"Connecting Communities for COVID19 News" 16th Sep 2020
Isolation Tips
Eleven Berkshire schools have pupils self-isolating as cases spike - updates
A total of 11 schools in Berkshire have pupils self-isolating after positive coronavirus cases were confirmed. Kennet School in Thatcham and Furze Platt Senior School in Maidenhead are among the latest schools to confirm pupils are self-isolating. Twenty children from Kennet School have been told to stay home for 14 days after a pupil tested positive for coronavirus. Furze Platt school said a sixth form pupil and other students they came into contact with are self-isolating. Other schools which have sent pupils home include St Mary and All Saints C of E Primary School in Reading, Berkshire, and eight others across the county.
Care homes fear end of coronavirus self-isolation support fund
Care homes are on the brink of losing the emergency government funding that has allowed their staff to abide by self-isolation rules without losing pay. The government has urged care homes to be on the alert as testing shows rising levels of coronavirus infections among staff and residents.
Hygiene Helpers
WHO reports highest one-day increase in global coronavirus cases since pandemic began
The World Health Organization on Sunday reported the highest one-day increase in coronavirus infections since the pandemic began: more than 308,000 new cases. India, the United States and Brazil logged the largest numbers of new infections on Sunday. The WHO also warned that Europe will see a surge in coronavirus-linked deaths in the fall as new infections have been soaring over the past weeks to levels not seen since the spring.
COVID-19: Lockdown was effective, didn't have a huge peak in India, says ICMR DG
Applauding the nationwide lockdown to curb COVID-19 spread in the country, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) director general Balram Bhargava on Tuesday said, "We distributed the COVID-19 curve in a way that we didn't have many deaths. It was because we had an effective lockdown. We didn't have a huge peak at all," according to news agency ANI. Bhargava further added, "US and European countries had a peak, then they came down and there is a second wave occurring there. We took learning from that."
COVID-19's Other Unnecessary Death Toll
“We need to learn to live with it.” That, essentially, is the current response being put forward by the United States government and many state governments, as COVID-19, the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, continues to wreak devastation around the country. At the time of this writing, the U.S. has over six million cases of COVID-19, with over 180,000 deaths. My institution, the University of Michigan, and my state, had a relatively successful response to COVID-19. Our medical center’s incident command center was opened on January 24, within days of the first confirmed COVID-19 case in the U.S. Our Regional Infectious Containment Unit (RICU), a unit specially designed for highly transmissible infectious diseases, opened within five days of the first confirmed COVID-19 case in the state on March 10. This rapid mobilization saved lives, and allowed even the sickest with COVID-19 a fighting chance. After peaking at close to 250 inpatients (about 25 percent of our total hospital capacity) battling COVID-19 in April, our numbers rapidly declined by the beginning of June. However, these numbers don’t tell the whole story.
NHS Highland looks to tech to help reduce Covid-19 spread in care homes
NHS Highland is looking to deploy technology in care homes which aims to help reduce the spread of Covid-19. The Scottish health board together with Highland Health Ventures and Wyld Networks are hoping to instal the technology which uses an app on smartphones and geozones, software-based virtual walls surrounding the care home. The software decides whether visitors and staff can or cannot enter the facility based on peoples’ health status and level of risk. Once inside the care home, the technology monitors and alerts social distancing between staff, visitors and residents. Also, heat maps are generated in real-time to visualise areas where social distancing is being inadvertently broken. Changes can then be made to the building layouts, routines and room occupancy numbers. In the case of an outbreak of the virus, those at risk can be informed and scheduled for testing within the NHS.
