Category: News & Announcement

DUBAI/RIYADH/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Finance officials from the Group of 20 major economies agreed on Wednesday to suspend debt service payments for the world’s poorest countries through the end of the year, a move quickly matched by a group of hundreds of private creditors. The actions to freeze both principal repayments and interest payments will free up more than $20 billion for the countries to spend on improving their health systems and fighting the coronavirus pandemic, Saudi Finance Minister Mohammed al-Jadaan told reporters after a virtual meeting of G20 finance officials.…

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Staff were putting the finishing touches to the field hospital on Wednesday. At full capacity, hundreds of doctors and nurses would work at the site in central Dubai. It is understood there would be a staggered roll out of available beds from Thursday, rising to precisely 3,030 if needed. It may well turn out that the field hospitals are not needed, in which case we can all breathe a sigh of relief Dr Nicholas Wyon, Burjeel Medical City The centre is one of two field hospitals to boost the city’s…

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KARACHI: The World Health Organisation (WHO) is supervising a research about fast-track development of Covid-19 treatment in Pakistan which would help ascertain the effectiveness of anti-Malaria drugs while treating the coronavirus patients, officials and industry sources said on Wednesday. The development emerged after Getz Pharma — Pakistan’s only WHO-approved manufacturing facility — joined hands with the University of Health Sciences in Lahore to support research projects that could include clinical trials of hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malarial drug shown to be effective against the coronavirus, pushing the US Food and Drug Administration…

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LONDON: Since April 9, the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has not taken any passengers — stranded in Britain because of the coronavirus pandemic — back to Pakistan. The April 9 flight had flown members of a federal minister from London to Islamabad. The national airline has no information whether or when there will be any flight to repatriate nearly 400 stranded Pakistanis back home in the near future, sources within the airline say. Sources in PIA have also confirmed that special arrangements were made for the April 9 flight because…

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Nations belonging to the G20 group of leading economies have agreed to suspend debt payments owed to them by some of the world’s poorest countries. The agreement covers money that is due to be paid to G20 governments up to the end of 2020. The aim is to help countries deal with the health and economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. The Jubilee Debt Campaign group has described the move as a first step, but called for much more. The UK-based charity estimates that the delay will cover $12bn (£9.6bn)…

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