One killed, 20 injured as buildings collapse in New York

March 12, 2014

new_york_fire

New York, Mar 12: At least one person was killed and 20 others were injured when two buildings collapsed after a huge explosion today in the East Harlem neighbourhood of New York City, sparking a major fire that engulfed the area in thick smoke, officials said.

Police and firefighters are responding to reports of an explosion and collapse of the two buildings around 9 AM on Park Avenue between 114th and 117th streets, the Fire Department said.

NBC New York said one person is dead, 20 injured and several others missing after the explosion shattered windows with a blast that was felt several blocks away.

CNN quoted law enforcement agents as saying that the explosion could be due to a gas leak and do not believe it was terror-related.

City officials said the buildings have been completely destroyed in the explosion. The cause of the apparent blast is not known yet and members of the Joint Terrorism Task Force have responded to the scene out of an abundance of caution, authorities said.

So far, there are reports of 11 minor injuries. The site of the explosion is close to a major commuter rail line that connects New York's suburbs to the city.

Video footage from the scene of the explosion showed heavy smoke rising from the area as firefighters and police reached the spot to put the blaze out. A man who was on the 15th floor of a building on 125th Street told CBS News he saw dark smoke billowing down several blocks.

"The building shook and then we looked to see what was happening. We saw a whole lot of smoke. A lot of smoke came out," witness Samuel Paul said. The city's bomb squad is also responding to the situation as a precaution. Many residents in the neighbourhood reported hearing a loud explosion.

The New York Fire Department said on its Twitter feed that it is responding to a "5-Alarm" fire and "multiple dwelling explosion and collapse" at the building. The city's bomb squad is also responding to the situation as a precaution. The fire department has 39 units and 168 members responding to the explosion that happened at around 9 am.

The building housed a piano store, a Spanish church and residential units.

Federal authorities have not yet commented on the cause of the explosion.

Reported explosion, building collapse in New York City

New York, Mar 12: A building in New York City's East Harlem area collapsed today following an explosion with reports of people trapped in the rubble.

The building collapsed this morning and authorities said they were responding to reports of people trapped in the rubble, according to fire officials.

Witnesses reported hearing what sounded like an explosion before the building collapsed. Flames and smoke could be seen billowing from the street, and video from the scene showed broken windows in neighbouring buildings, the New York Times reported.

The exact location of the building, and the cause of the damage, were unclear.

Dozens of firefighters were working to extinguish the fire as paramedics on the street worked to care for the injured.

Authorities at this time could not confirm reports of any injuries.

The Metro-North service was suspended, officials said, since debris from the building landed on the elevated train tracks on 116th Street and Park Avenue.

Fire officials said that they had reports of a fire and building collapse around 9.30am and were just arriving on the scene. They cautioned that many details remained unclear.

News helicopters showed that the roof of the building appeared to have completely collapsed.

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News Network
June 5,2020

Karachi, Jun 5: Pakistan's coronavirus cases rose to 89,249 on Friday after a record 4,896 new infections were detected in the country, while the death toll due to COVID-19 has reached 1,838, according to the health ministry.

The Ministry of National Health Service said that 68 patients died in the last 24 hours, taking the death toll to 1,838, whereas another 31,198 people have recovered.

It was the third consecutive day when a record number of cases were reported in Pakistan after the Eid holidays and easing of lockdown restrictions at the end of May.

Sindh province reported 33,536 infections, Punjab 33,144, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa 11,890, Balochistan 5,582, Islamabad 3,946, Gilgit-Baltistan 852 and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir 299.

The authorities have conducted 638,323 tests, including a record 22,812 tests in the last 24 hours, the ministry said.

Despite the spike in number of COVID-19 cases, both houses of parliament are scheduled to meet separately on Friday. The Senate session started this morning while the National Assembly will be held in the afternoon, Radio Pakistan reported.

Chairman Senate Sadiq Sanjrani and Speaker National Assembly Asad Qaiser at a meeting at the parliament house in Islamabad reviewed arrangements made for the two sessions.

Fumigation was also carried out in the parliament house for the safety of the lawmakers and staff.

Earlier, the Opposition rejected the idea of virtual meetings and insisted that the sessions be held in person, noting that it was an important session of parliament because the budget is expected to be presented in the National Assembly in the next week.

The novel coronavirus which first originated from China's Wuhan city in December last year has claimed 391,249 lives and has infected over 6 million people globally, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

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News Network
June 4,2020

Jun 4: A malaria drug President Donald Trump took to try to prevent COVID-19 proved ineffective for that in the first large, high-quality study to test it in people in close contact with someone with the disease.

