Moneycontrol PRO
you are here: HomeNewsPandemic

Pandemic

When an epidemic of a highly contagious disease spreads across a large region (even worldwide) it is called a pandemic. It is different from a widespread endemic disease that infects a sizable population across the world simultaneously, such as influenza. It is different from a disease like cancer, which also has thousands, but is not contagious. Dr Keiji Fukuda, Assistant Director-General and interim for Health Security and Environment, WHO, has said: “An easy way to think about pandemic ... is to say a pandemic is a global outbreak. Then you might ask yourself ‘what is a global outbreak?’ A global outbreak means that we see both the spread of the agent ... and then we see disease activities in addition to the spread of the virus.” The Black Death or Plague, which ravaged the world in the 14th century, is believed to have been the most fatal pandemic in history; it killed approximately 75 to 200 million people. Some other pandemics that affected a huge population across the world are tuberculosis, the Russian flu, the Asian flu, Cholera, the Hong Kong flu, and the most recent and ongoing coronavirus pandemic. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, global prevalence of anxiety and depression increased by a massive 25 percent. “The information we have now about the impact of COVID-19 on the world’s mental health is just the tip of the iceberg,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. More

Jump to
  • IATA says unruly passenger behavior on the rise after COVID-19 June 05, 2023 07:15 PM IST

    IATA says unruly passenger behavior on the rise after COVID-19

    In its analysis, IATA found that the most common type of unruly passenger was non-compliant, verbally abusive and intoxicated.

  • Pandemic restrictions reduced aerosols' 'masking' effect, led to more warming: Study May 31, 2023 06:46 PM IST

    Pandemic restrictions reduced aerosols' 'masking' effect, led to more warming: Study

    In the spring of 2020, pandemic restrictions significantly reduced industrial activity and transportation worldwide, both of which are known to cause emissions of sulphur and nitrogen oxides and other air pollutants leading to aerosol formation.

  • MC Exclusive | Alstom emerges as lowest bidder for 100 aluminium Vande Bharat trains May 31, 2023 06:30 AM IST

    MC Exclusive | Alstom emerges as lowest bidder for 100 aluminium Vande Bharat trains

    The consortium comprising Swiss railway rolling stock manufacturer Stadler Rail and Hyderabad-based Medha Servo Drives was the only other player that took part in this tender with a bid of nearly Rs 170 crore per train.

  • What Is ‘Disease X’? WHO Rings Warning Bells For A Deadlier Pandemic May 26, 2023 08:20 PM IST

    What Is ‘Disease X’? WHO Rings Warning Bells For A Deadlier Pandemic

    Just days after announcing an end of Covid0-19 as a global emergency, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has asked world to be prepared of a deadlier pandemic. The WHO maintains a list of “priority diseases” that pose a significant risk of causing the next pandemic. Familiar names like Ebola, SARS and Zika have secured their place on this register, but there is one entry that stands out with an ominous moniker — Disease X. What is this ‘Disease X’? Watch the video to find out!

  • What is 'Disease X'? Scientists ring warning bells for a deadlier pandemic May 25, 2023 03:42 PM IST

    What is 'Disease X'? Scientists ring warning bells for a deadlier pandemic

    The ominous moniker 'Disease X' serves as a placeholder for an unknown pathogen that has yet to be identified by medical science as a cause of human infections.

  • April aviation data: Domestic passenger traffic rises 22 percent on year, slightly lower than March May 19, 2023 02:22 PM IST

    April aviation data: Domestic passenger traffic rises 22 percent on year, slightly lower than March

    April Aviation Data released by DGCA shows that air traffic has surpassed pre-COVID levels. In April 2019, domestic airlines flew only 109.95 lakh passengers against 128.8 lakh this April.

  • Mumbai developers seek relaxation on govt charges for over 100 delayed projects approved in 2021 May 19, 2023 10:54 AM IST

    Mumbai developers seek relaxation on govt charges for over 100 delayed projects approved in 2021

    Developers say they had paid the premiums upfront during the 50 percent waiver on charges announced by the state government in 2021; projects were delayed due to various reasons that were not in the hands of the developers.

  • IndiGo aims to grow north of mid-teens this FY, says CEO Pieter Elbers May 19, 2023 07:42 AM IST

    IndiGo aims to grow north of mid-teens this FY, says CEO Pieter Elbers

    IndiGo is seeing robust demand for flying in current quarter and yield in the current quarter were higher when compared on year to a capacity constraints in the domestic Indian market.

  • CEO says remote workers are hurting businesses: ‘We caught trains, buses, ferries to work’ May 16, 2023 01:40 PM IST

    CEO says remote workers are hurting businesses: ‘We caught trains, buses, ferries to work’

    A real estate CEO has placed the blame for slowing economy squarely on the shoulders of 'selfish' remote workers who refuse to return to office.

  • DGCA suspends license of Air India pilot who allowed woman friend into cockpit May 12, 2023 08:42 PM IST

    DGCA suspends license of Air India pilot who allowed woman friend into cockpit

    The DGCA has also imposed a penalty of Rs 30 lakh on Air India for the delay in reporting the episode.

