London, June 7 (IANS) British Prime Minister Boris Johnson won a confidence vote of Conservative lawmakers by 211 to 148. The win comes despite a substantial rebellion by his own Tory party's MPs.
The confidence vote follows "anger" over senior civil servant Sue Gray's report detailing lockdown "rule-breaking" in Downing Street.
As Johnson survived the confidence vote, he will now stay in his job as Prime Minister.
The result was announced by chairman of the 1922 Committee Graham Brady. "I can announce that the parliamentary party does have confidence in the Prime minister," Brady said on Monday night.
Reacting to the development, Johnson said that the result is "decisive", adding: "What it means is as a government we can move on and focus on the stuff that I think really matters to people."
"I'm grateful to colleagues and the support they've given me... What we need to do now is, come together as a government and a party," the Prime Minister was quoted as saying by the BBC.
He asserted that "this is a moment and an opportunity to put behind us" the ongoing arguments within the Conservative party from recent months over his leadership.
Johnson received 58.8 per cent of support from the Conservative Party, with 41.2 per cent being against the current leadership. Every single Conservative MP voted.
Under current rules, Tory MPs will not be allowed to hold another confidence vote for a year.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during a news briefing that Pfizer's treatment was still too expensive. He noted that most countries in Latin America had no access to Pfizer’s drug, Paxlovid , which has been shown to cut the risk of COVID-19 hospitalization or death by up to 90%.
Paxlovid has become the go-to option against COVID-19 because of its at-home convenience and impressive results in heading off severe disease. The U.S. government has spent more than $10 billion to purchase enough pills to treat 20 million people.
About two dozen states reported suspected cases after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention put out a call for doctors to be on the lookout for surprising cases of hepatitis. The cases date back to late October in children under 10. So far, only nine cases in Alabama have been confirmed.
FDA officials said in a statement that they decided to restrict J&J's vaccine after taking another look at data on the risk of life-threatening blood clots within two week of vaccination.
Preliminary research suggests it is about 25 per cent more transmissible than the BA.2 subvariant that is currently dominant nationally, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
According to the Embassy, following the meeting of External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on March 25, the Chinese side has expressed its willingness to consider facilitating the return of Indian students to China on a need-assessed basis.