Coronavirus UK: 3,600 died from preventable conditions in lockdown
Dr Sonya Babu-Narayan stressed patients should not fear straining the NHS. She said messaging should be clearer, after months of a 'Protect the NHS' slogan. Patients were also reluctant to seek hospital care in case they caught Covid-19
Dr Babu-Narayan said this caused some 3,600 unexpected deaths
UK's creaking COVID-19 test system puts health services at risk
Britain’s testing system for COVID-19 was creaking on Tuesday as a bottleneck prevented people including medics from getting a test in a potential threat to key health services, health sector organisations said. In an attempt to slow one of the highest coronavirus death tolls in the West, Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised in May to create a “world beating” system to test and trace people exposed to the virus. “Our members are telling us that lack of access to testing for staff is a major barrier to them delivering services,” said Layla McCay, director at the NHS Confederation, which represents organisations across the healthcare sector.
Covid-19 ethics: Should we deliberately infect volunteers in the name of science? (part 1)
Would you be willing to have a dose of Sars-CoV-2 sprayed up your nose for medical research? For thousands around the world, the answer is yes. Eager volunteers have already signed up to take part in human challenge trials, where participants would be deliberately infected with the virus in order to better understand the disease, and rapidly develop a treatment or vaccine. But should such studies go ahead with a dangerous and relatively new virus? In the first of two episodes, alongside a panel of experts Ian Sample delves into some of the ethical questions of human challenge trials and asks where the balance of risks and benefits currently lies
I Got a Trial Covid-19 Vaccine. Do I Still Have to Wear a Mask?
My wife and I are participating in a clinical trial for a Covid-19 vaccine. We had no antibodies before we received the vaccine, but we now have a lot of them, according to two independent tests. Presumably we are like millions of others who have recovered from Covid-19 and have these antibodies, and so are immune for some time. At what point can I feel comfortable, ethically, not wearing a mask, being with others who haven’t had Covid, eating at a restaurant, going to a bar, traveling to locations with restrictions on “hot spot” visitors and the like?
Community Activities
Teachers in India carry on with lessons outdoors during lockdown
Out on a street in an Indian village, half a dozen children gather around their teacher who points a stick at the diagrams on a wall, one of many murals in the neighbourhood being used to help poor students keep up with their education during the coronavirus pandemic. With schools shut since March in a virus lockdown, teachers in Nilamnagar, western India, became concerned that some youngsters would fall behind because their families cannot afford an Internet subscription for online classes. So they came up with a workaround – children like playing on the streets, so they would take their lessons outside. “Since most of the families lack resources to educate their kids digitally, we had to come up with an innovative method to keep children invested in education, ” said Ram Gaikwad, a teacher at Asha Marathi Vidyalaya school.
ANALYSIS: Has crime in France spiralled out of control since lockdown?
As a ferocious debate over whether French society has descended towards "savagery" and gang culture has dominated headlines in France the past weeks, we look at whether crime rates really are on the rise since lockdown ended. The word ensauvagement has dominated news headlines in France the past weeks. The term, which could be translated as "a descent into savagery", is not new. It has been a favourite of France’s far-right for years and in 2002, then Front National (now Rassemblement National) party leader Jean-Marie Le Pen used it repeatedly during his presidential campaign. This time it was not a far-right party member, but Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin who brought it back into public discourse. “We need to stop the ensauvagement (descent into savagery) of a certain part of society," Darmanin told Le Figaro in late July.
U.S. COVID-19 death analysis shows greater toll on Black, Hispanic youth: CDC
A disproportionate percentage of U.S. COVID-19 deaths have been recorded among Black and Hispanic people younger than 21, according to a U.S. study, a reflection of the racial and ethnic make-up of essential workers who have more exposure to COVID-19. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that from Feb. 12 through July 31, there were 121 deaths among people younger than the age of 21 in 27 states. Hispanic, Black, and non-Hispanic American Indian/Alaskan Native people accounted for about 75% of the deaths in that age group, even though they represent 41% of the U.S. population aged under 21.
Working Remotely
A guide to engaging service users while working remotely
According to the findings of Twilio’s “Covid-19 engagement report”, long-term digital transformation roadmaps got compressed into days and weeks in order to respond to remote working. A staggering 97% of decision-makers across organisations surveyed believe COVID-19 accelerated their company’s digital transformation efforts.