Results published Wednesday by the New England Journal of Medicine show that hydroxychloroquine was no better than placebo pills at preventing illness from the coronavirus.

The drug did not seem to cause serious harm, though -- about 40% on it had side effects, mostly mild stomach problems.

 “We were disappointed. We would have liked for this to work,” said the study leader, Dr. David Boulware, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Minnesota.

“But our objective was to answer the question and to conduct a high-quality study,” because the evidence on the drug so far has been inconclusive, he said.

Hydroxychloroquine and a similar drug, chloroquine, have been the subject of much debate since Trump started promoting them in March.

Hydroxychloroquine has long been used for malaria, lupus, and rheumatoid arthritis, but no large studies have shown it or chloroquine to be safe or effective for much sicker patients with coronavirus, and some studies have suggested the drugs may do harm.

Trump took a two-week course of hydroxychloroquine, along with zinc and Vitamin D, after two staffers tested positive for COVID-19, and had no ill effects, according to results of his latest physical released by his doctor Wednesday.

Federal regulators have warned against hydroxychloroquine's use except in hospitals and formal studies because of the risk of side effects, especially heart rhythm problems.

Boulware's study involved 821 people in the United States and Canada living with someone diagnosed with COVID-19 or at high risk of getting it because of their job -- doctors, nurses, ambulance workers who had significant exposure to a sick patient while not wearing full protective gear.

They were randomly assigned to get either the nutrient folate as a placebo or hydroxychloroquine for five days, starting within four days of their exposure. Neither they nor others involved in the research knew who was getting which pills.

After 14 days in the study, 12 per cent on the drug developed COVID-19 symptoms versus 14 per cent in the placebo group, but the difference is so small it could have occurred by chance, Boulware said.

“There's basically no effect. It does not prevent infection,” he said of the drug. Even if it were to give some slim advantage, “we'd want a much larger effect” to justify its use and risk of side effects for preventing illness, he said.

Results were no different among a subgroup of participants who were taking zinc or vitamin C, which some people believe might help make hydroxychloroquine more effective or fight the coronavirus.

There are some big caveats: The study enrolled people through the Internet and social media, relying on them to report their own symptoms rather than having them tracked in a formal way by doctors.

Participants were not all tested for the coronavirus but were diagnosed as COVID-19 cases based on symptoms in many cases. And not all took their medicines as directed.

The results “are more provocative than definitive,” and the drug may yet have prevention benefits if tried sooner or in a different way, Dr. Myron Cohen of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill wrote in a commentary in the journal.

Others were glad to see a study that had a comparison group and good scientific methods after so many weaker reports on hydroxychloroquine.

“This fits with everything else we've seen so far which suggests that it's not beneficial," said Dr. Peter Bach, director of a health policy center at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

This study was in younger relatively healthy people, but the results “would make me very discouraged about trying to use this in older people” who are most vulnerable to serious illness from the coronavirus, Bach said.

“If it does work, it doesn't work very well.” Dr. Dan Culver, a lung specialist at the Cleveland Clinic, said there's still a chance that giving the drug sooner than four days after someone's exposure to the virus may help prevent illness.

But the study “takes 'home run' off the table” as far as hopes for the drug, he said.

The study was mostly funded by David Baszucki, founder of Roblox, a California-based game software company, and other private donors and the Minnesota university.

Boulware also is leading a study testing hydroxychloroquine for treating COVID-19. The study is finished and results are being analyzed now.

On Tuesday, the journal Lancet posted an “expression of concern” about a study it published earlier this month of nearly 15,000 COVID-19 patients on the malaria drugs that tied their use to a higher risk of dying in the hospital or developing a heartbeat problem.

Scientists have raised serious questions about the database used for that study, and its authors have launched an independent audit.

That work had a big impact: the World Health Organization suspended use of hydroxychloroquine in a study it is leading, and French officials stopped the drug's use in hospitals. On Wednesday, the WHO said experts who reviewed safety information decided that its study could resume.

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News Network
June 27,2020

LGeneva, Jun 27:: The number of confirmed coronavirus cases worldwide has risen by over 177,000 in the past 24 hours to 9.4 million and the death toll has topped 480,000, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Friday (local time).

On Thursday, the WHO reported 167,056 new cases and 5,336 related deaths.

The fresh daily situation report estimates the number of infections confirmed in the past 24 hours at 177,012. Further, 5,116 virus-related deaths were reported over the same period, taking the toll to 484,249.

The Americas lead the count with over 4.7 million cases, followed by Europe with more than 2.6 million.

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