The Daily Dose: July 12, 2022

#Over one billion wasted: An estimated 1.1 billion Covid-19 vaccines may have been wasted since the global rollout began, says science analytics company Airfinity, at a time when parts of the globe still see below-par vaccination coverage.

#Covid and population: The UN population report that projects that India is to pip China to the post on population, also noted that the Covid-19 pandemic had affected all three components of population change. Global life expectancy at birth fell to 71.0 years in 2021. In some countries, successive waves of the pandemic may have produced short-term reductions in numbers of pregnancies and births, while for many other countries, there is little evidence of an impact on fertility levels or trends. The pandemic severely restricted all forms of human mobility, including international migration.

#Test result in 20 seconds: Biotechnology company Mylab Discovery Solutions and Portland-based Hemex Health, a medical diagnostic device company focused on creating diagnostics to transform frontline healthcare, announced the official launch of the Gazelle PathoCatch Covid-19 FIA test, their first co-developed diagnostic solution for point-of-care (POC) Covid-19 testing in India. It’s turnaround time in test results is 20 seconds, the company said.

#Rationalised salaries: IndiGo said it will “rationalise” the salaries of its aircraft maintenance technicians and remove “anomalies caused by the pandemic”, according to an internal communication. IndiGo had slashed the salaries of a large section of its employees when the Covid-19 pandemic was at its peak.

#Footfalls coming back: After two challenging years marred by the pandemic, mall owners are seeing recovery in rental incomes as multiplexes resume full scale operations besides strong revival in sales and footfalls. According to analysts, rental income for mall owners is expected to surpass the pre-Covid levels in FY23.