Remote-working revolution has begun - and business leaders should get on board
Remote working (where we work), flexible working (when we work) and smart working (how we work) - these are all themes currently being analysed and discussed. These approaches to work are interwoven, at times indistinguishable and can be confusing. Covid-19 has fast-tracked the debate and made some discussion irrelevant as changes have already occurred. This is not evolution, this is revolution. In 34 years in HR, I have never seen such a radical transformation at such speed.
Virtual Classrooms
High school switches to virtual learning after 99 students, staff quarantined for COVID-19
Manila High School students will spend the rest of the week working from home after 99 students and staff members were quarantined for the coronavirus. Superintendent Jason Evers stated in a news release Monday that 7-12th grade students would pivot to blended learning beginning Tuesday, Sept. 15. “We had a few students test positive over the weekend and today,” Evers said. “That resulted in quite a few students and staff being quarantined for close contact. Currently, we have 99 quarantined before the numbers come in for the positive case today. That number is expected to increase considerably after all of the tracing is completed.”
Digital divide: 'My children's classroom is our car'
During the coronavirus pandemic, life has turned to the internet. But not everyone has it. That’s why Jamie Gould has found herself driving her two children out to a parked school bus on the side of the road to access WiFi so they can make it to virtual class. They spend eight hours of their day working from inside the family van, with no access to a bathroom and with the car running for air conditioning.
In the US, about 13% of households lack access to broadband internet. But in rural America - where service is often unavailable or too expensive - it’s nearly 25%. That’s about 42 million people throughout the country who can’t easily get connected.
A class of 100? COVID-19 plans overwhelm some teachers with huge virtual classes
Family members were at high risk of COVID-19, so Norma Hernandez said she had no choice but to keep her three kids at home for the school year, rather than send them to school in person. It’s a decision most parents have had to contemplate this year, but the virtual option comes with worrisome trade-offs. In Hernandez’s case, her son's fourth grade class in a virtual program in Gilbert, Arizona, has as many as 55 students, an “overwhelming” load for his teacher, she said. "My son is lucky he has me at home," she said. While some students returned to classrooms around the country, others remain at home and could stay in the virtual classroom for the next year or even longer because of health concerns.
Positive coronavirus cases move some Port Huron classrooms to virtual learning
Students and teachers at three Port Huron Area Schools buildings will move to remote learning for a 14-day period after multiple students tested positive for COVID-19 in the district, according to a letter posted to the district’s Facebook page. The letter states that the St. Clair County Health Department identified a small number of cases at Port Huron Northern, Fort Gratiot Middle School School and Keewahdin Elementary School.
At least 24 million students could drop out of school due to the coronavirus pandemic, UN says
“At the height of Covid-19,” 192 countries shuttered schools, leaving 1.6 billion students without in-person learning, said Henrietta Fore, executive director of the United Nations Children’s Fund. “At least 24 million children are projected to drop out of school due to Covid-19,” she added. The reopening of schools has become a hot-button issue, particularly in the U.S., where President Donald Trump has pushed to reopen schools regardless of how widely the virus is spreading in the community.
First Kentucky school district to reopen in-person classes switches to virtual learning
One of the first Kentucky public school districts to reopen to in-person classes is switching to virtual learning after a spike in COVID-19 cases, including an unofficial positive test of a school employee. Green County Schools students, who returned to school Monday, will learn from home until at least Sept. 8, district officials said Friday. "We have had a great week in our school system and are unaware of any student cases, but the increase in community cases has caused us to reach our threshold for transitioning into the 'red phase' of our reopening plan," the district wrote in a Facebook post.
School, but an ‘undead version’: Students, parents and teachers in Northern Virginia adjust to online learning
One week into remote schooling, students, parents and teachers throughout Northern Virginia — where all major public school districts are conducting online-only learning — are slowly adjusting to their new, virtual reality. The first week of school-from-a-distance saw no massive technological or privacy failures, according to interviews with more than two dozen educators, parents and students. Just a whole lot of bizarre. “School is back,” texted one Fairfax parent. “But it seems in a kind of ‘undead’ version.”
