Category: Corona Virus Vaccine

A study of coronavirus infections that covered almost everyone in the quarantined north Italian town of V found that 40% of cases showed no symptoms - suggesting that asymptomatic cases are important in the spread of the pandemic.

The study, led by a scientist at Italys Padua University and Imperial College London, also produced evidence that mass testing combined with case isolation and community lockdowns can stop local outbreaks swiftly.

Image: REUTERS/Marzio Toniolo REFILE - CORRECTING INFORMATION - RC211H9KA5RC

Despite silent and widespread transmission, the disease can be controlled, said Andrea Crisanti, a professor at Padua and Imperial who co-led the work. Testing of all citizens, whether or not they have symptoms, provides a way to ... prevent outbreaks getting out of hand.

Crisanti has become something of a celebrity in Italy for advocating widespread testing well before it became official World Health Organization guidance.

V, which has a population of nearly 3,200, was immediately put into quarantine for 14 days after suffering Italys first COVID-19 death, on Feb. 21.

During that fortnight, researchers tested most of the population for SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.

A analysis of the results, published in the journal Nature on Monday, showed that at the start of quarantine, 2.6% of Vos population - or 73 people - were positive. After two weeks, only 29 people were positive.

At both times, around 40% of positive cases showed no symptoms. But because all of the coronavirus cases found - whether symptomatic or not - were quarantined, the researchers said, this helped slow the spread of the disease, effectively suppressing it in a few weeks.

Crisanti said the success of Vos mass testing also guided wider public health policy in the wider Veneto Region, where it had a tremendous impact on the course of the epidemic there compared to other regions.

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COVID-19: 40% of cases in this Italian town were asymptomatic - World Economic Forum

TheWest Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR)reports as of 10:00 a.m., on July 2, 2020, there have been 177,287 totalconfirmatory laboratory results receivedfor COVID-19, with 3,006 total cases and 93 deaths.

In alignment with updated definitions fromthe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the dashboard includes probablecases which are individuals that have symptoms and either serologic (antibody)or epidemiologic (e.g., a link to a confirmed case) evidence of disease, but noconfirmatory test.

CASES PER COUNTY (Case confirmed by lab test/Probable case):Barbour (15/0), Berkeley (441/18), Boone(21/0), Braxton (3/0), Brooke (8/1), Cabell (128/6), Calhoun (2/0), Clay(10/0), Fayette (66/0), Gilmer (13/0), Grant (15/1), Greenbrier (61/0),Hampshire (42/0), Hancock (20/3), Hardy (43/1), Harrison (65/0), Jackson(143/0), Jefferson (228/5), Kanawha (318/9), Lewis (18/1), Lincoln (8/0), Logan(25/0), Marion (58/3), Marshall (40/1), Mason (19/0), McDowell (6/0), Mercer(45/0), Mineral (55/2), Mingo (20/3), Monongalia (166/14), Monroe (12/1),Morgan (19/1), Nicholas (10/1), Ohio (97/1), Pendleton (12/1), Pleasants (4/1),Pocahontas (26/1), Preston (64/15), Putnam (58/1), Raleigh (53/1), Randolph(161/1), Ritchie (2/0), Roane (11/0), Summers (2/0), Taylor (15/1), Tucker(6/0), Tyler (4/0), Upshur (20/1), Wayne (111/1), Wetzel (10/0), Wirt (4/0),Wood (92/8), Wyoming (7/0).

As case surveillance continues at thelocal health department level, it may reveal that those tested in a certaincounty may not be a resident of that county, or even the state as an individualin question may have crossed the state border to be tested.Such is the case of Berkeley County in this report.

Please visit thedashboard at http://www.coronavirus.wv.gov for more information.

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COVID-19 Daily Update 7-2-2020 - 10 AM - West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources

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COVID-19 Daily Update 6-30-2020 - 10 AM - West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources

Despite the rapid expansion of our testing capacity, demand for testing has been growing faster, Quest said in a statement last week warning of such a possibility. The company then said that orders for COVID-19 testing had grown by 50 percent in three weeks.

This is very bad, Michael Mina, an epidemiology professor at Harvard, told us. Rapid test-turnaround times are the only way to control the coronavirus without forcing every potentially contagious personeveryone whos had contact with someone diagnosed with COVID-19into quarantine, he said: Our modeling efforts more or less show that if you dont get results back in a day or so, outbreaks really cant be stopped without isolating and quarantining all contacts preemptively.