  • COVID-19 no longer a global health emergency: WHO May 05, 2023 07:51 PM IST

    COVID-19 no longer a global health emergency: WHO

    WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has also warned of the ongoing impact of Long Covid, which provokes a long line of often severe and debilitating symptoms that can drag on for months or years.

  • Apple CEO Tim Cook keeps layoff as 'last resort' in tough economic climate May 05, 2023 01:28 PM IST

    Apple CEO Tim Cook keeps layoff as 'last resort' in tough economic climate

    Apple is, however, cutting costs and has slowed down on its rate of hiring

  • High growth and recovery is like a chicken-and-egg situation for economies: FM May 03, 2023 01:16 PM IST

    High growth and recovery is like a chicken-and-egg situation for economies: FM

    Sitharaman said that due to the pandemic in the past couple of years the counties have knowingly gone into a situation of high debt but a fiscal glide path was necessary in the long term.

  • GoFirst moves US court, blames Pratt and Whitney GTF engine for losses May 03, 2023 06:32 AM IST

    GoFirst moves US court, blames Pratt and Whitney GTF engine for losses

    In its petition in the Delaware Court, GoFirst said that between 2016 and February 2023, the airline carried out 289 Engine Changes and 221 Engine Swaps.

  • Amazon starts round of layoffs in AWS cloud division April 26, 2023 11:14 PM IST

    Amazon starts round of layoffs in AWS cloud division

    Amazon Web Services personnel in the US, Canada and Costa Rica whose jobs were being eliminated were notified early Wednesday, the unit’s chief said in an email to staff.

  • Springer Nature leases 1.1 lakh sq ft of office space in Pune for 10 years April 25, 2023 01:53 PM IST

    Springer Nature leases 1.1 lakh sq ft of office space in Pune for 10 years

    Valued at about $17 million over the tenure of the lease, it is spread across two floors of the 7,00,000 sq ft building; the company has the option to take on an additional 56,000 sq ft.

  • Number of gift deeds and wills registered in Mumbai increased post Covid: Maharashtra govt data April 24, 2023 10:04 AM IST

    Number of gift deeds and wills registered in Mumbai increased post Covid: Maharashtra govt data

    From 2019, the number of gift deeds registered increased to 8,694 in 2020, nearly doubled to 16,322 in 2021, and 20,843 in 2022. Up to March this year, 3,287 gift deeds have been registered. The reason for this is a heightened sense of mortality among people.

  • Amazon to expand in business supplies after pandemic boosts sales in Europe April 20, 2023 09:39 PM IST

    Amazon to expand in business supplies after pandemic boosts sales in Europe

    Amazon Business' gross sales in Europe grew at a compound annual rate of 25% from 2020 to 2022, vice president Alexandre Gagnon said in an interview.

  • Need to break cycle of panic, not let fatigue diminish efforts on pandemic preparedness: Mandaviya April 18, 2023 04:14 PM IST

    Need to break cycle of panic, not let fatigue diminish efforts on pandemic preparedness: Mandaviya

    As G20 Health Working Group, we are heading in the right direction toward jointly creating a positive impact for future global health architecture,” Mandaviya said.

  • DGCA issues advisory on handling unruly passengers April 10, 2023 07:54 PM IST

    DGCA issues advisory on handling unruly passengers

    The regulators' advisory comes on the backdrop of rising incidents involving disorderly passengers onboard flights.

  • Gateway Distriparks to spend Rs 180 crore on two inland container depots April 10, 2023 06:50 PM IST

    Gateway Distriparks to spend Rs 180 crore on two inland container depots

    The company is focussing more on inland container depots and less on container freight stations.

  • Akasa Air to offer airport lounge services at select airports April 05, 2023 05:00 PM IST

    Akasa Air to offer airport lounge services at select airports

    The airline has partnered with DreamFolks Services, an airport lounges access aggregator, to offer their customers access to lounges for a fee when booking their ticket. Flyers can get lounge access up to 12 hours before departure, the airline said in its press release.

  • Go First said not to have paid rentals for 10 planes to three lessors March 31, 2023 06:41 PM IST

    Go First said not to have paid rentals for 10 planes to three lessors

    The lessors have written to India’s aviation regulator about the payment delays and they could ask for deregistration of the aircraft as the next step.

  • Air India's pilots say airline should focus on welfare of employees rather than just hike salaries March 29, 2023 06:58 PM IST

    Air India's pilots say airline should focus on welfare of employees rather than just hike salaries

    Rosters are being ignored and pilots are being harassed by management at Air India at the moment.

  • Indian Railways gets its 300th high-speed freight locomotive from Alstom March 29, 2023 06:39 PM IST

    Indian Railways gets its 300th high-speed freight locomotive from Alstom

    The locomotives are part of a massive order of 800 WAG-12B engines signed by the Indian Railways and Alstom in 2018 valued at Rs 40,000 crore, spread over 10 years.