Coronavirus: Teachers are isolating but still teach - by video
Imagine being in your classroom, aged seven, with your teacher being beamed in from her home by video-link. At Heathfield Primary in Darlington that's exactly what's happening. Mrs Craghill is teaching her class of seven- and eight-year-olds by video-link. Someone in her household tested positive for the virus, so she is having to self-isolate - but her lessons continue.
Public Policies
'A chaotic mess': The UK's Covid-19 testing programme is falling apart
“I’m feeling worse,” says Ryan Gladwell, a barman at a pub in Derbyshire who is currently off work with Covid-19 symptoms. “I’ve still been unable to get a test. Day five of trying now.” That’s day five of heading to the government’s website to book a test only to be told that none are available – either at drive-in satellite testing centres or via at-home testing kits. Gladwell has also called 119 several times to no avail. He’s worried about his own health but also that of his young son, who has a serious heart condition.
Ireland’s COVID-19 plan to limit social events and Dublin pub reopenings
Ireland introduced new coronavirus measures Tuesday including special restrictions on social gatherings and pub reopenings in Dublin as part of a national "Plan for living with COVID-19." The plan, which comes into effect at midnight, aims to provide a flexible framework for reducing infection risk over the next six months. It details five risk levels with the lowest corresponding to minimal restrictions and level five equating to a return to full lockdown. Currently the country as a whole is at level two, meaning that most parts of the economy and society — such as schools, restaurants, pubs and gyms — are open.
Germany grants BioNTech, CureVac $745 million to speed up COVID-19 vaccine work
Germany awarded $745 million (577.79 million pounds) in funding to biotech firms BioNTech and CureVac on Tuesday to speed up work on COVID-19 vaccines and expand German production capacity. In a warning against political pressure to rush the process, Research Minister Anja Karliczek stressed that safety should remain the utmost priority to ensure vaccines will be accepted by the broader population.
“Even when the world is waiting for a vaccine - we won’t take risky short-cuts here,” she told a news conference in Berlin. Concerns have grown that safety and efficacy standards might slip in the race to find a vaccine against the virus which has so far infected more than 29 million people and claimed over 926,000 lives globally.
Rise in COVID-19 cases 'very well might be' start of second wave, doctor says
Rising numbers of COVID-19 cases in multiple provinces are stoking fears of a potential second wave, and one infectious disease expert says this surge in infections might 'very well' be the start of that next phase in the pandemic. Infectious disease specialist Dr. Isaac Bogoch says that current upward trends in B.C., Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec may be fuelling Canada’s second wave of coronavirus infections. "It might be, it very well might be. We're certainly seeing these cases rumble up in the wrong direction, and quite frankly what happens over the next few weeks and then over the next month or two ahead really depends on us. If we let our guard down as citizens, if we let our guard down for example as businesses and organizations, then we'll see a spike in cases," Bogoch told CTV's Your Morning on Tuesday.
Irish Government announces blueprint for living with Covid-19
The Irish Government has unveiled its blueprint for living with Covid-19. The Cabinet signed off on the medium-term plan for living with coronavirus, which includes different levels of restrictions, ranging from one to five. Tighter restrictions have also been announced for Dublin, which has seen a continuous rise of Covid-19 cases in recent weeks.
France and Spain Fail the Coronavirus Test
If Europe has a strategy to stop the spread of Covid-19, it’s keeping it well hidden.
France’s President Emmanuel Macron has vowed not to go back to the dark days of national lockdown, preferring instead to “live” with the coronavirus disease, but his government is struggling to halt a jump in cases. France reported more than 10,000 new cases in 24 hours over the weekend, a grim postscript to its decision to cut the required quarantine for positive cases in half to seven days. It’s a similar story in Spain, the country with the most cases in Europe and the first to cross the barrier of more than half a million in total. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has also ruled out national lockdowns, but messy public-health disagreements between Madrid and regions such as Catalonia — and an initially lax approach to nightlife — have worsened a post-lockdown surge in cases. Taking population into account, the seven-day average rate of new cases in France and Spain is above the U.S.’s.