Quest is not the only firm to report growing problems. We hit the wall three weeks ago, Jon Cohen, the executive chairman of BioReference Laboratories, a lab-services company that is testing patients for the virus in New York, New Jersey, and Florida, told us. At that point, most laboratories were already running at capacity, as far as I can tell.

In mid-June, four changes hit all at once, Cohen said. Large companies began to test their employees en masse, hospitals started to test every patient who needed an elective procedure, and nursing homes started regularly testing their employees and some residents. The American public also seemed to seek out voluntary tests in greater numbers this month. The surge in testing overwhelmed both his testing companys capacity and its equipment suppliers, he said.

We not only hit capacity, but any ability to increase our capacity became limited by the supply side, he said. The vendors, the suppliers cant keep up.

Read: America is giving up on the pandemic

LabCorp, another major testing company, also recognized the surging demand for tests in a statement this weekend. We are doing everything we can to continue delivering results in a timely manner while continually increasing testing capacity, it said.

Unlike in the first days of the pandemic, when COVID-19 testing kits themselves were in short supply, now the problem lies with the equipment needed to get test results. The hardest-hit new areas do not have enough machines to process samples, leading to a growing backlog of tests, lab directors told us. Some are also running out of the chemical reagent that must react with a testing specimen.

Labs in the U.S. use several different types of viral-testing machines to diagnose COVID-19, and each type has its own supply-chain issues and processing challenges, Lauren Sauer, an emergency-medicine professor at Johns Hopkins, told us by text message. With so many platforms in use, she said, resolving bottlenecks and shortages nationwide is especially hard.

What is currently happening [on testing] is so pocketed and disconnected, she said.

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A Dire Warning From COVID-19 Test Providers - The Atlantic

The US has bought up virtually all the stocks for the next three months of one of the two drugs proven to work against Covid-19, leaving none for the UK, Europe or most of the rest of the world.

Experts and campaigners are alarmed both by the US unilateral action on remdesivir and the wider implications, for instance in the event of a vaccine becoming available. The Trump administration has already shown that it is prepared to outbid and outmanoeuvre all other countries to secure the medical supplies it needs for the US.

Theyve got access to most of the drug supply [of remdesivir], so theres nothing for Europe, said Dr Andrew Hill, senior visiting research fellow at Liverpool University.

Remdesivir, the first drug approved by licensing authorities in the US to treat Covid-19, is made by Gilead and has been shown to help people recover faster from the disease. The first 140,000 doses, supplied to drug trials around the world, have been used up. The Trump administration has now bought more than 500,000 doses, which is all of Gileads production for July and 90% of August and September.

President Trump has struck an amazing deal to ensure Americans have access to the first authorised therapeutic for Covid-19, said the US health and human services secretary, Alex Azar. To the extent possible, we want to ensure that any American patient who needs remdesivir can get it. The Trump administration is doing everything in our power to learn more about life-saving therapeutics for Covid-19 and secure access to these options for the American people.

The drug, which was invented for Ebola but failed to work, is under patent to Gilead, which means no other company in wealthy countries can make it. The cost is around $3,200 per treatment of six doses, according to the US government statement.

The deal was announced as it became clear that the pandemic in the US is spiralling out of control. Anthony Fauci, the countrys leading public health expert and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told the Senate the US was sliding backwards.

We are going in the wrong direction, said Fauci. Last week the US saw a new daily record of 40,000 new coronavirus cases in one day. I would not be surprised if we go up to 100,000 a day if this does not turn around, he said. He could not provide an estimated death toll, but said: It is going to be very disturbing, I guarantee you that.

The US has recorded more than 2.5 million confirmed cases of Covid-19. Some states lifted restrictions only to have to clamp down again. On Monday, the governor of Arizona ordered bars, cinemas, gyms and water parks to shut down for a month, weeks after they reopened. Texas, Florida and California, all seeing rises in cases, have also reimposed restrictions.

Buying up the worlds supply of remdesivir is not just a reaction to the increasing spread and death toll. The US has taken an America first attitude throughout the global pandemic.

In May, French manufacturer Sanofi said the US would get first access to its Covid vaccine if it works. Its CEO, Paul Hudson, was quoted as saying: The US government has the right to the largest pre-order because its invested in taking the risk, and, he added, the US expected that if weve helped you manufacture the doses at risk, we expect to get the doses first. Later it backtracked under pressure from the French government.

Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau warned there could be unintended negative consequences if the US continued to outbid its allies. We know it is in both of our interests to work collaboratively and cooperatively to keep our citizens safe, he said. The Trump administration has also invoked the Defense Production Act to block some medical goods made in the US from being sent abroad.

