lies a possibility for an alternative to curb the infection, claims Dr Samartha Singh.
He told RSS that nasal vaccine to control corona virus could be produced in the country if the government granted permit for the same.
Singh added, “Different vaccine manufacturers in the world have taken the study and research regarding nasal vaccine far ahead. Vaccine of some companies is in the process of trial. Nasal vaccine can be produced in the country within next six months if the government grants permit.”
Dr Singh opined that the countries like Nepal having low economic status could not purchase vaccine paying high price as fresh wave of corona virus is spreading and its new variants could still be seen for next few years. So it was necessary to manufacture nasal vaccine in low cost. The vaccine has the elements to destroy the virus at the occurring point as corona virus is transmitted from nose and mouth.
Drug Controller of India has given permission to Bharat Biotech to produce nasal vaccine. Similarly, Hong Kong University and Wantai Bio Pharmacy of Beijing have been working in the sector of nasal spray. These universities have been carrying out second-phase trial.
Likewise, Finland’s University of Helsinki and University of Finland have been doing pre-clinical trial. University of Virginia has also started pre-clinical trial. Israel and New Zealand have already granted permission to Sanotize, nasal spray, for domestic use.
Dr Samarth Singh said that nasal vaccine could be manufactured in the country and its patent right could be obtained.
Antigen of corona virus could be purchased and vaccine could be used through nasal spray, he shared. It has been found from research that this type of vaccine would work up to three to four weeks.
Also the Head of the Department of Neurology at Vayodha Hospital, Kathmandu, Dr Singh has already submitted his proposal at the National Health Research Council and the Ministry of Health and Population in this regard.
He said that they were hopeful the government would accept this proposal. “This is a big expectation and wish of Nepal like countries,” he added. According to him, the corona virus cannot enter the human body due to IGA Neutralized and this would be effective to children and elderly people as well.
Dr Singh shared that such vaccine production was practical to Nepal as it needs fixed temperature available in Nepal. He added that they could start vaccine production process if permission was granted to them for the purpose.
According to Indian media, the vaccine produced by Biotech Company of India is in a first phase trial and it is being used as trial for the people aged from 18 to 60 there.
It is being trialed in various hospitals in India. These hospitals are AIMS Patna, Apollo Hospital Chennai, St. Theresa Hospital Hyderabad.
The trial report would be received by November 30. According to experts, Nasal COVID Vaccines don’t require any kind of syringes. Dr Singh believes that such vaccines would be effective and affordable to the developing and under- developed countries.
Researchers Dr Munir of Lancaster University, Dr Samartha Singh and Dr Bill Peltry of Virginia University claim that such vaccines would be cheaper to other kinds of vaccines and effective to poorer countries. Dr Bill shared that though it was tough job of doing research of it, it was nearer to success.
Hong Kong University is also doing research in this area and it was being trialed on 7,000 patients. The Serum Institute of India is also carrying out trial of this kind of vaccine in India.
The Coronavirus enters the body especially through the nose, mouth and eyes. According to doctors, this virus remains in the mouth and throat for few days. The nasal vaccine kills the virus' colony in the nasal passage and in the mouth. So, the virus can't enter the lungs.
The Oxford University of UK is also involved in its research. The Government of China started the trial of this vaccine last November alone and has already mobilised 100 volunteers for this.
Most of the vaccines currently in use have employed the dead cells of the Coronavirus itself. This vaccine cannot be administered to people of every age group. Moreover, it has to be stored in a certain temperature.
But the nasal vaccine is free of these and similar demerits.
Even the World Health Organization (WHO) has granted permission for trial and eight various companies and universities around the world are conducting research on this. It is believed the results of these researches will be available soon.
In Dr Samartha Singh's opinion works can be immediately started in Nepal for development of the nasal vaccine by bringing this technology under trial in Europe provided that the country's regulatory agency gave the permission.