Chinese city bordering Myanmar enters coronavirus 'wartime mode' as official impose strict lockdown
Chinese authorities have locked down a city on the border with Myanmar and declared entering ‘wartime mode’ after detecting two cases imported from the neighbouring country. Ruili, a city with over 200,000 residents in southwestern Chinese province Yunnan, Monday reported the new COVID-19 infections, two Myanmar nationals who were said to have illegally crossed the land border. All residents of the city will be tested for the coronavirus as authorities pledge to crack down on the area's notorious cross-border smuggling trade.
Australia’s coronavirus ‘dictator’ enforces a drastic lockdown. He’s still popular.
Detractors call him "Dictator Dan." Supporters declare, on social media, #IStandWithAndrews. To residents of Melbourne, Australia's second-largest city, he is Daniel Andrews, the premier, or governor, of Victoria state and the politician responsible for inflicting upon them some of the most stringent pandemic control measures on Earth. The city named repeatedly over recent years as the “world’s most livable” has been locked down since July 9. A week ago, Andrews declared that a citywide curfew will not be lifted until Oct. 26 — and then only if the coronavirus is almost eliminated.
New Zealand faces another week of Covid restrictions as Ardern defends cautious approach
New Zealand will remain at its current level of Covid-19 restrictions for another week, the prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, said on Monday as she urged the public to stay the course on the county’s “cautious” approach to quashing the virus. “New Zealand has followed a plan that has worked,” she said, referring to her government’s strict, early lockdown of the country in March as New Zealand’s coronavirus cases started to rise. “This has both saved lives, but also meant our economy has been able to be more open in a more sustained way than nearly any other country in the world.”
Singapore grapples with coronavirus in migrant workers' dormitories
Singapore is battling new clusters of coronavirus infections in migrant dormitories that had won the all-clear from authorities, highlighting the difficulty of stamping out the disease, even in a closely monitored population. As the wealthy city-state tumbled into recession, officials facing intense pressure to revive the economy are opting for limited isolation measures rather than the wide clampdowns earlier, but most low-wage workers are still penned in. “There is little choice,” said Leong Hoe Nam, an infectious diseases expert at the city’s Mount Elizabeth Hospital. “We need to be realistic. We need the economy to go on.” The dormitories, home to more than 300,000 workers in industries such as construction and shipbuilding, with several allocated to a room, contribute nearly 95% of Singapore’s tally of more than 57,000 infections.
First vaccine approval could come at end of 2020: German vaccine regulator
The first approvals for a vaccine against COVID-19 could be granted at the end of 2020 or in early 2021, the head of Germany's vaccine regulator said on Tuesday.
Klaus Cichutek, head of the Paul Ehrlich Institute, said regulators would not be less thorough than usual when evaluating applications for approval for COVID-19 vaccines
Greece tightens restrictions in Athens as COVID-19 spreads
Greek authorities on Tuesday tightened restrictions to stem the spread of the coronavirus in the greater Athens area, saying the pandemic was showing “worrying signs of resilience”. Health authorities reported 310 new confirmed COVID-19 infections on Tuesday and three deaths, bringing the total number since the first coronavirus case was detected on Feb. 25 to 13,730 and deaths to 313.