Nothing looks likely to prevent the US cornering the market in remdesivir, however. This is the first major approved drug, and where is the mechanism for access? said Dr Hill. Once again were at the back of the queue.

The drug has been watched eagerly for the last five months, said Hill, yet there was no mechanism to ensure a supply outside the US. Imagine this was a vaccine, he said. That would be a firestorm. But perhaps this is a taste of things to come.

Remdesivir would get people out of hospital more quickly, reducing the burden on the NHS, and might improve survival, said Hill, although that has not yet been shown in trials, as it has with the other successful treatment, the steroid dexamethasone. There has been no attempt to buy up the worlds stocks of dexamethasone because there is no need the drug is 60 years old, cheap and easily available everywhere.

Hill said there was a way for the UK to secure supplies of this and other drugs during the pandemic, through what is known as a compulsory licence, which overrides the intellectual property rights of the company. That would allow the UK government to buy from generic companies in Bangladesh or India, where Gileads patent is not recognised.

The UK has always upheld patents, backing the argument of pharma companies that they need their 20-year monopoly to recoup the money they put into research and development. But other countries have shown an interest in compulsory licensing. It is a question of what countries are prepared to do if this becomes a problem, said Hill.

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US buys up world stock of key Covid-19 drug remdesivir - The Guardian

Here is our updated timeline on the global hunt for coronavirus vaccine:

China reports a cluster of cases of pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, leading to the identification of a new coronavirus.

A week and a half after China reports a new form of pneumonia, scientists map the genome sequence of what is later identified as COVID-19, a key first step on the road to finding a vaccine.

The coronavirus sequenced genome is published, which marks the start of international efforts to study a vaccine.

The US National Institutes of Health begins trial of an "investigational" vaccine on 45 healthy adults, aged 18 to 55, after promising results in animal models.

The trial is funded by the US National Institutes of Health and Massachusetts-based biotechnology company, Moderna Inc, and it is set to last six weeks.

The vaccine is officially named mRNA-1273.

France's National Institute of Health and Medical Research says "clinical trials to test the BCG vaccine's efficacy against COVID-19 are underway or about to start in the Netherlands, Germany, France, Spain and Australia."

Nature.com says that "the global COVID-19 vaccine R&D landscape includes 115 vaccine candidates, 73 of which currently at exploratory or preclinical stages".

Among the most advanced candidates to have moved into clinical development are vaccines tested by Inovio, Moderna, CanSino Biologicals and the Shenzhen Geno-Immune Medical Institute.

The EU funding is earmarked to support German biopharmaceutical company CureVac in developing a vaccine.

The British-French duo, GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi announce clinical trials for the second half of 2020, hoping to make - if these trials are successful - the vaccine widely available by the second half of 2021.

Germany's BioNTech and American partner Pfizer are given the green light from the Paul-Ehrlich Institute, the German authority for the certification of vaccines, to begin testing a variety of experimental vaccines on 200 healthy volunteers, aged between 18 and 55.

Tests of the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 drug begin on 1,112 people divided into two groups (half of them receiving a vaccine and the other half a placebo), with the aim to stimulate their immune system to attack the virus.

The drug was created by using a chimpanzee virus which was genetically engineered to carry coronavirus.

The UK government is funding the trial with a 51 million contribution.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock says the drug is reported to have an 80 per cent success rate.

The French pharma giant, Sanofi causes a political firestorm by saying it would give the United States priority access to a vaccine as it was the first country to fund the research.

French Secretary of State for Economy and Finance Agnes Pannier-Runacher says it is "unacceptable," while prime minister Edouard Philippe summons Sanofi's CEO for reassurance over the vaccine's distribution.

Over 10,000 adults and children are taking part in phase two of their clinical trial, ten times more than the first phase which began in April.

This phase will study whether different age groups react differently to the vaccine.

A third phase is set to check whether the vaccine protects people from catching coronavirus by studying a large group of over-18s.

Pharma giant AstraZeneca says it has struck a deal with Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and France for the supply of up to 400 million doses of the vaccine the University of Oxford is trialling.

If it proves successful, delivery will begin by the end of 2020.

The British-Swedish company had already signed similar agreements with Britain, the US, the Norway-headquartered Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and the international vaccine alliance Gavi.

An agreement had also been reached with the Serum Institute of India for 1 billion doses.

Three hundred healthy people participate in Imperial College's study by receiving two doses of a potential vaccine.

Droplets of liquid carry genetic material into the patient's bloodstream replicating part of the virus inside the body and forcing the immune system to learn how to fight it.

If the test shows a promising response, larger trials will take place later in the year with around 6,000 healthy volunteers.

The study is being financed with around 46 million from the UK government plus another 5.5 million coming from philanthropic donations.

A successful treatment is discovered. It's not a vaccine, but it works.

The University of Oxford finds that low-cost synthetic steroid dexamethasone reduces COVID-19 deaths by up to a third after it tested it on 2,100 people with severe respiratory complications caused by coronavirus.

The UK government says it will start using it on patients immediately and that it has already stockpiled 200,000 courses of the drug.

By June 16, out of 13 candidates, the vaccine at the most advanced phase of trialling is the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca's ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 drug, with studies underway to determine "its efficacy, safety and immunogenicity."

The country working on the highest number of vaccines in a clinical phase by this point is China, followed by US, UK and Germany.

More treatments are being identified. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) recommends the anti-viral drug remdesivir be authorised to treat patients with COVID-19 in the European Union.

Touted by Donald Trump and other health officials as a promising treatment, the drug will be tested on adults and adolescents from 12 years of age with pneumonia who require oxygen.

The EU Commission President said over 6 billion were raised in the campaign launched with activist organisation Global Citizen "Global Goal: Unite For Our Future". It brought the total rallied by EU institutions to over 16 billion.

The 113 million agreement signed with AstraZeneca gives Brazil the right to produce an initial quantity of 30 million doses in December and January, when the vaccine is still in the testing phase.

If the vaccine passes the clinical trials, Brazil will then be able to produce an additional 70 million doses at an estimated cost of 2.05 each.

The agreement includes the rights to access the vaccine technology and the manufacturing process.

The drug, called ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, is being tested in the UK, Brazil and South Africa.

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Coronavirus vaccine: The story of the race to solve the COVID conundrum - Euronews

By: Express News Service | New Delhi | Updated: June 30, 2020 12:52:42 am Coronavirus test kits. T cells work alongside antibodies in trying to clear the virus and stopping the infection. (AP Photo: David J. Phillip)

A new study has found that even the sickest Covid-19 patients produce T cells that help fight the virus. T cells are a key component of the immune system and their roles include killing infected host cells, activating other immune cells, and regulating the immune response. The study cites its findings as further evidence that a Covid-19 vaccine (whenever developed) will need to elicit T cells to work alongside antibodies.

The new research was published in the journal Science Immunology on Friday.

The researchers followed 10 severely ill Covid-19 patients who were on ventilators at Erasmus University Medical Center, Netherlands. Two of the patients eventually died. An in-depth look at their immune system responses showed that all 10 patients produced T cells that targeted the SARS-CoV-2 virus. These T cells worked alongside antibodies in trying to clear the virus and stopping the infection.

The researchers note that these findings are in line with a recent study, published in Cell, that showed a robust T cell response in individuals with moderate cases of Covid-19. In both studies, the T cells in these patients prominently targeted the spike protein on SARS-CoV-2, according to La Jolla Institute for Immunology, researchers from which are involved in both studies. It is the spike protein that the coronavirus uses to enter human cells. The new study adds to growing evidence that the spike protein is a promising target. Accroding to La Jolla, it also confirms that the immune system can also mount strong responses to other targets on the virus.

This is good news for those making a vaccine using spike, and it also suggests new avenues to potentially increase vaccine potency, researcher Daniela Weiskopf, first author of the new study, said in a statement.

While the Cell paper followed San Diego residents, the new paper follows Dutch patientsand the T cell responses were consistent in both populations. This study is important because it shows this immune response in patients thousands of miles apart. The same observation has now been strongly reproduced in different continents and different studies, Weiskopf said.

Source: La Jolla Institute for Immunology

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New Research: Lessons from immune response of most severe Covid patients - The Indian Express

The head of the World Health Organization is warning that the COVID-19 pandemic is actually speeding up and he criticized governments that have failed to establish reliable contact tracing to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

Speaking at a briefing in Geneva, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: We all want this to be over. We all want to get on with our lives. But the hard reality is this is not even close to being over.

Although many countries have made some progress, globally the pandemic is actually speeding up, he said.

He said the solution is the same as it has been since the early days of the pandemic: Test, trace, isolate and quarantine.

If any country is saying contact tracing is difficult, it is a lame excuse, he said.

According to the latest tally from Johns Hopkins University, there have been more than 10 million confirmed coronavirus infections worldwide since the virus was first identified in China late last year, with more than a half-million deaths. The U.S. alone accounts for more than one-quarter of all confirmed cases, with nearly 126,000 deaths.