“The prefecture of Attica is now between a moderate to high epidemiological risk. There is an increase in the occupancy of intensive care beds,” Deputy Civil Protection Minister Nikos Hardalias told reporters
Maintaining Services
Returning Kiwis in Covid-19 isolation facilities to vote by phone this election
It is estimated up to 5000 people will be in managed isolation or quarantine during the October 17 election and referendum. To enable returnees in the country’s 32 managed isolation facilities to vote safely, the Electoral Commission amended the electoral regulations last week to allow them to vote by telephone. Arriving travellers will use dictation voting, which is an option usually only offered to those who are blind, living in remote locations overseas or aren’t able to physically mark their voting papers. “We looked at a range of options, but all of them involved more contact with individuals in isolation because of Covid-19,” chief electoral officer Alicia Wright says.
Three coronavirus cases at one of Doncaster's biggest schools leads to year group being put into isolation
Hall Cross School has the Covid 19 cases among three of its year 11 pupils, but has sent the other age groups home today so a comprehensive deep clean can be carried out at its upper school site this afternoon. Academy principal Simon Swain said this afternoon: “Following confirmation that three students in Year 11 have tested positive for Coronavirus and further to advice from Public Health England and colleagues at the Local Authority, we have sent all Year 11 students home today to self isolate for 14 days. "We have also sent Year 10 and the Sixth Form home this afternoon so the Upper School site can be deep cleaned further to our existing deep cleaning processes.
Some volunteers quit J&J COVID-19 trial in Spain after AstraZeneca scare, investigator says
Some volunteers have quit Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine trial in Spain after news of side effects in a participant in AstraZeneca’s trial, the Spanish programme’s lead investigator told Reuters on Tuesday. The investigator, Alberto Borobia, said there were enough reserve volunteers for the trial to continue as normal, however. “Many have called to ask us some more detail about the risk of the vaccine, whether what happened with that vaccine had anything to do with the one we are studying, these types of questions,” Borobia said. He did not say how many people had dropped out.
'Just a matter of time': nurses die as US hospitals fail to contain Covid-19
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had advised hospitals to isolate Covid-19 patients to limit staff exposure and help conserve high-level personal protective equipment in short supply. Yet Covid patients continued to be scattered through the Oakland hospital, according to complaints to California’s division of occupational safety and health (Cal/Osha). Areas of concern included the sixth-floor medical unit where veteran nurse Janine Paiste-Ponder worked. Covid patients on that floor were not staying in their rooms, either because they were confused or uninterested in the rules, according to Mike Hill, a nurse in the hospital intensive care unit. Hill, who is also the hospital’s chief representative for the California Nurses Association, said that staff was not provided highly protective N95 respirators.
No data on migrants' deaths during lockdown, says govt
Even as visuals of hundreds of migrant labourers walking towards their hometowns in searing heat continue to haunt collective public memory, the Ministry of Labour and Employment on Monday told the Parliament that it does not have any information on how many of these daily wagers lost their lives during the nationwide lockdown announced on March 25.
Relief and fear as Portuguese students go back to school
Wearing masks and trying to keep a safe distance, more than a million pupils returned to schools across Portugal on Monday, a long-awaited moment for many after students were forced in March to learn remotely due to the coronavirus pandemic. At the Maria Amalia high school in Lisbon teenagers were called into the classroom one by one and asked to disinfect their hands, while windows were left open. Standing next to her son as they waited outside, Alexandra Borges said she feared there would be new infections at school but going back to in-person classes was essential for pupils of all ages, including her son Pedro, who brought hand sanitizer inside his backpack.
UPDATE 1-Fuel demand rises as schools open, commuters shun public transport
Traffic picked up in cities across the globe as the summer season ended and schools opened, giving a boost to fuel demand, but the prospect of recovery remained weak as many commuters still worked from home and vehicle sales were down. The reliance on isolated forms of travel including private cars seemed to be the main factor boosting demand, analysts and traders said, as most people avoided public transport for fear of the coronavirus. Road traffic in New York, London and Paris was on a slow but steady recovery, data provided to Reuters by location technology company TomTom showed.