[The] lack of national unity and lack of global solidarity and the divided world is actually helping the virus to spread, Tedros said. [The] worst is yet to come.

Im sorry to say that, but with this kind of environment and conditions we fear the worst, he said.

The head of WHOs emergencies program, Mike Ryan, said there had been tremendous work toward a coronavirus vaccine but said theres no guarantee of success.

In the U.S., a spike in coronavirus infections has been driven in part by people unwilling to heed public health guidelines to wear masks and continue social distancing.

Currently, the U.S. leads the world in both coronavirus infections and COVID-19 deaths. Brazil ranks second in the number of infections, followed by Russia, India and the United Kingdom.

President Trump has been highly critical of the WHO, accusing it of helping China cover up the extent of the pandemic within its borders. Earlier this month, the president announced that the U.S. was terminating its decades-long relationship with the WHO and would withdraw vital U.S. funding.

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WHO Chief On COVID-19 Pandemic: 'The Worst Is Yet To Come' | 90.1 FM WABE - WABE 90.1 FM

This is a bad sign for the COVID-19 reopening plan in Western Washington. On Tuesday, Snohomish County executive Dave Somers said that the area was in danger of reversing its reopening course in the midst of a recent spike in cases of the novel coronavirus, if things didnt improve soon.

Currently, Snohomish like King County is in phase two of Washingtons Safe Start reopening plan, which allows restaurants to open at 50 percent capacity indoors and outdoors. However, with a recent rise in cases (42 new cases per 100,000 people, versus the phase two benchmark of 25 per 100,000), the county may need to go back to phase one, said Somers. If that were the case, all dining rooms that recently reopened must close again, with restaurants and bars only allowed to serve takeout and delivery.

A week or so ago, I would have thought it was a remote possibility. I dont feel that way anymore, said Somers. I think going back to phase one is clearly one of the options that could be in front of us, watching what happens around the country with places that have opened up too soon, and theyre seeing huge spikes. If we see that sort of thing here, and were really stressing our hospital capacity, I can see the possibility of a call to go back to phase one.

If Snohomish did end up reversing its trajectory on reopening, it would be the first county in Washington to do so, and would not augur well for Seattle. A rise in King County COVID-19 cases have alarmed local officials, with a recent increase of 60 percent week over week. King County friends, this is getting serious, Jeffrey Duchin, Health Officer for Public HealthSeattle and King County, wrote on Twitter Monday night. Cases rising, holiday coming, & the risk is higher than its been in months. Critical to avoid crowds, minimize close contacts, use a face mask.

Last week, Gov. Jay Inslee reacted to the recent increased spread of the novel coronavirus in the state by making face masks mandatory. According to the new rule, people must wear face coverings in public indoors, as well as outdoors if six feet of social distancing cant be maintained. Inslee also said that he would pause any counties looking to move to phase four of the states reopening plan, which would essentially mean no restrictions.

At this point, no state officials have mentioned plans to bump any county in Washington back to a more restrictive phase that each one is under. But across the country, where COVID-19 cases have spiked in states and cities that reopened early, lawmakers have issued mandates for bars and restaurants to close again.

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Snohomish Executive Says COVID-19 Rise Force County to Go Back to Phase One - Eater Seattle

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Gov. Jay Inslee today issued a newproclamationin response to the continuing COVID-19 pandemic. Inslee also announced the extension of the Tribal Fuel Tax Refund Restrictionsproclamation.

A June 26letterfrom the Legislature extends proclamation20-56, regarding the use of fuel tax refund monies, until July 1.

Tribal Fuel Tax Refund Restrictions Extension-20-56.1

The original proclamationwaivedand suspended any and all provisions in agreements between the governor of the State of Washington and an Indian Tribe or Tribes restricting the use of fuel tax refund monies to highway- or transportation-related purposes. It went into effect on May 28 and expired June 27. It was extended by the Legislature until July 1.The Governor has requested further extension.

Read the full proclamationhere.

Gov. Inslee also issued a new proclamation related to annual updates for Transportation Improvement Plans.

Annual Updates to Transportation Improvement Plans-20-61

This proclamation waives and suspends a statute thatprevents, hinders or delays necessary action by requiring annual updates to Transportation Improvement Plans by July 1 of each year. It goes into effect today, June 30, and expires on July 30, 2020.

Read the full proclamationhere.

Public and constituent inquiries | 360.902.4111Press inquiries | 360.902.4136

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Inslee issues, extends proclamations related to COVID-19 - Access Washington