Jordan closes schools in new curbs after spike in COVID-19
Jordan will suspend schools for two weeks from Thursday and close places of worship, restaurants and public markets as part of renewed restrictions after a record spike in coronavirus cases in the last few days. The decision taken after a cabinet meeting came as the kingdom struggles to prevent the uncontrolled spread of the pandemic, government spokesman Amjad Adailah said. “We are living through exceptional circumstances,” Adailah said. Health Minister Saad Jaber said the government was seeking to avoid the kind of tight nationwide lockdown imposed in the spring that brought the virus under control with low daily case numbers among a population of 10 million.
The worst may yet be to come for the high street. Half of Brits (53%) say the coronavirus outbreak has made them less likely to buy clothes in-store
Consumers are still reluctant to return to the high street, as COVID changes which clothes Brits buy and their shopping priorities. New YouGov data suggests the worst is yet to come for the high street. Half of Brits say the coronavirus outbreak has made them less likely to buy clothes in-store, including nearly a third who said “much less”. Just a tiny minority report the opposite. A similarly high number say coronavirus has made them a little or much more (29%) likely to purchase clothes online. Only 4% say there’s now a slimmer chance of them shopping online.
Coronavirus: NHS recovery threatened as test shortages mean staff have to self-isolate
The government is under growing pressure from NHS hospital trusts, public health officials and MPs over a lack of availability of coronavirus tests. NHS Providers, which represents NHS trust leaders, has said health services are being put at risk because a lack of COVID-19 testing is forcing many staff to self-isolate when they could be at work. And public health directors in North West England have called for "immediate action" to address the issue.
Healthcare Innovations
Long-term health effects of Covid-19 could cause a ‘cycle of illness,’ scientists warn
The long-term health effects of Covid-19 could cause a "cycle of illness" and strain care systems, researchers have warned. Many coronavirus patients have reported debilitating symptoms months after initially falling ill, with common "long Covid" symptoms including breathlessness, chronic fatigue and brain fog. The reasons behind them are still unknown, scientists said. Dr Rachael Evans, a co-investigator on a UK-wide investigation into the long-term effects of Covid-19 for patients admitted to hospital, said: "At the moment it is just so unknown.
Aurobindo Pharma ties up with BIRAC to develop COVID-19 vaccine
Aurobindo Pharma on Tuesday announced collaboration with the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), set up by the Department of Biotechnology for the development of COVID-19 vaccine. BIRAC has facilitated the establishment of 'the r-VSV vaccine' manufacturing platform for the first time in India by supporting Aurobindo Pharma’s COVID-19 vaccine development, the company said in a regulatory filing.
Chinese citizens can receive COVID-19 vaccines as early as November
Wu Guifen, chief biosafety expert of China's CDC, announced the news Monday
She said the clinical trials for the unnamed vaccines were 'proceeding smoothly'
China launched an emergency COVID-19 vaccine scheme for key workers in July
It has four of the world's eight vaccines that are being tested in the final stage
Analysis of COVID-19 spread from China, Italy and Iran
The COVID-19 pandemic has claimed over nine hundred thousand lives around the world and infected over 29 million individuals. The SARS-CoV-2 virus was first detected in Wuhan, China, in late December 2019, from where it rapidly spread around the world. SARS-CoV-2 is highly contagious and rapidly spreads from one person to another. In this new study, the researchers looked at exported COVID-19 cases by country and the time taken between entry until case confirmation for the exported cases using publicly available data.
Brazil authorises additional 5,000 volunteers for AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine
Brazil’s health regulator Anvisa on Tuesday authorised AstraZeneca PLC to test its COVID-19 vaccine on an additional 5,000 volunteers in the country for clinical Phase III trials, the Sao Paulo university coordinating the test said. The increase, in addition to 5,000 volunteers already recruited and being vaccinated, will help provide more solid results on the safety and efficacy of the vaccine, the Federal University of Sao Paulo said in a statement. It said volunteers over the age of 18 were being sought in the states of Rio Grande do Norte and Rio Grande do Sul, at opposite ends of Brazil. Anvisa has waived the age limit that was 69 years previously, so older volunteers can be vaccinated.
